Dima Ayoub
Dept. Chair/Associate Professor of Arabic
- Office
- Voter Hall 008
- Tel
- (802) 443-5653
- dayoub@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- WINTER 2025: Please email to make an appointment ahead of time, zoom office hours only. Tuesdays: 5:30-6:30, Wednesdays: 5:30-7:30.
Dima Ayoub, Ph.D. (McGill University) is an Associate Professor of Arabic and former C.V. Starr Junior Faculty Fellow in International Studies and the former director of the Middle East studies program. Her book manuscript Paratext and Power: Modern Arabic Literature in Translation examines the post-war evolution and formation of Modern Arabic literature by examining the various networks, institutions and discourses developed in the mid-century and the central role of translation and paratexts that make the field what it is today. Additionally, Ayoub’s work connects the fields of digital humanities, Arabic, and comparative literature – she developed a digital archive of paratexts that accompany translations of modern Arabic literature in English, French, German, and Spanish. To learn more about the project go here. To learn more about her work with Middlebury students go here. During the Spring 2024 semester, she was a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago.
Areas of teaching/expertise: modern Arabic literature; translation studies; Digital Humanities; Anglo-Arab literature; Arab-American literature; Arab cinema; postcolonial Studies; postmodern literature; gender studies, Arab feminism(s); Arab-Jewish literature and culture.
Courses Taught
ARBC 0101
Upcoming
Beginning Arabic I
Course Description
Beginning Arabic I
The goal of this course is to begin developing reading, speaking, listening, writing, and cultural skills in Arabic. This course stresses written and oral communication, using both formal Arabic and some Egyptian dialect. Emphasis is also placed on reading authentic texts from Arabic media sources, listening to and watching audio and video materials, and developing students' understanding of Arab culture. 6 hrs lect/disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0102
Beginning Arabic II
Course Description
Beginning Arabic II
This course is an intensive continuation of ARBC 0101. In addition to the goals stated for that course there will be extra emphasis on cultural skills during winter term. (ARBC 0101 or equivalent).
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0103
Beginning Arabic III
Course Description
Beginning Arabic III
This course is a continuation of ARBC 0102. 6 hrs. lect/disc (ARBC 0102 or equivalent)
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0201
Intermediate Arabic I
Course Description
Intermediate Arabic I
This course is a continuation of ARBC 0103. Emphasis is placed on reading authentic materials from Arabic media, expanding students' vocabulary, listening to and watching audio and video materials, and developing students' understanding of Arab culture and communicative competence. (ARBC 0103 or equivalent) 6 hrs. lect/disc
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0202
Current
Intermediate Arabic II
Course Description
Intermediate Arabic II
This course is a continuation of Arabic 0201. Fifth in a series of courses that develop reading, speaking, listening, writing, and cultural skills in Arabic. This course stresses communication in formal and spoken Arabic. (ARBC 0201 or equivalent). 6 hrs. lect/disc
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0219
Upcoming
Modern Palestinian Literature
Course Description
Modern Palestinian Literature (in English)
In this course we will explore how modern Palestinian literature grapples with questions of belonging, nationalism, memory, and colonialism. Questions about what it means to have a Palestinian literature or be Palestinian, and the challenges of even asking the question will also be explored. We will examine different notions of being Palestinian by focusing on the literature, film, art, and music produced by three main axes of Palestinian society: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians within Israel, and the Palestinian Diaspora. We will read novels from a range of time periods by writers such as Fadwa Tuqan, Mahmoud Darwish, Adania Shibli, Suheir Hammad, among others and analyze a number of other cultural and artistic expressions from the early 20th century to the present. Secondary readings and discussions will set these works in contemporary historical, cultural, and political perspectives. Students will emerge with a deep understanding of Palestinian cultural production and will be prepared to engage more widely with questions of narrative, representation, and identity. (This course will be taught in English.)
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0235
Current
Gender Politics in Arab World
Course Description
Gender Politics of the Arab World
The aim of this course is to explore the ways in which the social and cultural construction of sexual difference shapes the politics of gender and sexuality in the Middle East and North Africa. Using interdisciplinary feminist theories, we will explore key issues and debates including the interaction of religion and sexuality, women’s movements, gender-based violence, queerness and gay/straight identities. Looking at the ways in which the Arab Spring galvanized what some have called a “gender revolution,” we will examine women’s roles in the various revolutions across the Arab World, and explore the varied and shifting gender dynamics in the region. Taught in English (formerly ARBC/GSFS 0328) 3 hrs. Sem. (GloDeFem)/
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0241
Blackness & the Arab Imaginary
Course Description
Blackness and the Arab Imaginary (In English)
Blackness as a category of analysis in the Middle East and North Africa, while fundamental to opening the field to the study of race and the legacies of slavery, remains understudied and deserving of critical attention. In this course we will explore the historic and political category of “blackness” and examine how black identities are constructed in the cultural and epistemological production of the Arab world and the Arab Diaspora through literature, critical scholarship, music, and cinema. We will address imperial and transnational dimensions of blackness as well as its increasing relevance for understanding new racial configurations in the contemporary Middle East and the Arab Diaspora. 3 hrs. lect.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0301
Advanced Arabic I
Course Description
Advanced Arabic 1
A continuation of Arabic 0202. This course aims to help students reach an intermediate-high level of proficiency in reading, speaking, writing, listening, and culture. Readings include articles on cultural, social, historical, political and literary topics. (ARBC 0202 or equivalent) 3 hrs. lect/disc. on T/R., plus a 50-minute lect time on Mondays TBD by enrolled students.)
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0412
Contemporary Arab Cinema
Course Description
Contemporary Arab Cinema
This course will present an overview of contemporary Arab cinema, exploring the way in which this cinema reflects the dynamics of political, economic, and social change in modern Arab societies. The course will be conducted exclusively in Arabic and will involve reading texts that present an overview of contemporary Arab cinema as well as texts analyzing notable and award-winning Arabic films. (ARBC 0302 or equivalent) 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0420
Sex,Love,Desire in Arab Pop Cu
Course Description
Sex, Love, and Desire in Arab Popular Culture
In this course we will challenge Western judgments about Arab sexuality and desire as inherently repressive. We will survey the permutations of desire -- from the sexual to the sacred, the heteroerotic to the homoerotic—in popular Arab culture. We will consider the intersections of gender, nation, race, ethnicity, ability, and sexuality in cinema, literature, and music. Through these mediums, we will examine the changing definitions of sexual respectability and sex work in different contexts, transsexuality and transgender identities, marriage, sexual revolutions and gender conflict, state regulation of sexuality, love for nation, and love in exile. This course will be taught entirely in Arabic. (ARBC 0302 or equivalent) 3 hrs. sem. AAL, ART, CMP, LNG, MDE
Terms Taught
Requirements
ARBC 0500
Current
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
(Approval Required)
Terms Taught
ARBC 0700
Current
Upcoming
Senior Thesis I
Course Description
Senior Thesis I
Approval required.
Terms Taught
ARBC 0701
Current
Upcoming
Senior Thesis II
Course Description
Senior Thesis II
Approval required.
Terms Taught
CMLT 0700
Current
Upcoming
Senior Thesis
Course Description
Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)
Terms Taught
Publications
2021 “Multilingual Others: Transliteration as Resistant Translation.” Multilingual Literature as World Literature. Edited by Wen-Chin Ouyang and Jane Hiddleston. London: Bloomsbury, 2021.
2020 Ayoub, Dima. “Politics of Paratextuality: The Glossary Between Translation and the Translational.” Journal of Arabic Literature. 51.1 (2020): 27-52.
2019 Ayoub, Dima. “Diasporic Slippages: Accent and Dialect in Translation.” Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures. 22.1 (2019): 23-35.
2019 Ayoub, Dima. “The (Un)Translatability of Translational Literature: Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love between English and Arabic.” Translation Studies. 12.3 (2019): 308-320.
Recent Public & Invited Talks:
NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery Navigating Digital Identities, Translation, Bodies, and Paratexts [A conversation with Lee Blalock and Dima Ayoub] Duke University, Middle East Studies Center “What Can the Digital Humanities Learn from Arabic Literature in Translation?”
University of Maryland Baltimore County, Gender Women’s, + Sexuality Studies “Exploring Gender Ambiguity & Non-Conformity in Arabic.”
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, 11th International Translation Conference. Keynote address “Towards a Just Translation: COVID 19 and Current Changes in Translation and Interpreting Studies”
Association of Adaptation Studies Conference, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Keynote address: “Strangers in our Midst: The Paratextual Labor of Arabic Literature in Translation”
Select Papers and Presentations:
“Talking Gender: Fluidity, Pronouns, and the Arabic Language. Community Conversation. Lebanese American University New York City Head Quarters. New York City, NY. February 2020.
“Transliterating Right-to-Left Languages.” NYU Abu Dhabi Winter Institute in Digital Humanities, New York University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. January 2020.
“Transliteration as Resistant Translation.” Abdelkébir Khatibi: Literature & Theory conference, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. November 2019.
“Lebanon Protests.” Public conversation with Tarek El Ariss and Paul Salem. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. November 2019.
“Paratext and Power in Arabic Literary Translation.” Forum Transregionale Studien, Europe in the Middle East—The Middle East in Europe (EUME), Berlin, Germany. July 2019.
“Glossary in Translation.” Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities. University of Granada, Granada, Spain. July 2019.
“Glossing the Glossary: Digital Approaches to Paratexts and Power in Arabic Literature.” The Cultural Turn in Arabic Literary Production, Conference in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Journal of Arabic Literature, Columbia University, New York. April 2019.
“Digitizing Paratexts in Translation: Between Distant and Close Readings.” Histoire, langues et textométrie Colloque, Université Paris, Sorbonne, Paris. January 2019.
“Itinerant Paratexts in Translation.” Keynote lecture at Islamic Studies Within a Global Context Conference, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montréal. April 2018.