Our first Emeritus Professor featured in the news bulletin, Dr. Aida A. Bamia is Emeritus Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at University of Florida. Dr. Bamia first joined UF in 1985, one of the pioneering professors contributing to the development of the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) Interdisciplinary program at UF.
A citizen of Palestine, Bamia was originally born in Jerusalem and moved to Egypt with her family in 1948. Bamia received her B.A. in English Literature and M.A. in Arabic Literature at the American University in Cairo before attending the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London for her PhD in Modern Arabic Literature. Her dissertation is titled, “The Development of the Novel and the Short Story in Modern Algerian Literature.” Dr. Bamia spent three years in London completing her degree before beginning an 11-year career as a professor at three different universities in Algeria.
After Dr. Bamia spent 20 years at the University of Florida, she retired in 2005. Since then she has spent time as a Visiting Professor at Wayne State university, the University of Michigan, and Virginia Military Institute. In 2014, she was nominated for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for her translation of The Arch and the Butterfly by Mohammed Achaari. She currently resides in Gainesville and still contributes to the field by writing articles for the yearly entry of the Encyclopedia section on Arabic Literature.