Episode 48: A Conversation between Dania Idriss and Omar Ramadan

TIA House · Episode 48 A Conversation Between Dania Idriss And Omar Ramadan

Introduction:In this conversation, Dania Idriss and Omar Ramadan talk about the tangled roots of language, translation, and history, how institutional money talks, and about being Muslim Arab creative writers in the academy. They discuss influences and anxieties that factor into their research and writing.

Bios

Dania Idriss is a Lebanese-Canadian author and a doctoral student in the Department of English at the University of Calgary with her writing focusing on global literatures, particularly Arabic speculative fiction. Her work often presents Arab, Muslim women as agents in themselves outside of the harmful Western narratives. Omar Ramadan is a creative writing PhD student at University of Calgary. His research and creative work focus on Arab diaspora literatures. He's particularly interested in systems of power and surveillance, and the impacts of 9/11 on Arab & Muslim communities. He is the managing editor of filling Station magazine.

Show notes

04:15    Being in Academia as Muslim Arab creative writers 07:52    Racism against Arab and Muslim people 08:37    Academia’s lack of nuance, especially in translation work 08:59    "The Passport" by Mahmoud Darwish 09:05    "The Forest" by Mahmoud Darwish, and what happens when the title of the poem is translated as "The Olive Grove" 09:42    On keeping Arabic untranslated while writing 10:28    Dr. Rain Prud'homme-Cranford 10:53    Deema Abushaban, Illustrator 14:47    Indian School Days by Basil Johnston 15:16    On considering audiences’ perceptions 16:32    Tales of Mountains and Sea: Short Stories by Dania Idriss 17:36    Dealing with the white gaze 18:32    The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 (L'Arabe du futur #1) by Riad Sattouf 19:50    On dealing with judgement from family 25:31    “Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and the ‘National Allegory’” by Aijaz Ahmad 28:28    On the expectations to “fill in gaps” 30:43    On "decolonization" and EDI in Academia 31:30    “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang 33:02    The importance of community and community building outside of Academia 39:24    Research Through, With and As Storying by Louise Gwenneth Phillips, Tracey Bunda, Elizabeth Quintero 40:07    On transgenerational and intertextual storytelling as well as subverting expectations 43:36    Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi 45:42    The role of “writer” vs “storyteller” and the tradition of the Hakawati 53:55    Marlon James 56:35    The future of Idriss’s writing practice 56:50    Dr Suzette Mayr 57:47    The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 59:49    What's next for Ramadan TIA House recognizes the generous support of the Canada Research Chairs program and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We also appreciate the support of the Faculty of Arts and the Department of English at the University of Calgary, where our offices are housed, as well as the guidance of Marc Stoeckle at the Taylor Family Digital Library.