“Al-Andalus as the Bawd Between Latin America and the East: Ibn Daniyal, Rojas and American Celestinas.” 2021. Summer Institute, Georgetown University. Sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and supported by a Title VI grant.
“Professors at Work.” 2021. Podcast hosted by Rami Khouri about The Theatre of Sa’dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual.
Book launch and reading of plays from Sentence to Hope: A Sa’dallah Wannous Reader, published by Yale UP, and Modern and Contemporary Levantine Political Theater, published by Brill. 2019. With Nada Saab, at Lebanese American University, New York.
Death and the King’s Horseman. 2018. Director of staged reading of play by Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, after his talk at AUB’s Assembly Hall. Produced by the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature, the Theater Initiative and the African Club at AUB.
“Using Theater History, Translation Studies and Performance Studies to Redefine Arab Dramaturgy.” 2018. For Towards Arab Dramaturgies, an international conference produced by CUNY’s PhD program in theater and performance and Martin Segal Theatre Center, New York.
“Political and Social Theater in the Arab Region: Making the Private Public.” 2018. For Beirut Briefings, a series of webcast talks at AUB, New York, produced and curated by Rami Khouri.
“Diglossia in Mahfouz’s The Dictator.” 2018. Presenter with Nada Saab at Drama Across Borders: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Theater in Translation, produced by Cornell University’s Department of Theater.
“Latin America, al-Andalus and the Arab World.” 2018. Organizer of conference that included presentations by Luce López Baralt, Christina Civantos, Marvin Carlson, Jean Graham-Jones, Michel Sleiman, Emilio Gonzalez-Ferrín and others on theater, literature, language, history, culture and linguistics. Edited volume of selected essays based on the conference forthcoming from AUB Press.
Lincoln Center Directors Mediterranean Lab. 2108. AUB. Participant along with prominent theatrical directors and artists from Jordan, Lebanon, Britain, Greece, Spain, Italy and the U.S.
“Brecht, Wannous and Arab Theater.” 2018. Presenter with Nada Saab on panel entitled Brecht in the Arab World. 2018. MLA Conference. New York.
“Darwin, AUB and the Arab World.” 2016. Co-Organizer. Conference included presentations by President Fadlo Khuri, M.D., AUB; Marcia Inhorn, Yale; Betty Anderson, Boston University; Salman Hameed, Hampshire College; and Tarek Dewiri and Youssef Ismail of the Egyptian National Theater. Conference preceded by staged reading of After Darwin, by Timberlake Wertenbaker, in which I performed a principal role. View Online
Presenter. 2016. Center for Humanities, Carnegie-Mellon University. Post-play discussions of Unmanned, a play I wrote about drone pilots, with scholars from Carnegie-Mellon, as part of Center’s annual theme of “War.” View Online
Presenter and Panelist. 2015. “Conversation on Contemporary Beirut Theatre.” Islamic Institute, McGill University. Montreal, Canada. View Online
Presenter and Panelist. 2015. “Conversation on Contemporary Beirut Theatre.” LAU/NY and MEMEAC/CUNY. LAU New York Center. View Online
Keynote Address and Workshop. 2015. “(Re) Visiting Wannous.” An Tonnelhuis Theater and Moussem Cultural Center. Antwerp, Belgium. View Online
“On Wannous.” 2015. Co-organized with Sonja Mejcher-Atassi and Sahar Assaf. Full-day conference with Elias Khoury, Mohamad Al-Attar, Friederike Pannewick and Nada Saab on Sa’dallah Wannous. Proceedings submitted to Cambridge UP for publication. AUB, Beirut. View Online
“Arabic Theater in Translation: Language, Culture and Politics.” 2014. A panel with Hassan Abdulrazzak, Abdullah Alkafri, Nada Saab and Catherine Coray at NYU Abu Dhabi. View Online
“Syrian Drama: Theater of Sa’dallah Wannous.” 2014. A panel with Marvin Carlson, Frank Hentschker, Nada Saab and Sahar Assaf. Martin Segal Theatre, Graduate Center, CUNY. View Online
“Dramatizing Resistance.” 2014. A panel with Riad Ismat, Jamil Khoury, Nada Saab and Sahar Assaf. Silk Road Rising Theater, Chicago. View Online
Converging Creativities: The Sciences and Arts & Humanities in Dialogue. AUB Arts and Humanities Initiative. A series of four panels and discussions, including a conversation with Peter Sellars and a screening of his opera Dr. Atomic. Panel Chair and speaker. American University of Beirut, Beirut. 2012-2013. View Online
“Shared Metaphors in Science and Theatre: Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen.” Converging Creativities: The Sciences and Arts & Humanities in Dialogue. AUB Arts and Humanities Initiative. Second panel in series. American University of Beirut, Beirut. 2012. View Online
“Painting the Theatre of the East.” Whitney Humanities Center. Yale, New Haven. 2012.
“Teaching History Through Theatre.” MacMillan Center. Yale, New Haven. 2012
“The Art of Losing: Failed Revolutions in the Theater of Usigli, Kushner and Companhia do Latão.” American Configurations. Fifth World Conference of the International American Studies Association (IASA). Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal Fluminese, Gragoatá Campus. 2011.View Online
“Women and Men Portraying Power Onstage: Writing about Gender and Violence in Plays about Threatened Societies”. Women in Threatened Societies Theater Festival. Babel Theater, Beirut. 2011. View Online
“An East/West Pas De Deux: The Ballet Russes and the Orient in the Modern Western Imagination.” Representing Islam, Terrorism and Violence: Changes in American Society and Culture after 9/11. American Studies Institute International Conference. Seoul National University, Seoul. 2010.
“Playing Arab: Images of Easterners on Western Stages.” Connections and Ruptures: America and the Middle East. Third International Conference Center for American Studies. American University of Beirut, Beirut. 2010. View Online
Jawad Al Assadi/Baghdadi Bath (Iraq). Readings from Baghdadi Bath and discussion with Jawad Al Assadi and Marvin Carlson. Segal Theatre Center. CUNY Graduate Center, New York. 2009.View Online
“Painting the Theatre of the East: Orientalist Painters and the 19th-Century European Theatre.” With introduction by Marvin Carlson. Middle East & Middle Eastern American Center. Co-Sponsored by Ph.D. Program in Theatre. CUNY Graduate Center, New York. 2008. View Online
“Painter-Travelers and the Theatre of the East.” Middle East Critique. sponsored by Critique: A Magazine of Middle Eastern Culture and Politics. Hamline University, St. Paul. 2008.
“Playing With History: Political Theatre in Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East.” Mechanization: Aspects of Its Historical Development. Co-sponsored by the Humanities Center, the Humanities Scholars Program and the School of Drama. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. 2007.View Online
“Theatre and Politics/East and West: Political and Historical Theatre in the U.S., Europe and the Arab World.” Paper given at Centro Cultural de la Cooperación, Buenos Aires. 2007.
“Historical and Political Theatre in the U.S. and the Middle East.” Paper given at Casa de Pepino. Aula Pública de Teoría del Teatro Contemporáneo series. Sponsored by the Secretary of Culture, Córdoba. 2007.
Theatre of Jawad Al Assadi. Coordinator/Guest Artist. Week-long workshop and presentation of works by the Iraqi theatre artist, Jawad Al Assadi including Woman in War, Forget Hamlet and Baghdadi Bath. Sponsored by the New York Theatre Workshop. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. 2007.
“Biokharaphia.” Talk about the theatre of Rabih Mrouè and Lina Saneh and contemporary Lebanese theatre. Masrah Arab Festival. Sponsored by World Performance Project, Joe Roach and the Mellon Foundation. Yale University, New Haven. 2007.
“Contemporary Historical Theatre.” Talk about writing historical theatre and about Atwater: Fixin’ to Die and Mesopotamia. The Department of Theatre. Kenyon College, Gambier. 2007.
Baghdadi Bath. Staged reading of play by Jawad Al Assadi (adapted and co-translated with Nada Saab). Co-producer. Sponsored by the New York Theatre Workshop. Dartmouth University, Hanover. 2006.
“The Pitfalls of Literal Translation.” Talk about Arabic to English translation of the play Baghdadi Bath. Sponsored by the Anis Makdisi Literary Program. American University of Beirut, Beirut. 2006.
“Now and Again.” A series of public readings of plays by British and American playwrights. Creator and director. American University of Beirut, Beirut. 2004.
“The Language of Camões.” Paper about empire, Orientalism and the English translations of Camões’ epic poem The Lusiads. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1999.
“Translating History and Self-Translation: João Ubaldo Ribeiro’s Viva o povo brasileiro.” (Published in Brasil/ Brazil, November 12, 1994). MLA Convention, New York. 1992.