Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies

2015 Colloquium – Arabic Poetry Colloquium

The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies is proud to present our 2015 Arabic Poetry Colloquium. Please check back on this page for updates on the schedule of events.

Date: Thursday April 16th, and Friday April 17th
Location: CCAS Boardroom, ICC 241.

Final Program

Program in Arabic

PLEASE NOTE: THE COLLOQUIUM IS CONDUCTED IN ARABIC  
Georgetown Colloquium in Arabic Literature, Spring 2015
Arabic Poetry: Critical and Theoretical Dimensions 
Sponsored by the Department of Arabic & Islamic Studies, Georgetown University

April 16-17, CCAS Boardroom (ICC 241)

Organizers:
Suzanne P. Stetkevych, Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professor of Arabic & Islamic Studies, Georgetown University
and
Hussain Abulfaraj, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Faculty Delegate to Georgetown University

Thursday 16 April: 3:30-5:30

Panel 1: Variations of Qaṣīdah Structure in Islamic and Umayyad Poetry

Paper 1: Awareness of Socio-Poetic Transition in a Poem by the Mukhaḍam Poet ‘Abdah ibn al-Ṭabīb
Mohammad Alqanaei, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University 

Paper 2: The Poetics of the Khawārij and Shī‘ah during the Umayyad Period: The Incomplete Performative Paradigm
Hussain Abulfaraj, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, King Abdulaziz University, Faculty Delegate to Georgetown University

Paper 3: From Praise to Stir of Compassion: Jarīr at ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s Court
Mustafa Muhammad BinMayaba, Assistant Professor, King Abdul-Aziz University; Visiting Scholar, Indiana University

6:00-8:00pm: Keynote Address and Reception

The ʿAyniyyah of Abū Dhuʾayb al-Hudhalī
Elegy and the Achievement of Allegorical Form in Classical Arabic Poetry
by
Jaroslav Stetkevych
Professor Emeritus of Arabic Literature, The University of Chicago;
Research Affiliate, Georgetown University

Friday, 17 April

ICC 241 (CCAS  BOARDROOM)

9:00 am coffee

9:30-11:00
Panel 2: Performativity and Originality in ʿAbbāsid Poetry
Paper 1: Al-Buḥturī’s Poetic Innovation and the Role of Audience
Al Amein Ali Alshareif, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, United Arab Emirates University
Paper 2: A Failure Performance or a Symbol of Cultural Decline? The Panegyric Performance of al-Buhturi before al-Mutawakkil: “Out of which Mouth Do You Smile?”
Ali Alnahhabi, Lecturer, Imam University, Saudi Arabia; Ph.D. Candidate, Indiana University
Paper 3: The Problematic Consequences of Method in Ibn al-Mu‘tazz’s Kitāb al-Badīʿ
Mishari Almusa, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University

11:15-12:30
Panel 3: Arabic Poetry: Comparative and Interarts Dimensions 
Paper 1: The Construction of Selfhood and the Poetics of Identity in Ashanti and Abbasid Court Panegyrics: A Comparative Study
Nana Aba Bentil-Mawusi, PhD candidate, Indiana University
Paper 2: The Musical Notation – Arabic Prosody Equation
Noman Kidwah, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, King Abdulaziz University

[lunch break]

2:30-4:30pm
Panel 4: Modernism between Tradition and Innovation
Paper 1:  The Iḥyā’/Revival Panegyric Poem: Allegiance and Succession
Abdulmueen H. Balfas, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, King Abdulaziz University
[in absentia]
Paper 2: The Motif of the She-Camel in Contemporary Nabati Poetry
Hamad al-Ajmi, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University
Paper 3: The Prose Poem and the Arabic Tradition
Huda Fakhreddine, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, University of Pennsylvania

4:45-6:00pm
Final Remarks and Closing Reception

Paper Abstracts – English
Paper Abstracts – Arabic
Participants
Hamad al-Ajmi, assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University.
Mishari Almusa, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University.
Mohammad Alqanaei, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature, Kuwait University.
Al Amein Ali Alshareif, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, United Arab Emirates University.
Noman Kidwah, Assistant professor of comparative literature, King Abdulaziz University.
Abdulmueen H. Balfas, Assistant professor of Arabic Literature, King Abdulaziz University.
Huda Fakhreddine, Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Huda Fakhreddine’s work focuses on modernist movements or trend in Arabic poetry and their relationship to the Arabic literary tradition. Her forthcoming book is a study of the modernist Arabic poetry of the twentieth century and the ‛Abbāsid “modernist” (muḥdath) movement as periods of literary crisis and meta-poetic reflection. She is interested in the role of the Arabic qaṣīdah as a space for negotiating the foreign and the indigenous, the modern and the traditional, and its relationship to other poetic forms such as the Free Verse poem and the prose poem.

Mustafa Muhammad BinMayaba, Assistant Professor at King Abdul-Aziz University and Visiting Scholar at Indiana University
Ali Alnahhabi, Lecturer at Imam University and PH.D student at Indiana University.
Nana Aba Bentil-Mawusi, PhD candidate, Indiana University.
Enass Khansa, PhD candidate, Georgetown University.
Hussain Abulfaraj, Assistant Professor at King Abdulaziz University.