Nadine Adel Sinno

Nadine Adel Sinno, Associate Professor of Arabic

_{Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

306 Major Williams Hall

220 Stanger Street

Blacksburg, VA 24061

540-231-5361 | nadine7@vt.edu}

Nadine A. Sinno is an associate professor of Arabic and director of the Arabic program in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech. Her research interests include modern Arabic and Arab-American literature and cultural studies, particularly focusing on gender and sexuality, Arab/Muslim feminism, ecocriticism, and visual culture.

Sinno’s scholarly work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Arabic Literature, the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Middle East Critique, Middle Eastern Literatures, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, College Literature, and ASAP/Journal. Her publications also include a literary translation of Nazik Saba Yared’s novel Canceled Memories (2009) and a co-translation of Rashid al-Daif’s novel Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep? (2014) from Arabic to English.

Currently, Sinno teaches courses including Arabic (at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels), Arabic for oral proficiency (spoken dialect), Media Arabic, Arabic literature in translation, and undergraduate research. Her professional experience also includes teacher-training, literary translation, interpretation, and teaching English as a second language.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Modern Arabic literature and cultural studies
Arab women’s contemporary war diaries
Arab/Muslim feminisms
Arab-American literature
Literary translation
Gender and Sexuality
Visual Culture

Education

PhD, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Arkansas
MFA, Literary Translation, University of Arkansas
MA, English Literature, American University of Beirut
BA, English Literature, American University of Beirut

Professional Roles

Program director, Arabic
Advisor, Arabic Major and Minor
Faculty advisor, Arabic Student Club (at VT)

Awards and Honors

Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching. Virginia Tech (2019)
Favorite Faculty Award. Virginia Tech (2019)
Certificate of Teaching Excellence. Virginia Tech (2018)
Scholar of the Week. The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Virginia Tech. (August 2015)
Teacher of the Week. The Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research. Virginia Tech. (November 2015)

Publications

Books

Al-Daif, Rashid. Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep? Trans. Paula Haydar and Nadine Sinno. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014. 112.

Yared, Nazik Saba. Canceled Memories. Trans. Nadine Sinno. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2009. 151.

Haydar, Adnan, Paula Haydar, and Nadine Sinno. Haki bil-Libnani: Lebanese Arabic Online Textbook and Companion Website to Al-Kitaab Part One. 3rd ed. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2014. http://www.alkitaabtextbook.com/books/.

Journal Articles

“Caught in the Crosshairs: Confronting Compulsory Unveiling in Faiza Ambah’s Mariam.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2020) 16 (1): 1–18.

“‘May the War be Remembered but Not Repeated’: Engendering Peace in Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now?” College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies 44.4 (2017): 615-43.

“‘Dammit, Jim, I’m a Muslim Woman, not a Klingon!’: Mediating the Immigrant Body in Mohja Kahf’s Poetry.” Multiethnic Literature of the United States 42.1 (2017): 116-38.

“A War of Colors: Beirut Street Art and the Reclamation of Public Space.” Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present 2.1 (2017): 71-104.

“Crushing the Bones of the Other: Disability, Ethnicity, and Homosexuality in Rashid al-Daif’s Sikirida’s Cat and Alexandra Chreiteh’s Ali and his Russian Mother.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 58.3 (2017): 258-75.

“Milk and Honey, Tabbūleh, and Coke: Orientalist, Local, and Global Discourses in Alexandra Chreiteh’s Dayman Coca-Cola.” Middle Eastern Literatures 18.2 (2015): 122-43.

“Five Troops for Every Tree: Lamenting Green Carnage in Arab Women’s War Diaries.” Arab Studies Quarterly36.2 (2014): 107-27.

“Family Sagas and Checkpoint Dramas: Tragedy, Humor, and Family Dynamics in Suad Amiry’s Sharon and my Mother-in-Law.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 9.1 (2013): 30-53.

“The Greening of Modern Arabic Literature: An Ecological Interpretation of Two Contemporary Arabic Novels.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment 20.1 (2013): 125-43.

“From Confinement to Creativity: Women’s Reconfiguration of the Prison and Mental Asylum in Salwa Bakr’s The Golden Chariot and Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt.” Journal of Arabic Literature 42.1 (2011): 67-94

Book Chapters

“Empowered Muslim Mothering: Navigating War, Border-Crossing, and Activism in El-Haddad’s Gaza Mom.” InMuslim Mothering: Local and Global Histories, Theories, and Practices. Eds. Aziza Pappano and Dana M. Olwan. Bradford, ON: Demeter Press, 2016. 21-51.

“Lebanese War Diaries in the Digital Age: Blogging about the Home Front during Times of Violence.” The Middle East in the World: An Introduction. Ed. Lucia Volk. London: Routledge, 2015. 293-308.

“Navigating Linguistic Imperialism, Cultural Hybridity, and Language Pedagogy.” Global English and Arabic: Issues of Language, Culture, and Identity. Ed. Ahmad Al-Issa and Laila Dahan. Oxford: Peter Lang Publishers, 2011. 335-54.

“Deconstructing the Myth of Liberation @ riverbendblog.com: Baghdad Burning and the Politics of Resistance.” Feminism and War: Confronting U.S. Imperialism. Ed. Robin L. Riley, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Minnie Bruce Pratt. London: Zed Press, 2008. 131-42.

“The Power of Place and Space: (Re)Constructing Identity and Selfhood in Ahdaf Soueif's Eye of the Sun.” Representing Minorities: Studies in Literature and Criticism. Ed. Larbi Touaf and Soumia Bouthkil. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006. 194-206.

Encyclopedia Articles

“‘Awdat al-Almani ilā Rushdih (2006; Rashid al-Daif): Representations of homosexuality and the narrator’s struggles with shifting notions of gender and sexuality in this novelized biography.” Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History. Ed. Howard Chiang. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019. 177-181.

“Jannāt wa-Iblīs (1992; Nawal El Saadawi): Depiction of lesbianism and female subversiveness in this modern Arabic novel.” Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History. Ed. Howard Chiang. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019. 858-863.

“Misk al-Ghazāl (1988; Hanan al-Shaykh): Portrayal of female homosexuality in this modern Arabic novel and the critical reception of its English translation, Women of Sand and Myrrh (1989).” Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History. Ed. Howard Chiang. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019. 1072-1076.

Creative Writing

“Drowning by Chocolate.” Sukoon: Arab-themed Art and Literature. 5.2 (2018): 41-42.

“You have your War, and I have Mine.” Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America 13.2 (2012): 37-38.

“The Home Front.” Mizna: Prose, Poetry and Art Exploring Arab America 10 (2008): 69-71.

Book Reviews

Review of Maasri, Zeina, Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008. H-Levant, H-Net Reviews. May 2016.

Review of Harem Histories: Envisioning Places and Living Spaces. Ed. Marilyn Booth. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 41.1 (2011): 116-19.