Rawad Wehbe studies Arabic poetry, poetics, and literary theory. He is currently writing a dissertation on the mukhaḍramūn poets who lived between the pre-Islamic and Islamic era, focusing on the network of emotions surrounding the poetic experience of existing in the threshold of transition, known as khaḍramah. Drawing from theories of affect and histories of emotion, he departs from a historical study of the mukhaḍramūn to develop a theory of khaḍramah that seeks to understand how language in poetry hacks human emotions to create meaning across periodizations and literary traditions.
Rawad earned two MA degrees in Arabic from the University of Texas at Austin (2017) and the University of California, Los Angeles (2013). He was awarded a fellowship for the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (2014) in Amman, Jordan. Rawad received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship Dissertation Abroad Request (2021), Janet Lee Stevens Award in Arabic and Islamic Studies (2020), and was named a Mellon Graduate Fellow (2019). He was also nominated for the Texas Foreign Language Teaching Excellence Award (2017).
His translations of Arabic poetry and literature appear in publications by the Paris Review (forthcoming), Two Lines Press, DoubleSpeak, Words Without Borders, and Inventory.
In Progress Ph.D., Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania
Defense: May 2024
Dissertation: “The Structure of Feeling at the Threshold of Islam: The Mukhaḍram in Arabic Poetry”
Advisor: Huda J. Fakhreddine|Committee: Joseph E. Lowry, Rita Copeland, Donovan Schaefer
2017 M.A., Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Thesis: “Fever Dreams: Narrative (De)structuring in Arabic Literature”
2014-2015 Fellow, Center for Arabic Study Abroad in Amman, Jordan
2013 B.A./M.A., Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
Summa Cum Laude
University of Pennsylvania
2022: Modern Middle East Literature in Translation, Arabic Professor
2021: Introduction to Folklore, TA
2020: Jewish Folklore, TA
2020: Modern Middle East Literature in Translation, Instructor of Record
2019: Modern Arabic Literature: Arab Women & War, TA
2019: Modern Middle East Literature in Translation, TA
2018: Modern Hebrew Literature & Culture in Translation, TA
American University of Beirut, CAMES Summer Arabic Program
2018: Intermediate Arabic, Instructor
2017: Beginning Arabic, Instructor
University of Texas at Austin
2017: Intensive Arabic II (beginning), Graduate Student Instructor
2016: Intensive Arabic I (beginning), TA, shared teaching and grading duties
2016: Intensive Arabic VI (advanced), TA, shared teaching and grading duties for two sections
2015: Intensive Arabic I (beginning), TA, shared teaching and grading duties
2014: Intensive Arabic II (beginning), TA, shared teaching and grading duties
2013: Intensive Arabic I (beginning), TA, shared teaching and grading duties
Sijal Institute for Arabic Language and Culture in Amman
2016: Beginning Arabic, Instructor and Assistant Academic Director
University of Texas at Austin Arabic Summer Institute
2015: Intensive Arabic IV (intermediate), Instructor, shared teaching and grading duties
Translations:
Forthcoming: Interview with Adonis and Huda Fakhreddine, in The Paris Review.
2020: Selections from "One Last Selfie with a Dying World" by Samer Abu Hawwash, in Home: New Arabic Poems, San Francisco: Two Lines Press.
2019: “In the South” and “Simple Speech” by Khalīl Ḥāwī, DoubleSpeak, UPenn.
2019: “Repentance” by Abdulaziz al-Omairi, Words Without Borders.
2012: “The Tale of the Eagle” by ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Madanī, Inventory, Princeton.