ABU DHABI, 21st May, 2022 (WAM) — The 31st edition of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF), organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), is set to host prominent Arab and international cultural and academic figures who have contributed to human knowledge with work in the fields of literature, language, thought leadership and cultural studies.
British Professor Dr Roger Allen, Professor of Arabic Language and Comparative Literature at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations at the University of Pennsylvania, will be one of the notable experts participating in the upcoming edition of the fair, which will take place from 23 to 29 May, 2022, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Dr Allen is known for his contributions in the field of translation, introducing Western readers to the works of Arab writers such as Naguib Mahfouz, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Abd Al Rahman Munif, Youssef Idris, and other Arab literary figures.
Also joining ADIBF 2022 will be Professor Muhsin J. Al Musawi, Dr. Muhsin J. Al-Musawi (Iraq/USA), a Professor of classical and modern Arabic literature, comparative and cultural studies at Columbia University, New York. A renowned scholar and literary critic, who has enriched Arabic literature with works such as ‘The Arabic Novel: Rise and Transformation’; ‘The Age of The Novel’; ‘Tharat Shahrazad: The Art of Modern Arab Narrative’; ‘Orientalism in Arab Thought’; ‘The Arab Novel After Mahfouz’, and many others.
Fair-goers will also be introduced to the achievements of Professor Homi K Bhabha the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of Humanities, Department of English, and Director of the Humanities Centre, at Harvard University. Prof. Bhabha is the Founding Director of the Mahindra Centre for the Humanities at Harvard and Senior Advisor to the President and Provost of Harvard University. He worked as a professor of the Humanities in the English Department and Comparative Literature Department at Harvard University. His works include ‘The Location of Culture’ which was reprinted as one of the most prominent classics in the field, and ‘Nation and Narration’, in addition to scholarly articles in the fields of post-colonial studies and cultural theory, cultural migration, globalisation and human rights.
The exhibition will also host Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University. She is a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Prof. Spivak is a leading global figure on feminist issues, language, and development. Spivak is best known for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida’s De la grammatologie, (1976), ‘In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics’ (1987), and others.