Rachel Norman
Rachel Norman Associate Professor; Director of Writing
TJ Day Hall 314
Rachel Norman specializes in Middle Eastern diasporic studies and North American literary and cultural studies. Her teaching and research interests include multiethnic American literature, Middle Eastern literature, contemporary literature, comics and graphic novels, queer studies, and disability studies.
In her current book project, Dr. Norman examines the role of language and disability in multilingual texts from the Arab diaspora in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Previously, she taught at the University of North Carolina and the University of Seville in Spain and served on the editorial teams for the International Journal of Middle East Studies and Mashriq & Mahjar. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Arab American Studies Association.
Education
- B.A., English and Spanish, Linfield College
- Ph.D., comparative literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Academic interests
Rachel's research focuses on multilingualism in Arab diasporic literature in Canada, Mexico and the United States, as well as multiethnic global and American literature, contemporary literature and sociolinguistics.
Publications
2025 "Decentering the United States in Arab American Studies." Reimagining the Field of Arab American Studies, ed. Waleed F. Mahdi and Danielle Haque. Forthcoming.
2023 “There are so many ways to tell a story: An interview with Carlos Martínez Assad.” Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies. 10.1. Pp. 171-178.
2022 “Approaching an Untamed Poetry: Arab North American Poetry in the Classroom.” Teaching Approaches to Asian North American Literature, eds. Jennifer Ho and Jenny Wills. Modern Languages Association Press. Pp. 27-35.
2021 “The Violent Fecundity of Mohja Kahf’s Translingual Texts.” American Quarterly 73.3. Pp. 693-705.
2018 “Eating the Matriarch: Locating Identity in the Arab American Female Body.” Amerasia 44.1. Pp. 128-144.
2016 “‘A Bastard Jargon’: Language Politics and Identity in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” South Atlantic Review 81.1. Pp. 34-50.
2016 “Arab Muslim Women’s Fiction.” Women, Gender and Women’s Fiction: The Americas. The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, Supplement 14, ed. Suad Joseph. Brill Online.
2015 “Building Bilingualism in Community: A Case Study of ISLA’s First Year as a Spanish Heritage Language Program.” Raising Children Bilingually in the United States, ed. Iulia Pittman. Cambridge Scholars Press. Co-authored with Aerin Benavides.