CV

Education

McGill University

PhD, Institute of Islamic Studies, Arabic Literature, 2015

MA, English Literature/Postcolonial Studies, 2006

BA, English Literature/Philosophy/Classics, 2003

Academic Positions

Middlebury College

Associate Professor of Arabic, 2023-Present

Assistant Professor of Arabic, 2016-2023

Director of Middle East Studies, 2018-2020

Georgetown University

Visiting Assistant Professor, 2012-2016

Fields of Interest 

Modern Arabic Literature Diaspora Studies

Critical Translation Studies

Empire & Postcolonial Studies

Arab Cinema & Visual Culture

Arab-Jewish Literature & Culture

Gender & Feminist Studies

Digital Humanities

Research Grants

2020 Digital Liberal Arts Fellowship, Middlebury College

2020 Ada Howe Kent Faculty Grant, Middlebury College

2019 Andrew W. Mellon Engaged Listening Faculty Grant, Middlebury College

2019 International Research & Travel Grant, Middlebury College

2019 Digital Enrichment Grant, Middlebury College

2019 Alexander von Humboldt Research Preparation Grant, Freie Universität, Berlin

2018 Digital Liberal Arts Initiative Research Grant, Middlebury College

2018 International Travel & Research Grant, Middlebury College

2017 Digital Liberal Arts Initiative Research Grant, Middlebury College

2016 Ada Howe Kent Faculty Grant, Middlebury College

2015 Global Engagement Faculty Grant, Georgetown University

2014 Doyle Faculty Fellowship on Engaging Difference & Diversity, Georgetown

2012 Faculty of Arts Award, McGill University

Publications

2021 “Multilingual Others: Transliteration as Resistant Translation.” Multilingual Literature as World Literature. Edited by Wen-Chin Ouyang and Jane Hiddleston. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.

2020 “Politics of Paratextuality: The Glossary Between Translation and the Translational.” Journal of Arabic Literature. 51.1 (2020): 27-52.

2019 “Diasporic Slippages: Accent and Dialect in Translation.” Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures. 22.1 (2019): 23-35.

2019 “The (Un)Translatability of Translational Literature: Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love between English and Arabic.” Translation Studies. 12.3 (2019): 308-320.

Selected Presentations

2021

“Strangers in our Midst: The Paratextual Labor of Arabic Literature in Translation.” Keynote address, Association of Adaptation Studies Conference, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.  

“Translation, Bodies, and Paratexts.” Artist conversation with Lee Blalock, NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

“Towards a Just Translation.” Keynote address, 11th Annual International Translation Conference, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar.  

“What Can the Digital Humanities Learn from Arabic Literature in Translation?”

Invited talk, Middle East Studies Center, Duke University, Durham, NC.

“Exploring Gender Ambiguity and Non-Conformity in the Arabic Language.” Invited lecture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD.

2020

“How Do You Spell That Again?: Arabic Transliteration and its Discontents.” Zoom Talk delivered at Digital Humanities Summer Institute Online Edition. University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

“On the Persistence of Othering: Paratext and Power in Translation.” Talk delivered at the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT.

“Transliterating Right-to-Left Languages.” Talk delivered at NYU Abu Dhabi Winter Institute in Digital Humanities, New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

2019

“Transliteration as Resistant Translation.” Talk delivered at Abdelkébir Khatibi: Literature & Theory conference, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

“Lebanon Protests.” Public conversation with Tarek El Ariss and Paul Salem. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

“Paratext and Power in Arabic Literary Translation.” Lecture delivered at Forum Transregionale Studien, Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME), Berlin, Germany.

“Digital Humanities and Arabic-English Translation.” Led workshop at Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

2018

“Itinerant Paratexts in Translation.” Keynote lecture at Islamic Studies Within a Global Context Conference, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montréal.

“Paratextual Attachments: Modern Arabic Literature in English Translation.” Talk delivered at Rethinking the Margins in Arabic Literary Studies Symposium, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Chicago.

“Diasporic Translations.” Led workshop with Syrian Refugees, Zusammen Project, Baynetna, Berlin, Germany.