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Professor and Chair of Department, University of Sydney

I am a Professor and Chair of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Sydney. My research focuses on Arab diasporas, on gender and sexuality in Arab and Muslim societies, and on postcolonial identities. My third book entitled What Is Veiling? will be published by the University of North Carolina Press in September 2014. I have also published Crossing Borders: Love between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), which was awarded the 2009 Aldo & Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies by the Modern Languages Association of America. In addition, I published Esope au féminin: Marie de France et la politique de l’interculturalité [A Feminine Esope: Marie de France and the Politics of Interculturality] (Rodopi, 1999). I haveco-edited two volumes about Franco-Arab encounters (Contemporary French and Francophone Studies and New Francographies), one special issue of Yale French Studies, as well as one art catalogue. I have received several national awards, including a National Humanities Center Fellowship and a Fulbright.

Experience

  • 2002–present
    Chair professor, University of Sydney

Education

  • 1994 
    Yale University, Ph.D

Publications

  • 2014
    What Is Veiling?, University of North Carolina Press
  • 2008
    Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures, University of Pennsylvania Press
  • 1999
    Esope au feminin: Marie de France et la politique de l'interculturalite, Rodopi