Academic interests
My primary interests are Arabic literature and the history of philosophy. In my current PhD project, "Flowers in the Garden: The Moral Theory of Salīm al-Bustānī", I combine both interests by analyzing the moral discourse in the fictional prose works of a pioneering 19th century Beiruti writer.
I also have an interest in the history and literature of Palestine. I am particularly focused on the situation of displaced persons in and around Palestine and the literature of exile produced within the diaspora.
Background
My curiosity has never been limited to one discipline. I have two BA degrees, one in Philosophy and the other in Middle Eastern Studies. I have also studied the same two fields at the MA level, culminating in my MA thesis "The Music of Human Flesh: The Lived Time and Body of Exile in Ḏākira li-l-nisyān by Maḥmūd Darwīš" at the University of Oslo. See Education below for more details.
Having studied in many countries with an interdisciplinary approach, I have picked up a broad set of skills. In philosophy, I have studied modern thinkers in both the analytic and continental tradition, as well as the classical Greek and Arabic heritage. I speak Swedish, Norwegian, and English fluently, I read advanced Modern Standard Arabic and German, I have a conversational level in Levantine Arabic and French, and I read basic Latin and Ancient Greek. This experience has informed my belief that academics, literature, and knowledge are global conversations. No field can be fully understood in isolation.
Education
2020 - 2022 - Master's degree in Asia and Middle East Studies (120 ECTS), University of Oslo. I focused on Modern Standard Arabic and contemporary Arabic literature. My interests in philosophy, literature and the Arabic language were combined in my thesis: "The Music of Human Flesh: The Lived Time and Body of Exile in Ḏākira li-l-nisyān by Maḥmūd Darwīš". The degree includes the following stays abroad:
- Field work in Israel and Palestine - January and February of 2022, in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, the Galilee and Haifa for my MA thesis on Mahmoud Darwish.
- The University of Basel, Switzerland - The winter semester of 2021-22, studying Palestinian literature, sociology, postcolonial theory and German philosophy.
2021 - [on hold] Master's degree in Philosophy, University of Umeå. I finished three semesters but have postponed the MA thesis to focus on my PhD. I studied classical Arabic and Greek philosophy, as well as the thought of Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This includes one stay abroad:
- Ludwig Maximilians Universität München - The winter semester of 2022-23, studying classical Arabic and Greek philosophy under Peter Adamson and Rotraud Hansberger.
2016 - 2020 - Bachelor in Asia and Middle East Studies (180 ECTS), University of Oslo. My major subject was Arabic, both the Levantine dialects and Modern Standard Arabic. My minor subject was the history of philosophy. The degree includes the following studies abroad:
- Qasid Arabic Institute, Amman, Jordan - One semester (300 contact hours) intensive language studies in MSA and the Jordanian dialect, spring 2019.
- Noor Majan Arabic Institute, Ibri, Oman - Five weeks (100 contact hours) intensive language studies in MSA during the spring of 2016.
- Stockholm University, Sweden - Modern Standard Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. These courses were taken from 2009 - 2011. I took a long break from the academic world afterwards, and resumed my studies in 2016.
2018 - 2021 - Bachelor of Arts (180 ECTS) in Philosophy, University of Umeå. I focused mainly on modern Anglo-American analytic philosophy. My BA thesis was “Does Jonathan Tallant Successfully Argue Against Mereological Nihilism?”
Academic positions held
2021 - 2023 - Research Assistant, University of Oslo. I worked both for the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages and the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages. My tasks were various: applying machine learning methods to literary analysis with Stephan Guth, helping Teresa Pepe coordinate The Centre for Islamic and Middle East Studies, assisting the journal Babylon, and coding author interviews for the research group Creativity and Crises.
2023 - Research Assistant, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Transcription and translation of interviews in colloquial Arabic for Marte Nordanger and Edit Bugge as part of the IMPECT project.
Conference participation
2024 - "Words Alone Can Repair What Was Broken in Time and Space: Mahmoud Darwish, Mourid Barghouti and the Crisis of Ghurba", CILC6 – Modes of Existence in the Anthropocene, University of Oslo, March 18 2024. Using excerpts from the poetry and prose of Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti, I presented a phenomenological analysis of the state of ghurba (exile/displacement/estrangement) and the act of writing as a way of restructuring a fragmented life.
2023 - "Fighting for Presence in the Sea", global:disconnect Summer School, Käte Hamburger Research Centre, Munich, July 25 2023. I presented and analysed poetry by Mahmoud Darwish on exile and absence in the Mediterranean.
2022 - "Topic Modeling of Nahḍa Texts", Deutscher Orientalistentag, Freie Universität Berlin, September 16, 2022. Held together with Stephan Guth. In the Digital Humanities room, I exhibited my original Python code and we showed early results from analyses of Salīm al-Bustānī and al-Manfalūṭī.
2021 - "Moderne Gefühle: Zur Rolle von Emotionen im arabischen Roman der Nahḍa", Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, September 30, 2021. Held by me and Stephan Guth as part of the workshop Modernismus in der arabisch-islamischen Welt, exhibiting some early results from digital analyses of Muṣtafá Luṭfī al-Manfalūṭī.