Emeritus Professor of Arabic Languagues and Literatures
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations215.898.6337
Roger Allen is currently (2010) the Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, the Ivy-League institution founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740 in Philadelphia. He is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, and since 2005 has been Chair of the Department. He was the President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) in the academic year 2009-2010.
Between 2008 and 2009, his former students participated with the editors of three of the journals with which Roger Allen has been associated—Middle Eastern Literatures, Al-`Arabiyya, and the Journal of Arabic Literature—in the publication of a series of literary studies and translations in the form of a three-part festschrift.
Oxford University, B.A. (1965), M.A., Ph.D. (1968)
Arabic, French, Latin, Italian, German, Greek, Spanish
Arabic literature; narrative and drama; theoretical aspects of literary history; Arabic language pedagogy.
Egypt, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia.
President, Middle East Studies Association of North America (2009-2010); Friars Senior Honors Society (2008-2009); University of Pennsylvania Faculty Award (2005); American Institute of Maghribi Studies, Grant Awardee (1999-2000); University Rector's Distinguished Lecturer and Award of University Medal, University of Helsinki (1994)
Translation of Hanan al-Shaikh, The Locust and the Bird, Bloomsbury Press (2009); Translation of Naguib Mahfouz, Khan al-Khalili, American University in Cairo Press (2008); Scandals, Spies, and Sultans (Ibrahim al-Muwaylihi's Ma Hunalik), Rowman and Littlefield (2007); Ibrahim al-Muwaylihi: al-Mu'allafat al-Kamilah, li-al-Muharrir, al-Majlis al-a'la li-al-Thaqafah (Supreme Council for Culture) (2007); Translation of Naguib Mahfouz, Karnak Cafe, American University in Cairo Press (2007)
Narrative Across Cultures (NELC 180)
Modern Mideast Literature in Translation (NELC 201)
Selected Topcs in Arabic Lit (NELC 633)
Arabic Readings in the Belles-Lettres (ARAB 432)
