Here is another series of classes under the main heading of attempting to understand the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through literature and prose written by its authors, advocates, observers, and supporters. This series of classes will be the second time that we examine literature by Arab American authors who delve into the lives and challenges of new immigrants learning to assimilate and live as Americans while keeping an homage to their roots from Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. However, this series will venture out beyond their “comfort zone” and tackle journeys of discovery – the fascination of travel to explore and better understand home, not relocate; Shakespearean theatre to cope with chronic pain; rediscovering the Syrian and Iraqi homeland; and discovering the future in Qatar.
Four Mondays and one Tuesday Bi-Weekly: April 4 and 18; May 2 and 16; and Tuesday, May 31 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Online
List of readings & dates:
1) Hisham Matar (Libyan) – Month in Siena (April 4) (9780593129135)
2) Mona Awad (Egyptian) – All’s Well (April 18) (9781982169664)
and/or Egyptian-American Journeys: An Anthology (9781623718985)
3) Sinan Antoon (Iraqi) – The Book of Collateral Damage (May 2nd) (9780300251753)
4) Zeyn Joukhadar (Syrian) – Map of Salt and Stars (May 16th) 9781501169052
and/or Zaina Arafat (Palestinian) You Exist Too Much 9781948226509
5) Sophia Al-Maria (Qatar) – The Girl Who Fell to Earth (Tuesday, 31st May) 9780061999758
Heba F. El-Shazli is an Egyptian-American and an avid lover and reader of literature from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is an assistant professor of political science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Master’s Degree Program at the Center for Democracy and Civil Society. Heba teaches courses on governments and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, international relations, and the role of civil society and social movements in democratization. She has a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization (PGG) with a specialization in Governance and International Affairs from Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs and a Master’s degree from Georgetown University. She was the Director of MENA programs at the Solidarity Center (2004-2011) and the Deputy MENA Regional Director at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 2001 until 2004. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (www.cfr.org)
Karen Leggett Abouraya is a journalist and children’s author, winning the 2013 Arab American Book Award and other honors for Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books. She is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Egypt, and with her Egyptian-born husband, chairs the Baltimore Luxor Alexandria Sister City Committee and the Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) Maryland, Virginia, DC. Together they also produce the podcast American Egyptian Women of Influence. Karen facilitates online conversations between Egyptian and American children and co-hosted a conference on informal education at the BA in 2015. She reviewed children’s books for the New York Times, is a past president of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. and has served as a judge for children’s writing contests in Egypt and Montgomery County. She earned her B.A. in international relations from Brown University.
