Al-Diwan brings you the latest news and analysis from the publishing and academic worlds that relate to pedagogy and knowledge production.

Publishing

International Prize for Arabic Fiction Writers Workshop Opens in Abu Dhabi Desert
By Porter Anderson (Publishing Perspectives)

Six participants from across the Middle East and North Africa gathered together in Abu Dhabi for the ninth writers’ workshop with the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Two mentors joined the participants for daily meetings and editing sessions. 

Mourid Barghouti on Poetry, ‘An Editing Life’
By Norbert Hirschhorn (Arab Lit)

Following the presentation of the Naguib Mahfouz literary prize this year, Mourid Barghouti gave a presentation and discussion about poetics at the School of Oriental and African Studies. The discussion floated between exploring the process of poetic creation to Barghouti’s view on translating his works to Hebrew.
 

What a war of words says about foreign wars and the language of the other
By Faisal Al Yafai (The National)

Literary Hub’s recent piece on The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah, sparked conversation about writing on the Middle East and especially the role of literary magazines in their presentation of literature that supposedly represents the region. Prominent writers, such as Randa Jarrar and Marcia Lynx Qualey, quickly responded to Literary Hub’s feature and admonished the magazine for their “tokenism, fetishizing and erasing [of] the real experience of millions of Arabs.”

The Life Cycle of a Book
By Elisha Cooper (Publishers Weekly)

Elisha Cooper mulls over the process of creating a book – from grasping its central concept to the storyboarding process to the editing and submission stages. It is a process that Cooper does not completely understand, but enjoys going through.

Education 

How Spaces Designed for Learning Can Change Teaching
By Dan Berrett and Beckie Supiano (Chronicle of Higher Education) 

Taking a closer look at the new trend of making modern and collaborative classrooms; Dan Berrett and Beckie Supiano gather input from instructors and professors as to how this shift has positively or negatively impacted their teaching.
 

Students’ Lack of Political Engagement is Cause for Concern, Author Says
By Ammar Faris (Al-Fanar)

According to Hussein Al-Amoush, Jordanian university students’ political awareness and activity is on the decline. Al-Amoush is a professor at the Hashemite University, and his new book touches upon the impact such a decline in political awareness has on education and society.

We don’t see women as leaders—and it’s holding them back in our universities
By Sabrina Spangsdorf (The Guardian)

When it comes to academia, the glass ceiling may not be the correct metaphor to use. Rather, the “glass slipper effect,” according to Sabrina Spangsdorf, is more accurate. Understanding how job descriptions use and “emphasize masculine traits…can make women believe that they will not fit into the job role,” thereby limiting the applicant pool.
 

The Changing Landscape of Student Protest in Higher Education
By Taylor Hosking (The Atlantic)

In a time where undergraduate students lead the organizing on college campuses, graduate students became the prominent force opposing the GOP tax bill. Angus Johnston, a professor of history at City University of New York, claims that the connections built during these protest have “heightened awareness to the specific threat to students represented by the current regime in Washington.”