Department of Arabic Language and Literature

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Since childhood, I have been passionate about Arabic language, memorizing both classical and modern Arabic poetry, eventually writing my own and participating in literary competitions, where I frequently won. However, when I joined university, I found myself in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, fulfilling my father's wishes. After successfully convincing him to allow me to transfer to the College of Humanities to study Arabic language, I initially ended up in the College of Education, where I spent a year and a half before finally moving to the college I desired. There, I proved myself as a poet for the department and an outstanding student, earning an academic excellence card for the first time since I joined the university, as I was finally studying the field, I was passionate about.

Graduating with Honors from this college was a key factor in achieving my goal of pursuing a master's and a Ph.D. in rhetoric and criticism. Shortly after being appointed as a teaching assistant in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature in 1998, I enrolled at the University of Jordan, earning a master's degree with Honors in 2001, and a Ph.D. with Honors in 2003. I returned to UAEU and began my work at the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, receiving a promotion to associate professor in 2009.

Throughout these years, I did not limit my contributions to the university but also engaged in numerous activities outside of it. I collaborated with the Department of Culture in Sharjah, by participating in literary forums and conferences, judging cultural awards, and with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism in judging major competitions like "Prince of Poets" and others. I also worked with the Ministry of Culture in judging awards and providing creative writing workshops, and with the Ministry of Education in authoring Arabic language curricula, reviewing Arabic language documents, and much more.

In addition to writing poetry, I developed a love for writing children's stories, blending truth with fiction. I have written many stories for the child within me, who, despite the passage of years, the maturity of thought, and the changing of age numbers, remains there in some corner of my soul, helping me view life through a lens of beauty and innocence that the harshness of life sometimes forces us to use.

I also author educational books for children and develop educational tools and games that make learning Arabic enjoyable, providing alternatives that may help present a positive perspective on Arabic as a school subject. Moreover, I write educational songs for children, striving to keep them light-hearted. These literary talents that God has blessed me with played a role in my appointment as the "Educational Director" for Bidaya Media, a company under Mubadala, which produced the famous "Iftah Ya Simsim" show in its last three seasons from 2013 to 2019. I am also the principal writer for the animated series "Siraj," produced by the Qatar Foundation, and the "Cyber Heroes" animated series.

Between 2018 and 2021, I held the position of "Educational Expert in Early Childhood" at the Ministry of Education, where I achieved the first authentic Arabic curriculum for early childhood education, titled "The World of Shapes and Colours." This curriculum teaches children Arabic through literature, daily life, and personal experiences.

As part of my efforts to introduce Arabic to a broader and more diverse audience, I chaired the committee for authoring the Arabic language curriculum for non-native speakers, "Arabic Unites Us," at the Ministry of Education. This curriculum has been taught in private and international schools in the country since 2020 and remains the approved curriculum for Arabic to this day. I am also a certified trainer in creative writing and launched the "Samaa for Creative Writing" initiative in 2017, offering training workshops across the Emirates for all age groups and professional levels. One of my achievements in this field was presenting the "Young Author" training program, launched by the Ministry of Culture in 2017 for writers in short stories and children's literature. I also presented a story-writing training program organized by the Sharjah Private Education Authority under the name "Molhemoon," for about 50 students, and supervised the writing and publication of the top 20 stories by the top 20 students in 2022. I was chosen to train a group of beginner writers in the "Literary Retreat," organized by Kalimat Group and sponsored by the Ministry of Culture in 2024.

Despite all these activities and engagements, I never neglected my beloved research work. I have written numerous research papers and published them in peer-reviewed journals, most of which aim to renew Arabic rhetoric and invest modern technology and social media in renewing Arabic rhetorical tools, such as "Rhetorical Devices from Orality to Digital: A Study of Paronomasia," "Visual Rhetorical Devices," and others. I have also authored many books in the field of rhetoric and criticism, and in the relationship between literature and technology, such as "Interactive Literature," "Writing and Technology," "Spaces of Literary Creativity in the Age of Technology," and "Illustrated Literary Notes," as well as books aimed at Arabic language teachers to help them easily and effectively establish students' language skills.

I have received several significant awards, including the Sharjah Award for Best Local Book in Studies Field in 2008, the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in 2009, and my story "Waseem's Fingers" was shortlisted for the Abdulaziz Al-Mansour Award in Kuwait in 2020. I was also appointed as an Ambassador for the UAE Board on Books for Young People in 2011.

 

Being a lover of Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain, I wrote a narrative text chosen by the Ministry of Education to be included in the Arabic language curriculum for the fifth grade, titled "A Whale on the Shore," the first book written about Jebel Hafeet. Other stories written by me are also taught to students in the Arabic language curriculum, such as "This is Why I Kiss My Mother's Hand," "A Letter to My Father," and "Fear Comes from Within."