Bio Statement

 

I am a native of Oran, Algeria. I began my career as a language professor in Boston, Massachusetts, where I taught Arabic and French at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Smith College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College and a number of other educational institutions. I currently serve as Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, teaching content-based courses in Arabic and French.

 

My classes dynamically engage students in research, writing and discussion of history, religion, literature, media, cultural traditions and current affairs in the Arab world. Students demonstrate and share their individual and collaborative learning through projects such as video podcasts, digital storytelling, Arabic TED Talks, blogs, and radio shows.

 

Among my areas of expertise and research interests are: the pedagogy of language acquisition, integration of technology and cultural studies into the language curriculum, conflict and peace in the MENA (Middle East-North Africa) region, the history of colonialism and its aftermath in North Africa, socio-political and economic roots of popular uprisings in the Arab world, and political Islam.

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I have authored a textbook:  Uprising in Tahrir Square: an interactive toolkit for advanced Arabic classrooms (Equinox Publishing, June, 2019)  and am currently writing a book about Algerian women who struggled for independence during the period of French colonization.