David Tresilian

Professor Tresilian joined The American University of Paris in 2001. After a first degree in English at Oxford University, where he won the University’s Violet Vaughan-Morgan and Charles Oldham Shakespeare Prizes, he completed an MPhil, also at Oxford, in modern literature. He then taught at the American University in Cairo before heading to Columbia University, New York, where he completed an MPhil degree in comparative literature and was a Nicolson Fellow. He has published widely on modern Arabic literature. His 'Brief Introduction to Modern Arabic Literature' appeared in 2008, as did his translation of 'Conscience of a Nation: Writers and Society in Modern Egypt'.

He works as a consultant in cultural development and has worked for UNESCO in Central and Southwest Asia on poverty alleviation and community development, notably in Iran, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. A book on this experience was published by UNESCO in 2005. More recently, he has worked on projects in Southeast Asia, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and China, as well as on private-sector projects in Europe and Southeast Asia. His journalism regularly appears in ‘Al-Ahram Weekly’, published in Cairo, and he has commented on Middle East affairs for media outlets in Europe, South Africa and the Middle East.