The Faculty

Full-Time Faculty

Alexander Elinson
Office: 1304 Hunter West
Phone: (212) 772-5044
E-mail: aelinson@hunter.cuny.edu
Elinson Publications

Alexander Elinson, Associate Professor of Arabic and Head of the Arabic Program. He received his M.A. (1998) from the University of Washington in Seattle and his Ph.D. (2004) from Columbia University. He is the author of Looking Back at al-Andalus: the poetics of loss and nostalgia in medieval Arabic and Hebrew Literature as well as articles, reviews and translations on the Arabic and Hebrew strophic poem (zajal and muwashshah), rhymed prose narrative (maqama), and modern Arabic poetry and narrative in numerous peer-reviewed journals. His translations include A Beautiful White Cat Walks with Me and A Shimmering Red Fish Swims with Me by Youssef Fadel, Hot Maroc by Yassin Adnan, and History of Ash by Khadija Marouazi.

Christopher Stone
Office: 1303 Hunter West
E-mail: cst@hunter.cuny.edu
Stone Publications

Christopher Stone is Associate Professor of Arabic. He received his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2002) in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University where he specialized in Arabic language, literature and culture. His dissertation received the Malcolm Kerr Dissertation Award for the Humanities from the Middle East Studies Association in 2003, and the book based on it -- Popular Culture and Nationalism in Lebanon: Fairouz and the Rahbani Nation -- was a Middle East Report Editor's Pick. In the spring of 2008 he was a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt where he started his current project on Egyptian popular culture, a project he continued as an NEH Fellow at the American Research Center in Egypt in 2013. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of The International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES).

Part-Time Faculty

Hager Abouelkhair
Office: 1430 Hunter West
E-mail: habouelk@hunter.cuny.edu·

Hager Abouelkhair is an adjunct lecturer of Arabic at Hunter College. Over the course of thirteen years, she has taught and developed curricula for beginner, intermediate and advanced Arabic as well as Arab civilization classes. She has taught both heritage and non-heritage speakers of Arabic at various CUNY colleges. Hager has an MA in International Affairs from Brooklyn College, CUNY with concentration in media and politics in the Middle East. She received her first BA in Literature from Cairo University and a second degree from Hunter College, where she majored in media studies and minored in English.

Deeadra Brown

Deeadra Brown
Office: 1430 Hunter West
Email: dbrown2@ccny.cuny.edu

Deeadra Brown is an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at City College in literature and writing. She has taught Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, and Arab-American literature classes. She has extensive experience teaching writing intensive courses in specialized areas such as the sciences and social sciences and has an MFA in creative writing from City College, CUNY. Her photos, poetry, and book and film reviews have appeared in journals and publications.

Tony Alkhoury
Office: 1430 Hunter West
E-mail:

Tony Alkhoury, originally from Homs, Syria, spent a decade as a Clinical Assistant Professor in Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacist in Syria before moving to the U.S. to change career and follow his passion in theology. He completed his MDiv at Harvard University, where he taught Arabic and won the Excellence in Teaching award twice. He was also one of six recipients of the distinguished Hopkins Shareholder Award, recognizing his outstanding ministerial potential. He is currently working on his PhD in practical theology at UTS, an independent seminary affiliated with Columbia University.
Tony's research focuses on a "practical theology of uncertainty and paradox," exploring the biblical concept of knowing and unknowing and its implications for education. This approach integrates the experiences of the Syrian people, especially during the Syrian war.

Mayada Ibrahim
Office: 1430 Hunter West
E-mail:

Mayada Ibrahim (she/her) is an adjunct lecturer of Arabic at Hunter College. She received her BA in Comparative Literature from Queen Mary, University of London. She is a literary translator working between Arabic and English. Her translations were published by Foundry Edition, Dolce Stil Criollo, and 128 Lit. She is also the managing editor at Tilted Axis Press, a UK-based independent press of contemporary literature in translation.

Aliaa Dawoud
Office: 1430 Hunter West
E-mail:Aliaa.Dawoud@Hunter.cuny.edu

Professor Dawoud is an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Arabic Program at Hunter College and the Media Culture Department at the College of Staten Island. She is a holder of a PhD from the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster and a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from The CUNY Graduate Center. Her main research interests are the Egyptian state and the media as well as Islamophobia in America.

Irene Siegel
Office: 1430 Hunter West
Email: is2582@hunter.cuny.edu

Kate Wilson
Office: 1430 Hunter West
Email: KWilson55@fordham.edu

Adjunct Assistant Professor Wilson, a native New Yorker, was educated in New York public grade schools, Swarthmore College (BA Philosophy / Sociology-Anthropology). After working as a playwright and theatre artist (MFA Brooklyn College), she earned her Ph.D. (CUNY Graduate Center), starting long-term study of Arabic culture, with special interest in drama, as well as dance and clothing. Besides Hunter, she's taught in LaGuardia Community College, CCNY, Adelphi University, Montclair University, and Fordham University.