Gender and Sexuality Studies

Biography

Miral Mahgoub al-Tahawy is an associate professor of Modern Arabic literature, an award-winning Egyptian novelist and short story writer, and an affiliated member of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Mahgoub al-Tahawy was a Fulbright International Scholar at Columbia University, and was awarded a two-year postdoctoral research and teaching fellowship at New York University (NYU). She was also an international visiting scholar in the Department of Foreign Languages, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC; the Middlebury College Intensive Language Program, Middlebury VT; the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA; and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures (MESALC), University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. She earned her doctorate from Cairo University in Arabic language and literature.

Her professional contributions include four academic books published in Arabic, nine refereed articles published in international peer-reviewed journals. She also has published nine refereed book chapters in English.

Her focus is Contemporary Arabic literature on two distinct and related themes:

Desert narrative in the context of social tribal taboos. This focus includes traditional nomadic Arab culture and marginalized voices, and the Indigenous Literature; ethnic minorities, including marginalized Arab groups such as the Bedouins and the Tuareg.
 
Modern Arab women’s writing, exploring Arab Women’s Writing, Female body and sexuality within the contexts of social restriction, gender segregation ,Diaspora, Migration, Exile and Gender Identity in contemporary Arabic literature.

As a literary figure, Mahgoub al-Tahawy was named “One of the Most Influential Writers of the Oriental World” and "One of most powerful Middle Eastern writers" by Forbes magazine in 2014.

Mahgoub al-Tahawy has written four award-winning novels, each of which has garnered national and international recognition. Most are now taught around the world as part of standard curricula in Arabic literature in translation. Her literary work has now been translated into more than 15 languages.