Jonas Elbousty

Jonas Elbousty holds an MPhil and a PhD from Columbia University. He is an academic, writer, and literary critic and translator. He teaches in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University where he served as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations for seven years. He is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Council on Middle East Studies and oversees the Yale Summer Study Abroad Program in Rabat, Morocco. He is the author or co-author of eight books,  including  Faces (Georgetown University Press, 2024), Reading Mohamed Choukri’s Narratives (Routledge, 2024),  The Screams of War  (Seagull Books, 2024), Tales of Tangier (Yale University Press, 2023), Aswat Mu’asira: Short Stories (Georgetown University Press, 2023), Media Arabic (Routledge, 2021), Arabic Literary Reader (Routledge 2014), Vitality and Dynamism: Interstitial Dialogues of Language, Politics, and Religion in Morocco’s Literary Tradition (Leiden University Press, 2014). His work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, ArabLit, ArabLit Quarterly, Asheville Poetry Review, Banipal, Prospectus, Sekka, Minor Literatures, Asymptote, South Parade, Journal of North African Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Literature, Journal of New Jersey Poets, World Literature Today, The Markaz Review, among other publications. He is the book series editor of the Cultural Production on the Middle East and North Africa, and editor in chief of the Journal on Maghrebi Studies. His two forthcoming translations are Zoco Chico by Georgetown University Press and Uprooting: Dog and Cat Pizza Chapters by 53rd State Press. His forthcoming handbook is The Routledge Handbook on Cultural Production in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Elbousty has taught at Al Akhawayan, Emory, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia, and Yale. He has taught widely in the areas of North African and Middle Eastern studies. His research interests focus on the theories of world literature, problematics of literary translation, cultural history, the image of the Arab in U.S literary and media narratives, postcolonial literature, Maghrebi studies, the poetics of exile, digital disinformation, exile and identity formation, memory, trauma, and representation in exilic writing, narrative repair, and the life and works of Mohamed Choukri.

Elbousty has given lectures at numerous universities, including Stockholm University, University of Lisbon, University of Copenhagen, Bochum University, Zhejiang University, University of Brussels, Dunărea de Jos University, Hangzhou Normal University, Ibn Zohr University, Mohamed V University, Andalas University, Ain Shams University, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, University of New Mexico, University of Oklahoma, Georgia Institute of Technology, American University of Baghdad, University of Oxford, University of Melbourne, etc. He also serves as an associate researcher in many institutions, including the Center for Cultural and Multidisciplinary Studies at Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania, the Moroccan Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEA), the Comparative Humanities and Applied Language Studies (CHALS Lab), University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco, and the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Center (HSSRC), Ajman University, United Arab Emirates.

He works as a consultant and external examiner for numerous academic institutions. He also consults for NGOs, offering advice that pertains to North African and Middle Eastern Affairs, and has directed diverse programs in the MENA region. Elbousty is on many governmental and non-governmental boards, and his advice is often sought by numerous agencies. In his spare time, he consults for a wide variety of clients, including media production and publishing companies. His work includes translation of screenplays, subtitles captioning for award-winning documentaries and films, manuscript proofreading, literary translations, etc. He is also on the board of trustees of a few institutions.