Call for Papers: “Travel Accounts in Arabic Literature: New Perspectives and New Findings”

Middle Eastern travelers have a rich history in writing about their interactions with other cultures. The authors, many of whom are Arabs, documented their encounters using various genres and forms, such as travel accounts, memoirs, and autobiographical histories.

This panel, to be proposed for the  Middle East Association Studies Annual Conference, (November 22-25, 2014 – Washington, DC) seeks papers that will shed new light on those texts, especially on papers that examine:
•     New archival findings.
•    Examination of less known travel accounts.
•    The circumstances of disseminating (copying, circulating or publishing) travel accounts.
•    The implications of patronage and authors’ agency.
While the focus of this panel is on Middle Easterners who write (or wrote) in Arabic, papers that examine texts written in other languages (e.g. Arab-Ottoman, Arab-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Aljamiado, etc) are welcome. Comparative papers are also welcome.
Please e-mail your name, e-mail, academic affiliation and a 300-400 word abstract by Friday Jan 31, 2014 to: Suha Kudsieh [kudsieh@gmail.com].