- I am a scholar of Arabic literature and culture, world literature, and translation theory, as well as an active translator of Arabic texts in multiple genres. My current book project examines practices of translating Arabic literature into English that activate embodied forms of language and affective modes of reception to position Arabic literature ethic... moreI am a scholar of Arabic literature and culture, world literature, and translation theory, as well as an active translator of Arabic texts in multiple genres. My current book project examines practices of translating Arabic literature into English that activate embodied forms of language and affective modes of reception to position Arabic literature ethically for circulation in the world literary system. My scholarship has appeared in venues including the Journal of World Literature, Philological Encounters, and the Journal of Arabic Literature. My translation from Arabic of Hilal Chouman’s novel Limbo Beirut was longlisted for the 2017 PEN Translation Prize and shortlisted for the 2017 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.edit
Research Interests:
This article draws from historical treatises on Arabic grammar, alongside modern theories of untranslatability and translation ethics, to argue for both the practical feasibility and the ethical potential of accounting for the grammatical... more
This article draws from historical treatises on Arabic grammar, alongside modern theories of untranslatability and translation ethics, to argue for both the practical feasibility and the ethical potential of accounting for the grammatical Arabic dual inflection in English translations of Arabic literature. It considers the dual to possess certain formal qualities--of sound, sense, affective impact, and ontological significance--that require a correspondingly material and embodied mode of engagement from the translator, which is described here with reference to my own published translation of a contemporary Lebanese novel. Ultimately, I propose that such an approach enables new and more ethical ways of reading from an Anglophone audience.