FACULTY AND STAFF

Faculty & Staff

Roula

Roula Abousaleh
Undergraduate Flagship Program Coordinator
Office: 2105 Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-4742
rabousal@umd.edu

Roula Abousaleh has a B.A. in Public Administration from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Previous experience includes teaching at College de la Sagesse in Beirut, and managing the treasury bonds department in the Financial Company of Lebanon. She was a Language Partner for the Post BA Arabic Flagship Program since 2006 and in September 2008 she became the Undergraduate Coordinator at the Arabic Flagship Program.

Abdulmonam

Abdulmonam Alikaj
Lecturer of Arabic
Office: 2108A Susquehanna
Tel: 301-405-1606
aalikaj@umd.edu

Abdulmonam Alikaj is a Syrian-American citizen and holds a BA in Arabic from Aleppo University in Syria; MA in Foreign Languages from West Virginia University; and an ABD in Arabic from Georgetown University. He taught Arabic at Aleppo University, West Virginia University, American Open University, Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, Northern Virginia Community College and University of Maryland.

Saleh

Saleh Alnusairat
Lecturer of Arabic
Office: 2108D Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-9269
salnusai@umd.edu

Dr. Saleh Alnusairat graduated from the University of Jordan majoring in Arabic language and literature. He did his graduate studies in Applied Linguistics at SUNY Stony Brook and Virginia Tech. Dr. Saleh taught at the University of Jordan, Zayed University in UAE, king Saud University in Riyadh and IIASA in Fairfax, VA. He trained teachers in South Africa, Jordan, UAE, USA and Qatar. He published books and papers on issues related to Arabic and the Middle East.

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Valerie Anishchenkova
Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature and Culture
Office: 3202 Jimenez Hall
Tel: 301-405-7620
vani@umd.edu

Valerie Anishchenkova received an MA with Honors from the State University of St Petersburg (Russia) in Oriental and African Studies, and MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
She taught Arabic language and literature/culture classes at the University of Michigan, Middlebury Summer School, and Tufts University. Her pedagogical experience includes Arabic language curricular development, as well as creating culture courses such as "Narrating War Zones: Cinematic and Literary Gulf and Chechen War Representations," "Sexuality and Gender in Arabic Literature and Film," "Fascinating Monsters: Representing Arabs in American Pop Culture vs. Americans in Arab Pop Culture."
Her research area focuses on identity studies, modern Arabic literature and film, cultural discourses on war, and sexuality studies. She is currently working on her book project Selves That Matter: Autobiographical Identities in Arab Literature and Film.

Bouchra

Bouchra Araji
Lecturer of Arabic
Office: 2101A Susquehanna
Tel: 301-405-2347
baraji@umd.edu

Bouchra Araji has taught Arabic at Berlitz International Inc in Rockville, using the direct method of total immersion in teaching a foreign language. She joined the Arabic program at UMD in Spring of 2008. Bouchra received her B.A. in Political Science from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) in 1996 and her MBA from the University of Nantes (France) in 1998. Previously, she has worked with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Economy and Trade and the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Arabic and English, Bouchra also speaks French, German and some Bulgarian.

Meryem Cherrouk

Meryem Cherrouk
Lecturer of Arabic
Office: 2101B Susquehanna
Tel: 301-405-2367
mcherrou@umd.edu

Meryem Cherrouk was born in Casablanca, Morocco. She is a speaker of various dialects including Egyptian and Moroccan. She also speaks French and Spanish. Ms. Cherrouk received her B.A in Arts and Visual Technologies from George Mason University in Virginia. She has previously taught total immersion and semi private programs in Modern Standard Arabic and French at Berlitz International Inc in Washington D.C where she acquired total training of the Berlitz teaching method which presents language in context of real-life situations, with extra targeted practice of grammar and vocabulary. She has been teaching at the University of Maryland since 2006.

Alaa

Alaa Elgibali
Professor of Arabic and Linguistics
Director of Arabic Programs
Director Arabic Language Flagship Programs
Office: 3121 JMZ Hall
Tel: 301-405-4037
elgibali@umd.edu

Professor of Arabic and Linguistics and Director of the University of Maryland Undergraduate and Flagship Programs. Received an M.A. in TAFL from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and a doctorate in general linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh. He taught at SAIS of Johns Hopkins, UC-Berkeley, Kuwait University, Ain-Shams University, AUC, the American University of Beirut and the University of Maryland at College Park. Elgibali is the author of several seminal publications, including Arabic as a first language: A study in language acquisition and development in 2003. He has also edited a number of important volumes including Understanding Arabic (1996) and Investigating Arabic (2004) and is the associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Elgibali served as executive director of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), director of the TAFL program at AUC and acting director of the Arabic Language Institute and co-director of CASA. Current research agenda include K-12 Arabic, Advanced language proficiency, and the development of Standards for acquisition and testing.

Dina

Dina El-Hefnawy
Lecturer of Arabic
Office: 2101E Susquehanna
Tel: 301-405-3015
hefnawy@umd.edu

Dina El-Hefnawy received her B.A in English Literature and Language from the English Department at the Faculty of Arts at Alexandria University in Egypt. She received a M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the American University in Cairo. She immigrated to the US in 1985. From 1989 until 1999 Dina taught Arabic at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Dina has been teaching Arabic at the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at UMD since January 2004. Dina has been teaching English and Arabic in Egypt, UAE and the US over the last 20 years. She now focuses on teaching Arabic as a foreign language. She encourages her students to communicate with each other in Arabic both inside and outside of class for extra practice.

Inas

Inas Hassan
Lecturer of Arabic
Language House Liaison
Office: 2101E Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-2280
ihassan@umd.edu

Dr. Inas Hassan, lecturer of Arabic, earned an MA (1997), and a PhD (2003) in Arabic language and Arabic linguistics from Alexandria University, Egypt. Previous to her appointment at UMD, She has taught Arabic language at Montgomery College, Dickinson College, central Pennsylvania Community College where she established new Arabic credit and non-credit program, TAFL (Teaching Arabic as a second language) institute, and Alexandria University. She has more than fifteen years of experience in teaching Arabic as a second language and as academic study with new and different techniques. Her learning and teaching in the foreign language classrooms have provided her with the motivation to start working in her proposed research; "Alphabet Arabic language". In this research, she is trying to facilitate the most difficult points of Arabic by relating it to the learner's native language, using narratives of classroom successes and failures as the bases for essential reflection on modern linguistics theory.

Ridha

Ridha Krizi
Graduate Flagship Program Coordinator
Office: 2105 Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-7492
rkrizi@umd.edu

Ridha Krizi has a B.A. in Linguistics from University of Tunis, in 1986. He taught English and French at University of Valencia, Spain. Previous experience includes Press Analysis, News editor and broadcaster and Translation. In June 2005, he became a Coordinator at the Arabic Flagship Program. Ridha is specialized in teaching Media and Listening Strategies.

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Hoda Makar
Recruiting & Outreach
Language Flagship Programs - Arabic & Persian
Office: 2110 Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-1086
hoda@umd.edu

Hoda has a B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University, with a concentration in French, and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, where she also completed Ph.D. coursework. Raised in the Middle East, Hoda has lived and spent time in Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Cyprus and England. Hoda has worked with international scholarship students at the Embassy of Kuwait, and has recruited international students for Carnegie Mellon University's Public Policy School. At the University of Maryland, Hoda served as Associate Director of the College Park Scholars International Studies program and as Associate Director of the Global Communities program. She has served on the advisory board of the Project on Religion, Culture, and Globalization and is current president of the Washington area Global Nomads group (GNWA).

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Nick Seetin
Graduate Assistant, Language Flagship Programs, Arabic and Persian
Office: 2110 Susquehanna Hall
Tel: 301-405-5748
nseetin@umd.edu

Nicholas is a graduate assistant for the Language Flagship programs in Arabic and Persian. He has a B.A. in History from Randolph-Macon College and is a graduate student in the History Department studying ancient Mediterranean history. He is also highly interested in archaeology, and has been fortunate to excavate at sites both in North America (Jamestown, VA) and abroad (the Athenian Agora in Greece). His current area of research is ancient cult and worship, specifically the spread of Persian and Egyptian mystery cults in the Roman Empire.