Michael Malek Najjar
Arab-American Theatre and Performance, Directing, Playwriting,
Contemporary Theatre and Performance
mnajjar@cas.uoregon.edu
209 Villard Hall
541-346-2237
Courses:
Majors Seminar, Theatre History, Playwriting, Contemporary Arab-American Theatre, and Middle Eastern Theatre.
Pedagogical Statement:
The classroom and rehearsal hall are places for intellectual growth, creative expression, and open dialogue. I am dedicated to a pedagogy that encourages students to achieve their highest potential through collaboration, exploration, and inspiration. I believe that the theatre is a necessary forum in society that transforms audiences and theatre artists alike.
Research Interests:
Contemporary Arab-American Theatre and Performance, Contemporary Theatre, Ethnic Studies, Critical Race Theory, Arab-American Studies.
Awards and Accomplishments:
Ernest G. Moll Faculty Research Fellowship in Literary Studies, 2019, NEH Summer Institute, 2017, Humanities and Creative Arts Award, 2016, Working Group/Active Teaching & Learning, 2016, Rippey Innovative Teaching Award, 2016, Global Oregon Faculty Collaboration Award, 2016, Rutherford Initiative for Middle Eastern Studies, 2015, Certificate of Merit, Directing, Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, 2014, Junior Professor Development Award, 2014, OHC/CAS Faculty Author Subvention Grant, 2014, U.C. Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, 2007-2011, UCLA Summer Research Mentorship, 2009, UCLA Center for World Languages Scholarship, 2008, President’s Award American Druze Society 2007, Master Teacher/Outstanding Service Award, Bend Theatre for Young People, 2003.
Publications:
Middle Eastern American Theatre: Communities, Cultures and Artists. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021.
Heather Raffo’s Iraq Plays: The Things That Can’t Be Said. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021.
“Teaching Middle Eastern Theatre: Challenges, Opportunities, and Rewards,” an article, in Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics, ed. by Babak Rahimi, Anthem, 2020.
ReOrient 2019: A Homecoming for Golden Thread Alumni”
https://goldenthread.org/posts/reorient-2019-a-homecoming-for-golden-thread-alumni/
Epilogue, “Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative”. Routledge Publishing, 2019.
The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2019.
“Theater: Plays by Women Playwrights, Directors, and Producers in Islamic Cultures” in Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, co-authored with Zeina Salame. Koninklijke Brill N.V., 2018.
“The Talented Ones” Review, Theatre Journal 70 (2018), pp. 255-256.
Arab American Drama, Film and Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present. McFarland & Co., Inc. Publishers, 2015.
Four Arab American Plays: Works by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013.
“‘There’s Nothing Funny About Your People”: Muslim American Humor in the Post 9/11 World,'” an article, in Muslims in American Popular Culture, ed. by Iraj Omidvar and Anne Rypstat Richards, Praeger, 2014.
“Re-evaluating the Syrio-American School: Gibran, Rihani and Naimy: East-West Interactions in Early Twentieth-Century Arab Literature by Aida Imangulieva,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 16, no. 62 (2010)
“Understanding Who We Are: A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories by Alia Malek,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine,vol. 16, no. 62 (2010).
“Loving His Country Through ‘Metadrama’: Alfred Farag and the Egyptian Theater,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 61 (2009).
“Embracing Inbetweeness: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah M.A. Gualtieri,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 61 (2009). http://aljadid.com/books/Embracinginbetweenness.html
“Nahda’s Children: Conscience of the Nation: Writers, State, and Society in Modern Egypt by Richard Jacquemond,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 60 (2009). http://aljadid.com/books/NahdasChildren.html
“Restaging Culture: Pacific Overtures 30 Years On,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, March 2005.
“The Shifting Shape of Recent Performance Art,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, January 2005.
“Writing from the Hyphen: Arab-American Playwrights Struggle with Identity in the Post-9/11 World,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, September 2004.
“Thirty-nine Years and Counting: A Look at East West Players’ ‘New Perspectives,’” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, July 2004.
“Phoenix Ascending: Seattle’s ACT Theater Rises from the Ashes,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, May 2004.
“Laurence Olivier,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
“Community Theater,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
“Death of a Salesman,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
“The Glass Menagerie,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
Selected Production Credits:
Director, Zafira and the Resistance, New Arab American Theatre Works @ The Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, 2019. Director, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, Minority Voices Theatre @ The Very Little Theatre, Eugene, 2018. Scenes From 70* Years, Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, 2019. New Threads, Golden Thread Productions, 2017. Lead Director for Semitic Commonwealth, Silk Road Rising, 2017. Director/Writer: Talib, Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago, 2010; Writer: Farewell Beloved, Royal Jordanian Film Commission Screenwriters’ Lab, Jordan, 2010; Hamlet, Bend Theatre for Young People, Oregon, 2007; The Love of the Nightingale, Portland Community College Theatre Arts, 2007; Urinetown, Portland Community College Theatre Arts, 2006; Precious Stones, Silk Road Theatre Project, 2003; Lysistrata, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, 2003.