Author Archives: atoft

This week we welcome back one of UChicago’s former Arabic lecturers, Dr. Montserrat Rabadán, who currently resides in Berlin, where in addition to her academic work she has spent a considerable time volunteering for communities of Syrian refugees from the … Continue reading →

This week’s speaker talks about the phenomenon of onomatopoeia in Arabic, as conceived in modern and classical terms, with a handful of examples to illustrate. Animal sounds are but one example of the very rich part of the active Arabic lexicon … Continue reading →

In this week’s meeting, our guest, an advanced law student in Chicago who has served for some time in the Saudi judiciary and comes from a family of scholars and lawyers extend back over a century, discusses the fascinating mosaic of … Continue reading →

In this week’s talk, one of our esteemed Arabic lecturers, in light of the recent passing of several iconic figures of Egyptian culture, shows images and discusses how they have evoked for some Egyptians a yearning for the past—as well as to … Continue reading →

Surely, the (for some) cold and perhaps tedious subject of grammar has no affinity with the loftier purposes of Sufi aspirants. Our guest for this week, a PhD student in Islamic Thought in NELC, discusses an interesting and innovative hybrid genre of … Continue reading →

Our guest this week, who has lived for extended periods in several parts of the Arabic world, discusses his own journey in learning and teaching Arabic and offers some advice for students on how to navigate the language in its classical … Continue reading →

Our own Prof. Orit Bashkin presents on a current topic of her research, namely, transit camps in the early state of Israel, the lives of Jews therein, and related questions concerning race and class. Enjoy! مخيمات اليهود العرب في دولة إسرائيل: عنصرية … Continue reading →

“I esteem the very ground to be but mortal remains.”   —Abū al-‘Alā’ al-Ma’arri This week our guest, a PhD candidate in Arabic literature in NELC, gives us us a macabre look into death and decay as they appear in the poetry … Continue reading →

This week our guests, who work for Chicagoland-based nonprofit Arab-American Family Services (Bridgeview, IL), discuss the work they do as social workers and challenges they face therein, as well as the some of the contours of the Arab-American fabric. This presentation … Continue reading →

How do poets translate their thoughts and emotions into mere words which, when uttered, move us to laughter or tears, or bring us to share in their joy or their anger or their wonder? In this our second session of the quarter, we welcome … Continue reading →