Gail Ramsay
Professor in Arabic at Department of Linguistics and Philology
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 10 92
- E-mail:
- gail.ramsay@lingfil.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Engelska parken
Thunbergsvägen 3H - Postal address:
- Box 635
751 26 UPPSALA - Available:
- enl. överenskommelse per epost
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Short presentation
Gail Ramsay is Professor of Arabic and areas of research include Arabic literature and society. Beginning with romantic writing and social criticism in modern Arabic literature, she has published widely on globalisation, cross-cultural writing and literary creativity in the Gulf region and analyzed Al-Jazeera’s debate program al-Ittijāh al-muʿākis (The Opposite Direction). Current research areas are Arabic blogging and ecology and environmental concern in Arabic literature.
Biography
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After Ph.D. studies in Arabic at the University of Michigan, 1990-91 and at Stockholm University 1991-96, Gail Ramsay received a Ph.D. in Arabic from Stockholm University.
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In 1997 she began teaching Arabic language and literature at Uppsala University where she received tenure as a university lecturer in 1998.
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While teaching Arabic at Uppsala and as part of a research team at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in 2004, she conducted a discourse analysis of the debate program al-Ittijāh al-muʿākis (The Opposite Direction) on Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite-television.
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In 2006, her study “Globalisation and Cross-Cultural Writing in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman” was published as part of an an interdisciplinary research project funded by the Swedish Research Council, titled Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective and emanating in four volumes.
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During 2009, she was responsible for the Middle East Program at the Swedish Institute of Foreign Affairs (UI) and represented this institute at the Euro-Mediterranean Architectures roundtable talks of the European and Mediterranean Study Commission-European Institute of the Mediterranean (EuroMesco-IEMED) titled “Towards Convergent or Divergent Evolutions?” in Barcelona this year.
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Together with media professor Kristina Riegert, Stockholm University, she researched the Arabic blogosphere in a research project titled The Nature and Impact of the Arabic Blogosphere: What Kind of Publics?, funded by the Swedish Research Council, 2010-2012.
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Since 2013 Gail Ramsay has continued to conduct research on the Arabic blogosphere in Egypt the results of which will be published in March 2017, in her book Blogs & Literature & Activism: Popular Egyptian blogs and literature in touch.
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Since 2014 a new research interest is ecology and environmental concerns in Arabic literature. Together with Arabic professor Tetz Rooke, Gothenburg University, she is in the process of planning a research project with the preliminary title Arabic Literary Imaginaries in Environmental Humanities.
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Her article titled “Breaking the Silence of Nature in an Arabic Novel: Nazīf al-ḥajar by Ibrāhīm al-Kawnī” (2014, new impression 2016) is a result of Gail Ramsay's ecocritical research.

Publications
Recent publications
Nature and Well-Being in Times of Crisis and Unrest: Iraq and Lebanon
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 1-21, 2022
- DOI for Nature and Well-Being in Times of Crisis and Unrest: Iraq and Lebanon
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Natur och välbefinnande i kris- och orostider, Libanon och Irak
Part of Bortom den arabiska våren, p. 153-176, Dar Al-Muna, 2021
Ecological Literacy in an Egyptian Short Story
Part of Studia Semitica Upsaliensia, 2020
Nature as a road to integration?: A Saudi experience
Part of British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, p. 419-435, 2019
- DOI for Nature as a road to integration?: A Saudi experience
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Wasmiyya stiger upp ur havet: av Layla Al-Uthman
Part of Karavan, p. 62-62, 2019
All publications
Articles in journal
Nature and Well-Being in Times of Crisis and Unrest: Iraq and Lebanon
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 1-21, 2022
- DOI for Nature and Well-Being in Times of Crisis and Unrest: Iraq and Lebanon
- Download full text (pdf) of Nature and Well-Being in Times of Crisis and Unrest: Iraq and Lebanon
Ecological Literacy in an Egyptian Short Story
Part of Studia Semitica Upsaliensia, 2020
Nature as a road to integration?: A Saudi experience
Part of British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, p. 419-435, 2019
- DOI for Nature as a road to integration?: A Saudi experience
- Download full text (pdf) of Nature as a road to integration?: A Saudi experience
Wasmiyya stiger upp ur havet: av Layla Al-Uthman
Part of Karavan, p. 62-62, 2019
Stenblödning: av Ibrahim al-Koni
Part of Karavan, p. 57-58, 2019
I spindelns rum: av Mohammed Abdel Nabi
Part of Karavan, p. 59, 2019
Frihetens lägenhet: av Ghazi Al-Gosaibi
Part of Karavan, p. 55-56, 2019
Activists, Individualists and Comics: The Counter-publicness of Lebanese blogs
Part of Television and New Media, p. 286-303, 2013
What kind of Arabic and why? Language in Egyptian blogs
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 49-87, 2013
Egyptiska bloggare: Del av en tradition och ett uppror
Part of Årsbok/Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala, p. 109-130, 2012
Med bloggen som vapen: närstudie av två egyptiska fall
Part of Internationella studier, p. 55-65, 2009
Part of Edebiyât A journal of Middle Eastern literatures, p. 211-216, 2006
Symbolism and surrealism in literature from Bahrain
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 133-150, 2005
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 133-142, 2004
Styles of expression in women's literature in the Gulf
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 371-390, 2003
Part of Nizwa Magazine, p. 248-253, 2000
Part of Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, p. 59-60, 1997
Kvinnorna har fattat sina pennor utbildning och litteratur vid Piratkusten
Part of Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift, p. 15-22, 1997
Yusuf al-Sibai: Världsberömd i arabvärlden
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 36-42, 1996
Mohammed al-Murr: En författare från Piratkusten
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 13-25, 1996
Man kan inte tacka nej till en arabisk häst
Part of Dagens Nyheter, 1995
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 3-12, 1992
Judehat som exportvara: Är antisemitismen i arabvärlden en exportvara?
Part of Dagens Nyheter, 1992
Nawal El-Saadawi och hennes diktning
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 8-33, 1991
Musa Sardawi: Åtta dikter (svensk översättning)
Part of Tidskriften Mosaik '80, p. 11-16, 1986
Om den egyptiske författaren Ihsaan Abdel Qudduus
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 1-4, 1983
Fem noveller av den egyptiske författaren Ihsaan Abdel Qudduus (svensk översättning)
Part of Orientaliska studier, p. 4-17, 1983
Books
Blogs & Literature & Activism: Popular Egyptian blogs and literature in touch
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017
Chapters in book
Natur och välbefinnande i kris- och orostider, Libanon och Irak
Part of Bortom den arabiska våren, p. 153-176, Dar Al-Muna, 2021
Part of Contemporary Literary Criticism, p. 206-220, Gale Group, 2016
Breaking the silence of nature in an Arabic novel: Nazif al-hajar by Ibrahim al-Kawni
Part of From Tur Abdin to Hadramawt, p. 149-172, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014
Part of Revisioning Red Riding Hood Around the World, Wayne State University Press, 2013
Språket, litteraturens spegel - modern litteratur i Persiska viken
Part of Det sköna med litteraturen, p. 44-60, Svenska Akademien, Norstedts, 2009
Speaking up with Yahoo: an Arabic e-mail novel
Part of The Professorship of Semitic Languages at Uppsala University 400 years, p. 179-190, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2007
Globalisation and cross-cultural writing in the United Arab Emirates and Oman
Part of Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective, p. 241-277, Walter de Gruyter, 2006
The past in the present: Aspects of intertextuality in modern literature in the Gulf
Part of Intertextuality in modern Arabic literature since 1967, p. 161-186, Durham Modern Languages Series, 2006
Women and the making of modern cultural identities in the Gulf
Part of Challenging limitations, Saffron Books, 2005
Från Occident till Orient och tvärtom: En resa i noveller från Persiska viken
Part of Språkets gränser och gränslöshet: Då tankar, tal och traditioner möts, p. 275-284, Uppsala universitet, 2001
A Presentation of Yūsuf al-Sibāʿī
Part of The Middle East, p. 241-243, Nordic institute of Asian studies, 1993
Conference papers
Part of Silsilat abḥāth al-muʾtamarāt al-juzʾ al-thānī: Series of Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2. سلسلة أبحاث المؤتمرات الجزء الثاني, p. 311-324, 2001
Part of Muʾtamar murūr miʾat ʿām ʿalā taḥrīr al-marʾa al-ʿArabiyya: Conference on One Hundred Years of Arab Women's Liberation, p. 311-324, 1999
Part of Mulakhkhaṣāt abḥāth muʾtamar murūr miʾat ʿām ʿalā taḥrīr al-marʾa al-ʿArabiyya, p. 170-171, 1999
Conference proceedings (editor)
2011
2011
2007
Monograph doctoral thesis
Other
Semitiska språk från Bibeln till Sveriges Yttrandefrihetsgrundlag
2016
En modern arabisk roman: Om Vattenplöjaren av Hoda Barakat
2009
Svensk översättning av Hoda Barakat, Vattenplöjaren (Ḥārith al-miyāh)
2008
2006
Sheherazade och hennes systrar: Akademiska kapellet: Höstkonsert 25 november 2006
2006
2003
Understanding Near Eastern Literatures: A Spectrum of Interdisciplinary Approaches
Part of Orientalia Suecana, p. 134-136, 2001
Part of Orientala Suecana, p. 134-136, 2001
Part of Orientat Suecana, p. 136-137, 2001
Barbara Michalak Pikulska: the Contemporary Kuwaiti Shorty Story in Peace Time and War 1929-1995
Part of Tidsskrift for Mellemöstens litteratur, p. 34-39, 1999
Part of Dagens Nyheter, 1994