The 2013-14 academic year has come to an end, and we’d like to recognize some of our faculty’s achievements before everyone takes off for summer research and other projects. We would also like to thank these faculty for their scholarly involvement on campus, nationally, and internationally; and for bringing their experience and expertise back to the students at UW-Madison.
Samuel England
Dr. England presented a paper titled “Name-Calling in Medieval Arabic Drama: The Shadow Play Tayf al-Khayal” at “Archives of the Orient: International Conference on Paul Ernst Kahle,” Università degli Studi di Torino (University of Turin). Proceedings will be published in Kervan: International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies.
He was also awarded two research/travel fellowships:
- Mediterranean Regional Research Fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers
- (CAORC) Fellowship from The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII)
Mouna Mana
During her year as a visiting assistant professor with us, Dr. Mana was awarded the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest grant for the Arabic language house, Baytunaa, for Academic Year 2014-2015.
She presented “Pedagogical Knowledge Needs of Arabic Teachers in Implementing Content-Based Instruction: Some Insights” at the American Association of Teachers of Arabic in October 2013 in New Orleans; and she ended her term as Chair of the Arabic Special Interest Group at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in November 2013.
She also had a book chapter, “Arab Americans in Context: A Sociocultural Ecological Perspective in Understanding the Arab American Experience,” co-authored with S.R. Ahmed, accepted for publication in APA Handbook of Community Psychology, edited by M. A. Bond, C. Keys, & I. Serrano-García. Forthcoming from American Psychological Association in Washington DC.
John Nimis
Dr. Nimis published “Corps sans titre: ‘bodiliness’ and Afropean identity in Bessora’s 53 cm” in Francophone Afropean Literatures, Nicki Hitchcott and Dominic Thomas, eds. Liverpool University Press, 2014.
He gave several invited talks, including:
- “Love and Music in Contemporary Africa: Kinshasa’s Musique Moderne” at Macalester College, March 28, 2014
- “Variation and Virtuosity: Music, Dance, and Meaning in the Congo” at American University, October 28, 2013
He also presented two conference papers:
- “Greed, Sex and Violence: Viva Riva! in the context of popular culture in the Congo,” African Literature Association, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 10, 2014
- “Liputa: Language Practice in Congolese Popular Song,” American Comparative Literature Association Conference, New York, NY, March 22, 2014
Tejumola Olaniyan
Dr. Olaniyan became the president of the African Literature Association in April 2014 during the 40th annual meeting in Johannesburg.
Katrina Daly Thompson
During her first year on the faculty, Dr. Thompson was asked to serve on the steering committees of UW-Madison’s Religious Studies program and the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, as well as to represent the campus to the Mellon-funded CIC (Committee on Institutional Cooperation) Islamic Studies Virtual Curriculum Initiative.
Thompson’s book manuscript, Gendered Lives in the Western Indian Ocean: Islam, Marriage, and Sexuality on the Swahili Coast (co-edited with Erin Stiles) was accepted for publication by Ohio University Press, part of the press’s new Indian Ocean Studies series.
Other selected publications this year included:
- “Representing Language, Culture, and Language Users in Textbooks: A Critical Approach to Swahili Multiculturalism.” Modern Language Journal 97, no. 4 (2013): 947–964.
- “Swahili Talk about Supernatural Sodomy: Intertextuality, the Obligation to Tell, and the Transgression of Norms in Coastal Tanzania.” Critical Discourse Studies 11 (2013): 1-24.
- “Strategies for taming a Swahili husband: Zanzibari women’s talk about love in Islamic marriages.” Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, Special Issue on Love in Africa ( 2013): 1-11.
Thompson was accepted into the 2014 Teaching Academy Summer Institute, during which she will develop her new course, Theories and Methods of Learning a Less Commonly Taught Language.