I study premodern Arabic literature, poetics, and literary history with a focus on how neglected archives reshape the categories used in comparative literature and world literature. My work combines comparative literature methodology with philological training in Classical Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish.
My first book, How Do You Say ‘Epigram’ in Arabic? Literary History at the Limits of Comparison, uses archival literary history, Classical Arabic philology, and translation to explore the limits of the epigram as a category in literary studies. By reconstructing the previously unknown history of Arabic maqātīʿ-poetry, the book shows how extra-European literary histories can reshape both comparative literature and the broader study of world literature.
My current book project examines representations of sexual violence, coercion, and harassment in premodern Islamicate literatures across Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other languages. It brings poetry, legal writing, narrative, historiography, visual culture, and modern media interpretation into a single comparative frame.
Editorial & Board Positions
Former Co-Editor of Middle Eastern Literatures (2021–2025)
Former associate editor of Journal of Arabic Literature (2017–2020, managing pre-modern submissions)
Board of directors, Middle East Medievalists (2019–2022)
Editorial board, Journal of World Literature (2015–present)
Advisory board, Gorgias Press’ Islamic History and Thought book series (2025–present)
Advisory board, Gorgias Press’ Modern Muslim World book series (2016–2025)
Translation
I am currently translating Ahmed Awny’s 2019 novel Jawāʾiz li-l-Abṭāl with the support of a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship. I studied literary translation with Michael Henry Heim while I was an undergraduate at UCLA, and I have translated five novels from Arabic into English along with shorter literary works. My co-translation of Raja Alem’s The Dove’s Necklace tied for first place in the Arabic-to-English category of the 2017 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation.