The Team

Dima Ayoub

Project Director

Dima Ayoub, Ph.D. (McGill University) is an Associate Professor of Arabic and former C.V. Starr Junior Faculty Fellow in International Studies and the former director of the Middle East studies program. Her book manuscript Paratext and Power: Modern Arabic Literature in Translation examines the post-war evolution and formation of Modern Arabic literature by examining the various networks, institutions and discourses developed in the mid-century and the central role of translation and paratexts that make the field what it is today. The Paratext and Power digital archive connects the fields of digital humanities, Arabic, and comparative literature.

Abeera Riaz

Research Assistant

I joined the Paratext & Power team in the Spring of 2024. I work on cataloging information of translated Arabic texts and researching prominent Arabic translators. I also edit the Paratext & Power website. I am a rising sophomore at Middlebury College from Brooklyn, New York interested in Art History, Arabic, and Statistics.

Livvy Jessen

Research Assistant

I joined the project in January 2024, and have been doing research in Western scholarship on modern Arabic literature, along with adding to data on translated Arabic works. I am a rising sophomore at Middlebury College studying Comparative Literature in Japanese and Arabic, and I’m originally from Chicago, Illinois.

Sade Awodesu

Research Assistant

I joined the Paratext & Power team in the Fall of 2022. I have worked on tasks such as locating, summarizing, and cataloging reviews of translated Arabic literature and researching important figures in the field. I also work with datasets to create visualizations of how paratext use has changed over time. I am a rising sophomore Arabic and History major at Middlebury College, originally from Philadelphia.

Maddie Pappano

Former Research Assistant

I joined the project in the summer of 2022. I keep the database updated with new books and work on building a bibliography of secondary sources on Arabic literature. I also analyze trends and patterns in paratexts of Arabic literature. I’m a rising junior at Middlebury and a Classics major.

Makenna Janes

Former Research Assistant

I joined the team in Spring ’21 and worked closely with Araceli Arizpe on collecting data on authors and Arabic literature in translation. I noted which authors and works were translated. Also, I tracked the details of the translation’s publication. I’m studying International and Global Studies with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Originally from Maine, I’m currently a sophomore at Middlebury College.

Araceli Arizpe

Former Research Assistant

I joined the team in Summer ’20 and I work directly with thickening the data on Arabic literature in translation in the project’s main database. I also document patterns within metadata, for example, is there a glossary in a given text? If so, what type of vocabulary can be found in the glossary? Is the translator’s name on the cover or has the translator written their own introduction? I am a rising senior at Middlebury College and I study International & Global Studies with a focus on the Middle East. I am originally from San Antonio, TX.

Mari Odoy

Former Research Assistant

I have been involved with the Paratext and Power project since 2017 as a research assistant by building up and analyzing the dataset. With Dr. Ayoub, I collaborated with other projects on Arabic literature and culture in Berlin, Germany and developed workshops to share our methods for best practices in digital humanities to keep everything organized. I studied Comparative Literature with a focus in Arabic at Middlebury College and I’m currently pursuing a graduate degree in Arabic literature at the University of Minnesota. I’m originally from Rowley, MA.

Arthur Martins

Former Research Assistant

I am a third-year joint major in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and English with a focus on creative writing. Native to Brasília, Brazil, I have joined Prof. Ayoub’s project for Summer 2021.

Chris Gernon

Former MEdia Research Assistant

I’ve worked on the Paratext & Power Project since Spring ‘20. I use javascript, mapbox, and the Adobe suite to visualize the information in the paratext database. Additionally, I edit, design, and create content for the website. I study Geography at Middlebury College, and I am originally from Topeka, KS.

Will O'Neal

Former Research Assistant

I worked closely with Mari Odoy during the summer of 2018 by populating the paratexts database to include texts in Spanish and French. We also used data analysis software to track for patterns. In addition to collaborating with the library staff at Middlebury College, we also interviewed a major publisher of Arabic literature in translation. I am originally from Massachusetts, and I majored in Comparative Literature with focuses in English and Arabic.

Priyanjali Sinha

Former Research Assistant

I worked with Prof. Ayoub in the early stages of the paratexts project where we set up the initial workflows to search for, order, process, and digitize Arabic novels in translation. I helped set up the database towards the first collections of novels and paratexts information and also assisted with drawing some early analyses and conducted other research and copyediting tasks. Since graduating from Middlebury, I have worked in museum curation and arts management and I am currently a Design Researcher at a human-centered design collective. My exposure to the digital humanities through the paratexts project gave me the confidence to try new research techniques in different contexts such as creating network theory visualizations for a museum collections research project. I also gained a deep interest in reading Arabic literature in translation — something I am working on one novel at a time!

Isabella Maureci

Former Research Assistant

I’m a political science major and an Arabic minor and I’m from Cedar Falls, Iowa. I primarily worked on updating the database with novels that were originally written in Arabic and had been translated into Spanish (sometimes the English translations of the novels were used by the Spanish translator as opposed to the original Arabic). I also ordered books for the project, completed scans of paratexts, and created graphics that reflect the inclusion and exclusion of a glossary in a translated work based on the author’s gender.