Who Defines Me: Negotiating Identity in Language and Literature is a collection of insightful articles that represent an interdisciplinary study of identity. The articles start from the premise that identity is, and always has been, unstable and mutable; which is to say that identity is constructed and deconstructed and reconstructed - only to be deconstructed and reconstructed again, in turn to be deconstructed and reconstructed (and so on ad infinitum). Time and place are variables. So, too - as Who Defines Me underscores - are ethnicity, religion, politics and power, race and color, nationality, gender, culture, language, and socio-economic status. With all of these variables in mind, Who Defines Me focuses on language and literature as the portal through which identity is explored. The overarching rubrics under which the explorations are conducted are Arabs and Muslims, race identity in America, and language identity.
About the Author: Yasser Fouad Selim is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, at Sohag University, Egypt. He is currently seconded to serve as Assistant Professor of English Literature and Chair of the Department of English at Al Buraimi University College, Oman. Dr. Selim received his PhD from Sohag University, Egypt, in joint supervision with the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, between 2005 and 2007. Dr. Selim's research interests include the interaction, clashes, and dialogue between Western and Eastern cultures, and the formation of identity within the contexts of politics, racialization, and ethnicization in America. He has authored various articles published in several refereed journals and books, including a chapter in Positioning the New: Chinese American Literature and the Changing Image of the American Literary Canon.Eid Mohamed is a Research Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Guelph in Canada. He also serves as an Assistant Professor at Al-Azhar University in Egypt, where he is currently on leave. Dr. Mohamed received his doctorate in American Studies from George Washington University, where he specialized in Middle Eastern studies, modern Arab history and culture, and US-Middle East encounters. In 2011, Dr. Mohamed was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the State University of New York in Binghamton, and, in 2012, he was a Visiting Joint Fellow at Brookings Doha Center and Qatar University. Dr. Mohamed's research interests are centered on the significant interplay between religion, pop culture, and politics, and the role they play in shaping the complex relations between America and the nations and peoples of the Middle East.