Rachid Aadnani Senior Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies, Wellesley College
In addition to teaching the Arabic language, I also teach a 300 level seminar on themes of Resistance and Dissent in North Africa and the Middle East. I also teach a survey course on Arabic literature in translation. For the last two years I have served on the advisory board of the Comparative Literature Program.
My research interests focus on the intersection of language and power/politics with a special focus on contemporary cultural and linguistic issues in North Africa and the Middle East. My Ph.D. research focused on translation theory and the ways in which language can be used as both a tool and medium of resistance in the work of Maghrebi writers Mohammed Khair-Eddine (writing in French), Assia Djebar (writing in French), and Mohammed Choukri (writing in Arabic). My own linguistic background and background in linguistics has largely shaped my academic interests. I grew up speaking both Tamazight (at home and with family) and Moroccan Arabic (with my friends and classmates), and French since the age of seven. English came into the picture much later (last three years of high school), followed by a few years of Russian and Spanish. Some of my graduate research on issues of language and dissidence is published in articles such as "Resistance as a Linguistic Practice in Mohammed Khair-Eddine's Légende et Vie d'Agoun'chich" (Race, Gender & Class, 2001) and "Beyond Raï: North African Protest Music and Poetry" (World Literature Today, 2006). My current research is centered around writers who are exploring/creating new forms of writing that challenge the restrictive and confining existing literary cannons in the Maghreb. Along with my continuing research on the literatures of the Maghreb, I am also working on a project on protest music/poetry in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
While in graduate school I started exploring the world of photography and have contributed photographs to print and online publications both in the United States and my native Morocco. I am currently working on a photography exhibition to be hosted by the MIT libraries in Fall 2019.
Audio recording: Interview with Teach Mideast on The Varying Forms of Arabic
