| ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE |
| From 10/2026 | Lecturer, Modern Standard Arabic and Literature, Language Centre, University of Bamberg. |
| 04/2026–09/2026 | Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Arabic Studies, University of Bamberg. Course: Literary Translation Project. |
| 11/2018–09/2025 | Research Associate, Department of Arabic Studies, University of Bamberg. |
| 10/2024–11/2024 | Adjunct Lecturer, Goethe University Frankfurt. Block seminar: Modern Arabic Literature: Women in the Spotlight. |
| 05/2024–09/2025 | Academic Advisor, M.A. Arabic Studies, University of Bamberg. |
| 08/2022–10/2023 | Lecturer, Modern Standard Arabic I & II, Language Centre, University of Bamberg. |
| 03/2021–04/2022 | Publicly Appointed Arabic Language Examiner, Government of Middle Franconia. |
| 04/2018–09/2019 | Adjunct Lecturer, Egyptian Arabic I & II, University of Bayreuth / Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. |
| From 01/2016 | Freelance Translator and Interpreter for Arabic, English, Spanish, and German. Clients include German courts, federal and municipal authorities, and law-enforcement agencies. |
| EDUCATION |
| From 2020 | PhD in Arabic Studies, University of Bamberg. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lale Behzadi. Dissertation: Everyday Heroines: (Re)formation of Subjectivity and Kinship in Al-Zayyat and Ashour. |
| 04/2017–04/2018 | Postgraduate Seminar Programme in Classical and Modern Arabic Literature, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. |
| 02/2016 | M.A. in English and Comparative Literature, The American University in Cairo (AUC). Master’s thesis: Female Subjectivity in Times of Constraints. |
| 07/2007 | B.A. in Spanish Philology, Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University. Minors: Arabic and English. |
| ACADEMIC SERVICES |
| 10/2023–09/2024 | Deputy Representative of Academic Staff (Mittelbau), Institute for Oriental Studies, University of Bamberg. |
| 10/2022–09/2023 | Representative of Academic Staff (Mittelbau), Institute for Oriental Studies, University of Bamberg. |
| 10/2014–06/2015 | Graduate Student Representative, Graduate Student Association (GSA), The American University in Cairo. |
| 09/2012–09/2014 | President, Philosophy Club, The American University in Cairo. |
| MEMBERSHIPS |
| European Society of Comparative Literature (ESCL) |
| Nordic Society for Middle East Studies (NSMES) |
| European Association for Modern Arabic Literature (EURAMAL) |
| European Network for Teachers of Arabic (ENTA) |
| German Oriental Society (DMG) |
| Fachverband Arabisch e.V. |
| German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) |
| RESEARCH INTERESTS |
My research focuses on modern and contemporary Arabic literature, with particular interests in questions of subjectivity and identity, and the ways individuals respond to changing world conditions. I am equally interested in the aesthetic dimensions of literary texts and in the ways literary forms and narrative strategies shape meaning. Further areas of interest include comparative approaches to Arabic literature, translation, knowledge production, and the intersections between literary studies and Arabic language teaching.
Research interests include:
- Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature
- Gender Studies
- Arabic and Comparative Literature
- Literature and the Human Condition
- Aesthetics of the literary and Representation
- Theory and Knowledge Production
- Innovative Materials for the Arabic Language Classroom
| CURRENT PROJECTS |
| Summer 2026–present | Studies of the Self. Collaborative research project with Nouran Amin (Humboldt Research Fellow). Further details forthcoming. |
| Summer 2024–present | Literary translation projects aimed at publication of authorized translations in cooperation with students of the Institute of Oriental Studies. |
| 2020–present | Doctoral project: Everyday Heroines: (Re)formation of Subjectivity and Kinship in Al-Zayyat and Ashour. My doctoral project, Everyday Heroines: (Re)formation of Subjectivity and Kinship in Al-Zayyat and Ashour, examines four novels by Latifa al-Zayyat and Radwa Ashour through the lives of their central female figures: Laila, Samia, Sawsan, and Nada. It focuses on nuanced “everyday” women who defy stereotypes without necessarily being overtly revolutionary and whose subjectivities resist fixed categories and labels. The study traces subjectivity as a process of continuous (re)formation, shaped by experience and by changing relationships with others. Moving across different configurations of love, friendship, family, and motherhood, it explores how blood and non-blood forms of kinship are questioned and reimagined, and how these transformations open up alternative possibilities for self (re)-formation. |
| COMPLETED PROJECTS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT |
| 06/2026 | Organizer and moderator, pre-conference seminar on theoretical approaches to trauma and violence in modern Arabic literature, held in preparation for the 16th EURAMAL Conference, Catastrophe and Beyond: Representations of Violence and Trauma in Modern Arabic Literature. |
| 09/2025 | Organizer, Young EURAMAL researchers workshop, “Mapping Our Methodologies: Conversations Across Traditions in Arabic Literary Studies.” |
| 05/2022–12/2022 | Organizer, DAAD workshop, “Diverse Pedagogy and Reception: (Re)forming Subjectivities in Arab Women’s Writings.” In Kooperation mit Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg und Kairo Universität an der British Universität in Ägypten (BUE). |
| 01/2023 | TAFL Training-of-Teachers Intensive Workshop, Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. |
| 08/2021 | Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education, Fortbildungszentrum Hochschullehre, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. |
| 09/2020 | Nominated for the Bettina Paetzold Prize for good gender-sensitive teaching, University of Bamberg. |
| 02/2020 | Co-organizer, DAAD project workshop, “Rezeptive Dialektkompetenz und Interkomprehension in der AraF-Didaktik,” Mohammed V University of Rabat, Morocco. |
| PUBLICATIONS |
| 03/2026 | “When We Talk About Literature: Report on a Meeting of EURAMAL’s Early Career Scholars.” With Adéla Provazníková. Maydan Rivista, March 2026. |
| 06/2025 | “Becoming Samia: The (Hi)story of an Authentic Woman in The Owner of the House.” In Humanidades y comunicación desde una perspectiva de género. Estudios plurales, ed. by Antonia Víñez Sánchez, Juan Sáez Durán, and Sergio Marín Conejo. Valencia: Editorial Tirant Lo Blanch, 2025, pp. 93–119. |
| 03/2024 | “Alienation à la Madeleine: The Migration Experience of a French Woman in Radwa Ashour’s Blue Lorries.” In Displacement, Emplacement, and Migration: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays, ed. by Touhid Chowdhury. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2024, pp. 69–83. |
| 02/2016 | Female Subjectivity in Times of Constraints: Naguib Mahfouz in The Beginning and the End and Gabriel García Márquez in Chronicle of a Death Foretold. DAR, The American University in Cairo, 2016. |
| SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS |
| 07/2026 | “Retelling Broken Histories: Student Movements and Memory in Blue Lorries.” Salzburg English Conferences: History up for Debate: Literature, Storytelling and the Imagined Past | SEC26. University of Salzburg, Austria. |
| 06/2026 | “Psychic Injuries and Maternal Dominion: Rethinking Domestic Violence in Modern Arabic Fiction.” The 16th EURAMAL Conference: Catastrophe and Beyond: Representations of Violence and Trauma in Modern Arabic Literature. University of St Andrews, Scotland. |
| 09/2025 | Panel organizer, “What Can We Learn from Reading Literature?”, with the contribution “Arabic Literature within Contemporary Humanities.” Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies (NSMES 2025), University of Oslo, Norway. |
| 09/2025 | “Skimming for Meaning, Writing for Mastery: Literature-Based Writing in Arabic Instruction.” European Network for Teachers of Arabic (ENTA 7), SOAS University of London, UK. |
| 09/2025 | Panel organizer, “Different Journeys, Shared Dilemmas: Transformation and Identity in Women’s Arabic Literature”, with the contribution “The Alchemy of Self-Love: Silent Revolutions Transforming the Invisible.” German Orientalists’ Day (DOT 2025), Erlangen, Germany. |
| 09/2025 | “Reconstructing Kinship in a Fractured World: A Literary Model.” Panel “Behave Yourself! Adab and the Will to Change the World.” German Orientalists’ Day (DOT 2025), Erlangen, Germany. |
| 12/2024 | Panel organizer, “Crafting an Advanced Arabic Curriculum in Higher Education”, with the contribution “An Advanced Arabic Reading Course.” European Network for Teaching Arabic (ENTA 6): Teaching Arabic Across Contexts, Leiden, Netherlands. |
| 05/2024 | “Éloignement as the Dystopia of the Modern World: Radwa Ashour on the Metamorphosis of Places.” The 15th EURAMAL Conference: Ecocritical Approaches and Environmental Issues in Modern Arabic Literature. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. |
| 05/2024 | “Hinter den Kulissen: Entwicklung eines fortgeschrittenen Arabischlehrplans an der Universität Bamberg.” VI. Konferenz des Fachverbands Arabisch e.V., LSI Bochum, Germany. |
| 10/2023 | “Embracing Love: The Journey of Samia’s Self-Discovery in The Owner of the House.” GENDERCOM IX. University of Cádiz, Spain. |
| 09/2023 | “Friendship as Surrogate Kinship from a Feminine Narrative Perspective.” 31st AIA Conference: Future Horizons, New Beginnings in English Studies. University of Calabria, Rende, Italy. |
| 08/2023 | “Rewriting the Self: The Case of Two Female Writers beyond Egypt of the 1960s.” Narrating Lives: International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography. University of Malta, Valletta, Malta. |
| 03/2023 | “The Private vs. the Public: Beyond the Bildungsroman.” Women of the World: International Conference. Faculty of Education, Alexandria University, Egypt. |
| 09/2022 | “Negotiating Female Subjectivities: Two Novels by Latifa al-Zayyat.” German Orientalists’ Day (DOT 2022), Free University of Berlin, Germany. |
| 09/2022 | “(How) Can Places Speak? Spaces Narrating Subjectivities in Ashour’s Farag.” The Street and the City IV: Moments. University of Lisbon, Portugal. |
| 07/2022 | “Mothers and Daughters: Nada, Madeleine and Hamdiya in Blue Lorries.” Discourses on Motherhood: International Conference. London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, London, UK. |
| 12/2020 | “School System in Egypt: New Didactic Approaches.” Thementag Schulsysteme weltweit – School Systems Worldwide, Bamberg Teacher Education for a Global World (BaTEG), Bamberg, Germany. |
| 01/2020 | “A Glance at Arabic Literature: The Rise of the Arabic Novel.” Seminar Introduction to the Arabo-Islamic World, University of Bayreuth, Germany. |
WS 2026/27
Sprachpraktisches Basismodul 1: Arabisch - Sprachpraktische Ausbildung
SoSe 2026
Zwischen den Zeilen II: Feinschliff zwischen Sprache, Kultur und Bild - Vorlesung, Übung
SoSe 2025
Lesen und Kreatives Schreiben: Workshop - Seminar
WS 2024/25
Intersecting Narratives: Beyond the Classics in Arab Women s Literature. (Arab Women's Literature) - Übung, Blockseminar
SoSe 2024
Zwischen den Zeilen: Literarische Übersetzung in der Praxis - Seminar
WS 2023/24
Ägyptisch-Arabisch mit Intro in die arabischen Dialekte - Seminar
SoSe 2023
Sprachpraktisches Basismodul: Arabisch (II) - Sprachpraktische
Workshop: kreatives Schreiben - Seminar, Übung
Lektüre aus der arabischen Welt - Übung
Konversationsstunde (Dialekt) - Übung
WS 2022/23
Sprachpraktisches Basismodul 1: Arabisch - Sprachpraktische Ausbildung
Ägyptisch Arabisch - Übung
Konversation Ägyptisch Arabisch - Übung
„Voiced or Voiceless? Egyptian Women's Writings in the Classroom“ - Seminar, Übung
Lektüre zum Blockseminar "Voiced or Voiceless? Egyptian Women's Writings in the Classroom" - Vorlesung
SoSe 2022
Workshop: kreatives Schreiben - Seminar, Übung
WS 2021/22
Einführung in den ägyptischen Dialekt - Seminar
SoSe 2021
Der arabische Roman: Sprachkompetenz Hocharabisch - Seminar, Übung
WS 2020/21
Hocharabisch Sprechen und Schreiben: Liebe in der modernen arabischen Literatur - Vorlesung, Übung
SoSe 2020
Ägyptische Autorinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts - Seminar, Übung
WS 2019/20
Hocharabisch. Konversation - Übung