Sinan Antoon

B.A. 1990, Baghdad; M.A.A.S. 1995, Georgetown; Ph.D. 2006, Harvard

Sinan Antoon’s teaching and research interests lie in premodern Arabo-Islamic culture and contemporary Arab culture and politics. His dissertation, “The Poetics of the Obscene,” is the first study of the 10th-century Arab poet Ibn al-Hajjaj. In 2002, he was awarded a Mellon grant to support his research in the Middle East. His Gallatin course offerings include The Body in the Arabic Tradition, Arabic Poetry, The Qur’an, and a freshman seminar on Exile. Professor Antoon’s poems and essays (in Arabic and English) have appeared in the Nation, Middle East Report, Al-Ahram Weekly, Banipal, and the Journal of Palestine Studies, among others.

Antoon has published a collection of poems, Mawshur Muballal bil-Huroob (A Prism; Wet with Wars), and a novel, I`jam (Diacritics), both of which are forthcoming in English versions from City Lights publishing. His poetry was anthologized in Iraqi Poetry Today. He has also contributed numerous translations of Arabic poetry into English. His co translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry was nominated for the PEN Prize for translation in 2004. He returned to his native Baghdad in 2003 as a member of InCounter Productions to film a documentary, About Baghdad, which was about the lives of Iraqis in a post-Saddam-occupied Iraq, which he co produced and co directed. He is a senior editor for Arab Studies Journal, a member of PEN America, a contributing editor to Banipal, and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report.