Biography

Rana Issa moved back to Beirut at the beginning of 2017 to join the American University of Beirut as Assistant Professor of Translation Studies. Her research interests include 19th century Arabic literature, translation studies and philology. She is writing a book about the modern Arabic translation of the Bible in Al Nahda period and has also written articles on Syrian exile, Ahmad Faris Shidyaq, the concept of jihad in Palestinian nahda poetry and transformations in the Arabic lexicon of the 19th century. She co-founded SPACE-org.no, an organisation that has shaped public discourse on Syria in Norway. She translates between three languages (Arabic, English and Norwegian) while struggling to raise her two children as fluent speakers of Arabic in a city that no longer nurtures its native tongue.

This person was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.