Faculty | Arabic Studies - University of Oregon

Abdulrahman Eissa

Abdulrahman Eissa received his MA in 2010 from Westminster University in London, UK in International Liaison & Multicultural Communications. He has taught Modern Standard and Egyptian Arabic at the University of Oregon and Portland State University since 2018. He has been a certified interpreter and translator in the UK and USA since 1980.

Email: aeissa@uoregon.edu

Hanan Elsherif, PhD, Arabic Coordinator

Hanan Elsherif received her PhD in 2009 from Minia University. Her research critically analyzes the media coverage of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. She co-edited the translated, “Culturalization: A comparative literary criticism study of T.S. Eliot and S. Abdulsabour’s poetry” published by General Egyptian Book Organization in 2004. Her research interests include Critical Discourse Analysis, Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL)/Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL), and translation and interpretation. She taught Arabic at the University of Utah from 2005-2007 and Texas A&M from 2007-2009. She was also a TESL instructor in Egypt for over ten years.

Email: hahmad@uoregon.edu

Phone: 541-346-4980

Office Address: 338 SC

Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:15pm-3:15pm

Kesma Elzanaty, BA, Fulbright Language and Teaching Assistant

Kesma has a BA degree in English language and literature from Ain Shams university, Cairo, Egypt.

After graduation, she dedicated her life to teaching the English language. She began as an ESL teacher to adults seeking improvement in their language; she then became a teacher in international schools in Egypt following American curricula and system. Kesma writes: “My passion is not limited to teaching English as a second language; I also take pride in my native language, Arabic, and I am fascinated with Arabic culture and history. I also loves singing and doing sports!”

Email: TBA

Office Address: TBA

Office Hours: TBA

Amira Ghazy, MA Student in Second Language Acquisition in Linguistics

Amira Ghazy has a BA degree in English language arts and education.from Alexandria University, Egypt. Ms. Ghazy has been teaching English as a second language in the Middle East for 7 years. She worked with IGCSE system, American diploma, and national system of higher education in Egypt. Her academic interests entail comparative literature, educational policies and SLA research of higher education, applied linguistics, language and society. In 2022-2023, Ghazy was a Fulbright language teaching assistant at the University of Oregon, where she pursued her passion for teaching her native language, Arabic. “In teaching, I find another form of expression,” Ghazy says. Currently, Ghazy is conducting her research in teaching Arabic as a second language (TAFL).

MA in Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching Studies (expected degree Spring, 2024)

BA of Language Arts and Education, 2016, Alexandria University, Egypt.

Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, UO 2022-2023

Email: aghazy@uoregon.edu

David Hollenberg, PhD, Director

David Hollenberg is Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature in the Department of Religious Studies. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006. Professor Hollenberg has taught Modern Standard Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the College of New Jersey and has administered Arabic programs for the Critical Languages Scholarship Program (CLS) in Yemen and James Madison University’s overseas program in Jordan. He has studied Arabic and conducted research in Cairo, Sanaa, Amman, and Rabat.

At the University of Oregon, Professor Hollenberg teaches advanced Arabic text courses. The goal of his courses is for students to increase their facility with Arabic grammar and syntax to prepare them to continue to improve their Arabic independently in professional or academic settings in the Arab world after graduating from UO.