Arabic

 

 

Maanaki

Right now I am working on Arabic love poetry especially the work of Majnun Layla. I am interested in the circulation of love in poetic forms from the 9th century into the early 20th century. I am looking into the cultural and political aspects that shaped the rise of this genre and the impact of the tools of propagation/storage on the circulation and reception of love themes.

Al-Samman

Background and Interests

Contemporary Arabic Literature, Arab Feminism(s), Literary and Trauma Theory, Gender Studies, Queer Arab Studies, Autobiography, Travel, Fantasy, War Narratives, Postcolonial and Diasporic Literature, and Comparative Literature.

Selected Awards

Selected Publications

Books

  • Anxiety of Erasure: Trauma, Authorship, and the Diaspora in Arab Women’s Writings. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2015.
  • Co-editor with (Alireza Korangy & Michael Beard), The Beloved in Middle Eastern Literatures: The Culture of Love and Languishing. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.
  • Co-editor with (Tarek El-Ariss), "Queer Affects," special issue of International Journal of Middle East Studies 45:2 May 2013.

Articles

  • “Of Cities and Canons in an Age of Comparative Consumption.” In The City in Arabic Literature: Classical and Modern Perspectives. Eds. Nizar Hermes and Gretchen Head.  Edinburgh University Press, 2018.  pp. 268-286.
  • “Invading Muslim Bodies in the Era of Trump,” Special Forum, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 13.3 (2017):483-485.
  • “Syrian ‘Bad Girl’ Samar Yazbek: Refusing Burial.” In Bad Girls of the Arab World. Eds. Rula Quawas and Nadia Yaqub.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. pp. 146-166.
  •  “The Art of Teaching Arab Traumas Triumphantly,” In Arabic Literature for the Classroom: Teaching Methods, Theories, Themes, and Texts. Ed. Muhsin al-Musawi. London & New York: Routledge, 2017. pp. 145-155.
  • “Al-Samman, Hanadi. "Syria, Cinema of. The Suspended Utterances of Syrian Cinema.”  In Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. 2016.<http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0236>
  • "Remapping Arab Narrative and Sexual Desire in Salwâ al-Na'îmî's Burhân al-'Asal(The Proof of the Honey)." Journal of Arabic Literature 43.1 (2012): 60-79.
  • "Border Crossings: Cultural Collisions and Reconciliations in Hanan al-Shaykh's Only in London." in Perspectives on the 'Migrant Cosmopolitans': Narratives of Contemporary Postcoloniality. Eds. Nirmala Menon and Marika Preziuso. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2014.
  • "North American Muslim Women's Movements and the Politics of Islamic Feminine Hermeneutics.” in Mapping Arab Women’s Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within. Eds. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley and Pernille Arenfeldt. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2012. 303-329.
  • “Anxiety of Erasure: Arab Women Writers between Shahrazad’s Memory and the Nightmare of Infanticide.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 30 (2010): 73-97. (In Arabic).
  • “Transforming Nationhood from Within the Minefield: Arab Female Guerrilla Fighters and the Politics of Peace Poetics.” Women's Studies International Forum 32.5 (2009): 331-339.
  • “Out of the Closet: Representation of Homosexuals and Lesbians in Modern Arabic Literature.” Journal of Arabic Literature 39.2 (2008): 270-310.
  • “Contemporary Syrian Literature: An Introduction.” in Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations . Ed. Words Without Borders. New York: The New Press, 2006.

Encyclopedia Entries

  • “Uncovering the Lens: The Misrepresentation of the "Other" in Pasolini's Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte,” in Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, Board Editor. New York: Gale, Cengage Learning, (Forthcoming, 2018).
  • “ISIS Gay Trials” in Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History, Board Editor. New York: Gale, Cengage Learning, (Forthcoming, 2018).

Reviews

  • "Beyond Islamicate and Modern Sexualities." A review of Islamicate Sexualities: Translations Across Temporal Geographies of Desire. Eds. Kathryn Babayan and Afsaneh Najmabadi. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 129.4 (2009): 693-695.
  • “Writing Away Exile with a Faceless Alphabet” a review of Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selections of Poems of Saadi Youssef . Trans. Khaled Mattawa. Saint Paul: Graywolf Press, 2002. In Cold Mountain Review . 34.2 (2006): 58-66.

Translations

  • A translation of Hanna Mina’s “On the Sacks” in Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations . Ed. Words Without Borders. New York: The New Press, 2006.

National Posts

  • President, Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS), 2017-2019.

Citations

  • “No Longer Driving a Cab, a Syrian Writer in America Focuses on His Fiction,” by Mythili Rao, The New Yorker, May 8, 2017.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/no-longer-driving-a-cab-a-syrian-writer-in-america-focusses-on-his-fiction

Media Appearances

  • “Democracy Now”, interview on al-Hurra TV channel, October 2017. (In Arabic, forthcoming).
  • Interviewed by Cathy Lewis on HearSay, Norfolk, VA. "From the Headlines: Egypt's Uprising," January 31, 2011.

http://hearsay.org/2011/01/31/default.aspx

  • Interviewed by Sarah McConnell with Jack Shaheen on With Good Reason Radio Show. "Arab Defamation in Film," July 10, 2010.

http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2010/07/arab-defamation-in-film/

Lectures and Presentations

  • “Traversing Buried Cities in Samar Yazbek’s The Crossing,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington D.C., November 18-21, 2017.
  • “Witnessing Traumas, Performing Alterity in Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Denver, CO., November 21-24, 2015.
  • “Surviving Multiple Wa’d: Samar Yazbek’s A Woman in the Crossfire.”  Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington D.C., November 22-25, 2014.
  • “Writing Love in an Age of Comparative Consumption,” Tunisian Society for Comparative Literature (JAMAM), Tunis, April 28-30, 2014.
  • “Teaching Contemporary Arabic Literature for Heritage and Foreign Students: Challenges and Recommendations,” Colloquium on Arabic Literature in the Humanities Curriculum, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., April 3-4, 2014.
  • “Of Cities and Canons” presented in a panel entitled “Burning Capitals: Representations of Violence in Modern Arabic Literature,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), New York University, New York, March 20-23, 2014.
  • “Contested Frames: Recasting Arab Muslim Womanhood in Lalla Essaydi’s Art,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). New Orleans, October 10-13, 2013.
  • “Buried Cities, Resurrected Histories, and Rhizomatic Narratives in Hoda Barakat’s ‘The Tiller of Waters,’” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Denver, CO., November 17-20, 2012.
  • "Unearthing the Archives in Salwa al-Neimi's The Proof of the Honey," Gender and Women Studies in the Arab Region Conference, American University in Sharjah, Sharjah, March 7-9, 2012.
  • "Muslim Women on the Move: From Local Notoriety to Global Networks," Middle East Studies Association (MESA). San Diego, November 18-21, 2010.
  • “Embodying Arab Lesbian Identity,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Boston, November 21-24, 2009.
  • “Are We There Yet? Lesbian Identity in Modern Arabic Literature,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, DC. November 22-25, 2008.
  • "Queering the Arabic Novel," MESALC Speakers Series, University of Virginia, October 17, 2008.
  • "A Man Against His Will: Suppressed Homosexuality and Ruptured National Memory in Hoda Barakat's The Stone of Laughter," Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Montréal, November 17-20, 2007.
  • “Transforming Nationhood from Within the Minefield: Arab Female Guerrilla Fighters and the Politics of Peace Poetics,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Boston, November 18-21, 2006.
  • “The Poetics of Mosaic Autobiography in Contemporary Arabic Literature,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, D.C. November 19-22, 2005.
  • “Buried Alive: The Poetics of Exile and Arab Women Writers,” Sheikh Mohammad Bin Khalid al-Nahyan Cultural Center. Al-‘Ain, United Arab Emirates. February 18, 2003.
  • “Contested Departures in Ghada Al-Samman’s Travel Writing,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, D.C. November 20-22, 1999.
  • “The Prodigal Daughter: Women Writers, the Academia, and the Dissertation Novel,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). Austin, TX. March 26-28, 1998.
  • “The Academia at Trial: Memoirs of a Prodigal Daughter from ‘Hisland,’” Indiana University Conference in the Humanities. Bloomington, IN. March 6-7, 1998.
  • “A Spaceship to the Orient: Fantasy Fiction as Exile in Ghada Al-Samman’s Narrative,” Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA). San Francisco, CA. November 22-24, 1997.
  • “(Re)Writing Magic: Science Fiction and the Arab Novel," Crossing the Jordan Annual Conference. Cultural Studies. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN. February 7-8, 1996.
  • “Uncovering the Lens: The Mis/Representation of the ‘Other’ in Pasolini’s Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte,” Crossing the Jordan Annual Conference. Cultural Studies. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN. February 17-19, 1995.

Courses Taught

  • EGMT 1510:         The Aesthetics of Trauma
  • MEST 2270/5270: Culture and Society of the Contemporary Arab Middle East
  • ARTR 3350/5350: Introduction to Arab Women’s Literature
  • ARTR 3290/5290: Modern Arabic Literature in Translation
  • ARTR 3490/5490: Arab Cinemas.
  • ARAB 3860/5860: Modern Fiction in Arabic
  • ARAB 5830/5840: Readings in Modern Arabic Poetry & Prose
  • ARAB 4120/7120: Introduction to Arabic Drama
  • ARAB 4230/5240: Love, War, and Diaspora in Hoda Barakat’s Writings
 
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