Wessam Elmeligi, Ph.D.
Teaching Areas:
Middle East Studies, Arab American Studies, ArabicResearch Areas:
Arab Cinema, Classical and Modern Arabic Art and Literature, Comparative Literature, Gender Studies, Immigration Narratives, Literary Psychoanalysis, Narratology, SWANA Cultures, The Graphic Novel, Visual MediaBiography and Education
Director: Comparative Literature Certificate
Director: Arabic Translate Certificate
Dr. Wessam Elmeligi is the Director of the Center for Arab American Studies, and associate professor of Arabic Studies and Comparative Literature in the Department of Language, Culture, and Arts, as well as the director of the Comparative Literature program and the Arabic Studies and translation program. His research interests include Literary Theory, Arabic, Comparative and World Literature, Film, and Art. He is also a graphic novelist and artist.
Education
PhD, Literary Theory, Alexandria University, Egypt; MA, Literary Theory, Alexandria University, Egypt; BA, Language and Literature, Alexandria University, Egyp
Teaching and Research
Research
Narratology, visual media, comparative literature, gender studies, literary psychoanalysis, immigration narratives, the graphic novel, classical and modern Arabic art and literature, Arab cinema, SWANA cultures
Teaching Interests
Arabic literature, Arabic language, Arabic-English and English-Arabic translation, comparative literature
Selected Publications
Books:
Elmeligi, Wessam. Dystopia in Arabic Speculative Fiction: A Poetics of distress. Routledge, 2023.
Elmeligi, Wessam. Cultural Identity in Arabic Novels of Immigration: A Poetics of Return. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021
Elmeligi, Wessam. The Poetry of Arab Women from Pre-Islamic Times to Andalusia. Routledge, 2019
Chapters:
Elmeligi, Wessam. "Differently Empowering: The Performativity of Strong Female Leads by Faten Hamama and Hind Rostom." In Arab Stardom: Transnational Glamor and Empowerment. Kayla Davies Hayon and Stefanie Van De Peer (Eds.). Bloomsbury, 2023, pp.115-136.
Elmeligi, Wessam. "I was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib: Theory and Visual Analysis." In Muslim Women's Writing from across South and Southeast Asia. Feroza Jussawalla and Doaa Omran (Eds.). Routledge, 2022, pp.252-262.
“It Is Not Just Phonetics and Aristocrats – It Is Sexuality and Politics: The Adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion in the Egyptian Theatre.” In Rewriting Narratives in Egyptian Theatre: Translation, Performance, Politics, ed. Sirkku Aaltonen & Areeg Ibrahim. Routledge 2016
Articles:
Elmeligi, Wessam. "Islands, Rooms, and Queues: Three Tropes in Arabic Science Fiction." Journal of Science Fiction, 4(2), 2021. 36–49
Elmeligi, Wessam. “Unreliable Author: Narrative Duality in Sonallah Ibrahim’s ʾAmrīkānlī.” Authorship 8, no.1. Ghent: Ghent University/DOAJ, 2019. 1-17
Elmeligi, Wessam. “Narrative Fluidity: Intermedial Interpretation of the Persian Legend, Khosrow and Shirin: Abbas Kiarostami’s film Shirin, Ferdowsi’s miniatures, and Nizami Ganjavi’s 12th century Epic Khamsa.” Image & Narrative 19, no.2 (2018): 105-123
Graphic Novels:
Elmeligi, Wessam. Jamila. Seshat Press, 2017.
Elemligi, Wessam. Y & Y. Seshat Press, 2016.
Awards and Recognition
Educator of the Year (nominee), Macalester College, 2013
Academic Excellence Faculty Award, Alexandria University, Damanhur Campus, 2007
Fund for the Advancement of Collaborative Teaching, Macalester College, 2018 (with Professor Ernesto Ortiz-Diaz) to develop course “Hyphenating Identities: Multiculturalisms in Al-Andalus and the Americas”
Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Macalester College, 2008-2009 Fulbright Award, Summer Institute on Contemporary Literature, University of Louisville, Kentucky, 1999
Scholarship Recipient, award sponsored by Alexandria University, Edinburgh University, and the British Council in Alexandria for “New Worlds: British Culture in the Twentieth Century,” Scottish Universities’ International Summer, 1995