Samer Ali

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Associate Professor

Ph.D, Indiana University

Contact

E-mail: saali@mail.utexas.edu
http://utexas.academia.edu/SamerMAli
Phone: 475-6467
Office: WMB 6.112
Office Hours: Spring 2012: Wednesday 2:00-5:00
Campus Mail Code: F9400

Interests

Islamic kingship, court literature and patronage, classical historiography, modern and medieval folklore and folklife, Arab women poets, oral performance of Homeric epic, literary criticism

Biography

College: Liberal Arts

Home Department: Middle Eastern Studies

Additional department affiliations: Religious Studies, Comparative Literature

Education: PhD, Indiana University

Research interests:

Arabic Literature and culture: Abbasid culture (750-1258), Andalusian (711-1492), Arabic Sicily (652-1189), Arabian Nights, women of the court, Arab women poets, folklore

Historiography of Early Islam: The oral performance of ancestral stories, the intersections of literature and history, narrative patterns in historical tales, performance and communication theories

Religion and Mythology: Pre- and early Islamic religion and mythology, the Qur’an, sacred kingship, cults of the hero

Educational and Cultural Exchange: I moderate several email lists that support study and scholarship in the Middle East, including Cairo Scholars
https://utlists.utexas.edu/sympa/info/cairoscholars

Courses taught:

Undergraduate: Intro to Arabic Literature (lecture), The Arabian Nights (lecture) Memory and Identity in Ancient Arabia (seminar), Loyalty and Rebellion in Arabic Literature (seminar).

Graduate Seminars (in Arabic): Arabo Women Poets, Arabic Culture in Sicily 652-1189, Arabo-Islamic Ode, Classical Arabic Akhbar, Politics of Court Literature

Liberal Arts Services