Enass N.W. Khansa

American University of | Dept|College Hall, 482|Beirut, | [email protected]

Education: Georgetown University, Ph.D. (2015) in Arabic and Islamic Studies (Distinction)

Academic Positions The American University of Beirut, Assistant Professor (January 2018-Present) § Courses designed and taught, Readers of al-Andalus (Undergraduate, 2018, 2019) The Caliphate and the Arts (Undergraduate, 2019, 2021) Mirrors for Princes (Undergraduate, 2018, 2020) Rhetoric and Power (Graduate Seminar, 2018, 2020) Visual and Literary Culture of the Islamic West (Graduate Seminar, 2021) § Academic Committees: served as an adviser & a reader on Ph.D. and MA thesis committees. § Reviws: I have reviewed articles for JAL, JAS, and Abhath. Georgetown University, Lecturer Arabic Language & Culture (2012 – 2014) Middlebury College, Faculty Total-Immersion Arabic Language & Culture (Summer 2012)

Fellowships § The Library of Arabic Literature at NYU-Abu Dhabi, Fellow (2020-2021) The fellowship will focus on producing a scholarly edition of the medieval love manual, The Ring of the Dove by Ibn Ḥazm (b. Cordoba 384/994, d. Montija [Huelva] 456/1064), the Andalusī scholar.

§ Arab-German Young Academy, Fellow (2019-2024) In 2019-2020, I co-designed two projects: Making the Medieval Modern, through which creative inerpretation is introduced as an approach to reading medieval Arabic literature; and Summer School on Readership, a three day workshop, in which a group of scholars mentor gratudate students on producing scholarly articles on approaches to authorship and readership in Arabic culture.

§ Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas,́ Visiting Scholar (Summer 2018) I joined the research project entitled “The Impact of the Maghrib on the Mashriq Project,” through which scholars of Andalusī studies examine, from different perspectives, how the intellectual conversations of the Islamic Maghrib reverberated and influenced knowledge production in the Islamic Mashriq. This hopes to grow onto collaborations between AUB and CSIC on publications, conferences and further research opportunities.

§ Harvard, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Art and Architecture, Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2017)

In her project, entitled “Aesthetics and the Cenotaphic in Iberian Medieval Culture,” Enass calls for approaching adab as a primary area of investigation for material cultural inquiries, and proposes reconstructing Andalusī worldview from anthological adab sources, as a framework for examining the political programs that developed in al-Andalus.

§ Harvard, RCC Andrew W. Mellon, Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2016) Through this fellowship, Enass joined the Santiago Cathedral Project (Spain), an innovative multidisciplinary conservation project of the Santiago Cathedral World Heritage Monument. Apprehended as the pilgrimage that shaped Europe—as Goethe once said, the Santiago Cathedral, for centuries, was linked exclusively to Europe, where influences have been traced along the Camino. Enass’ research redirects the traditional map southward, to al-Andalus, to incorporate Islamic culture as a realm intimately connected with the artistic, ritualistic, architectural and knowledge sharing features of the Santiago. Enass continues to be part of the program and will be participating in the final publication of the project.

§ Georgetown U. Muslim-Christian Understanding, Doctoral Fellow (2014-2015 The fellowship supported the writing of the dissertation, and a presentation entitled: “The Conception of Authority in 4th/10th c. Andalusī Culture,” Symposium, Georgetown, 2014.

§ Open Society Foundation Grant (2012 & 2013) With a focus on educational reform, Enass worked on how the study of medieval culture may contribute to renewed perception of identity and democracy, at the end of the fellowship, Enass presented her findings in a talk entited “Restoring Diversity in Teaching Islamic History,” that took place during Open Society Scholarship Programs’ MENA Regional Alumni Conference 2016: ‘Building Resilience in the MENA Region,’ Amman, October 2016.

Professional Appoinments Sadik Jalal al-Azm Foundation, US, Adisory Board Member (Jan. 2020 – Present)

You22, an EU-CFI Fellowship, Director (Jan. 2019 – June 2019) A fellowship program for college students from Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon, dedicated to building democratic citizenship in the through the media.

Raseef22 Independent Media Platform, Beirut, Editor of Culture (2017 – 2019) A series of publications that introduce to young non-specalized readership, scholarly works on identity, gender, history, cultural diversity and the arts.

Arts Asia Pacific, Translator & Editor (Aug. 2013 – Dec 2017)

Atlantic Media, Special Adviser to the Chairman (May 2013 – May 2015)

The Diplomatic Mission of Syria to Washington, D.C. Diplomat, Office of the Historian (May 2010 – Sept. 2011) Cultural Attaché (Feb. 2007 – May 2010)

Academic Publications “The Untold Story of the Andalusī Umayyad Caliphs and Alfonso III of Galicia,” in War, Diplomacy, and Peacemaking in Medieval Iberia, Published 2020.

“The Miniaturization of the World in Pre-modern adab Anthologies,” Approaches to the Study of Pre- modern Arab Anthologies. Handbook of Oriental Studies series with Brill, Feb 2021.

“Can Reading Animate Justice?” in Casuistry, Contingency, and Ambiguity: New approaches to the study of ethics in the Islamic traditions, Cambridge Univ., to be published in the (peer-reviewed) Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies (JAIS), Accepted, Forthcoming Feb. 2021.

“Andalusī Identity Can be Chosen and Earned: A Perspective from Ibn Ḥazm’s (d. 456/1064) Alpuente Epistle” in Latin America, al-Andalus and the Arab World. forthcoming 2021.

Book Projects

The Ring of the Dove, an edition of the medieval treatise on love written in the eleventh century, by an Andalusī Jurist Ibn Ḥazm (the Arabic edition will be published by the Library of Arabic Literature, NYU, with an English translation by Humphrey T. Davies). Submitted in January 2021.

Thinking Through Ruins: Interdisciplinary Approches to Functions, Interpretations and (Mis-)Uses of Remnants of the Pasts, an edited volume (co-editor), forthcoming in 2021.

Ziyād b. ‘Āmir al-Kinānī, an edition and translation, with the Library of Arabic Literature, NYU, 2021.

Selection in Medieval Arabic Literature, a book project based on my doctoral dissertation, that explores the conception of ikhtiyār in medieval Arabic literautre.

The Perfumes of the Minds, a scholarly edition of a thirteen-century medieval manuscript from the Almohad period in North Africa, based on all extant manuscripts.

Other publications

“The Hadith is Written,” a translation of a short story by Wafik Khansa, published in ArabLit Quarterly, Spring 2020, Vol. 3, Issue I.

Medieval Literature for Young Readers Series, Co-Founder |Co-Editor (2019-Present). The project produces visual interpretations of medieval texts in booklets published by NYU-Abu Dhabi Press, § Weaving Words: Medieval Short Stories on Luck, Passion and Imagination (in Arabic, 2019) § On Why People Are Enamored of This World? The Philosopher Responds (August 2020). § When the Islamic World Was Ruled by a Woman Nicknamed “Shagab,” (forthcoming, 2021).

Selected Papers & Presentations “Copious Knowledge and the Practice of Ikhityār in Islamic Medieval Thought,” at OIB (Orient Institut, Beirut), 21 January, 2021.

“The Conception of Justice in 1001 Nights,” at NYU Abu Dhabi Institue, December 7, 2020.

“Ibn Shuhayd al-Andalusī‘s (d. 426/1035) Frame-tale in Epistle of Attendant Jinn and Whirling Demons,” at Anonym Classic Project, Freie University-Berlin, Nov 26, 2020.

“The Legal Program in Alf Layla and the Question of Rulership,” at Casuistry, Contingency, and Ambiguity: New approaches to the study of ethics in the Islamic traditions, Cambridge University, July 2019.

“‘Those Who Come to al-Andalus, Become Andalusīs’: Cultural Identity in Medieval Iberia,” presented at “Latin American, al-Andalus & the Arab World” conference, AUB April 2018.

“The Miniaturization of the World in Medieval Adab Anthologies,” at Approaches to the Study of Pre-modern Arabic Anthologies conferece, held at AUB, May 2018.

“The Poetics of Affinity (ittisaq)̄ and the Question of Legitimacy,” Post-Eurocentric poetics: new approaches from Arabic, Turkish and Persian Literature, The American University of Beirut, May 21, 2018.

“Aesthetics and the Cenotaphic in Medieval Iberian Culture,” The Aga Khan Program, Harvard University, April 2017.

“How an Anthology Curated a Caliphate,” Panel on “Literary Genealogy in Medieval and Modern Iberia and North Africa,” The Middle East Studies Association, November 22, 2017.

"Readership as a Framework for Material Cultural Exploration,” Lecture given at The Art of al- Andalus Seminar at Penn University, January 2016.

“Restoring Inclusivity in Teaching Arabo-Islamic History,” Open Society Scholarship Programs, MENA Regional Alumni Conference: ‘Building Resilience in the MENA Region,’ Amman, Oct. 2016.

LANGUAGES: Arabic (Native)|English (N. Fluency)| Spanish (Good)| French, Persian (Reading)

Selected Collaborations Arabic Philology, Summer School: an AGYA (Arab-German Young Academy), Summer 2021 Critical Philology, a collaborative online forum dedicated to exploring new approaches to contextualizing the study of medieval Arabic traditions. Co-founded with Dr. Johannes Stephan (Freie University-Berlin) and Dr. Feriel Bouhafa (Cambridge University).

“The Production of (In)Visibility,” a lecture-performance with Moad Musbahi, in How to Reappear exhibit (Art Center, Beirut) and Publishing Maneuvers Symposium (Warehouse421, UAE) January, 2020.

“How Can We Read and Appreciate Stories a millennium before our times?” A two-day workshop on creative interpretation, in collaboration with illustration artist Jana Traboulsi, at the Center of Arts and Humanities, AUB 2018.

Freedom of the Media Campaign (Unblock Raseef22, 2019) https://youtu.be/y3h1u777MqA