My research focuses on the processes of interaction between nineteenth-century British literature and culture and the cultures of the non-western world that Britain encountered, traded with, and sometimes ruled in this period. Within this arrangement, I have a specific interest in Anglo-Persian (Iranian) literary-cultural contacts, particularly in the ways in which medieval Persian poetry was received and represented in English poetry of the long nineteenth century.
My first book, The Persian Presence in Victorian Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) is a study of the wealth of meanings that Persia held in the Victorian imagination.
My forthcoming book is a critical edition of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of Farid ul-din Attar's Mantiq ul-Teyr. The edition will be published in 2024 as part of the Oxford World’s Classic series.
I am currently working on two articles. The first one focuses on Edward Byles Cowell, the nineteenth-century British Orientalist, and examines the nuances of his interactions with Edward FitzGerald. The second one focuses on the resurgence of interest in Hafiz during the late nineteenth century, examining it within the framework of decadence. This will be part of a larger study on the intersection between decadence and British engagements with medieval Persian poetry at the close of the nineteenth century.
Education
BA, MA, PhD
University of Sheffield (UK), University of Bristol (UK)
Books
The Bird-Parliament: Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of Attar’s Mantiq ul-Teyr (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024)
The Persian Presence in Victorian Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2020)
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“The Couplet is the Pearl”: Translating Hafiz through Decadence (in progress)
“I Don’t Hear from You”: On Edward Cowell’s Silences (in progress)
“‘Better a Live Sparrow than a Stuffed Eagle’: On Edward FitzGerald’s ‘Bird-Parliament’”, Essays in Criticism, 72/2 (2022)
“Review Essay: Emerson in Iran: The American Appropriation of Persian Poetry”, Iranian Studies, 54/5-6 (2021)
“Why the Oxus? On the Majestic River of Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustum’”, The Review of English Studies, 69/289. (2018)
“The Rubáiyát: A Labour of Love”, Victoriographies, 7/1 (2017)
“‘A Thin Disguise’: On Robert Browning’s Ferishtah’s Fancies”, Victorian Literature and Culture, 44/2 (2016)
“The Persian Presence in Nineteenth-Century English Poetry: A Taxonomy”, Iranian Studies, 49/1 (2016)
“Persia by Way of Paris: On Matthew Arnold’s ‘Sohrab and Rustum’”, Middle Eastern Literatures, 18/1 (2015)
“FitzGerald’s Anglo-Persian Rubáiyát”, Translation & Literature, 23/3 (2014)
Book Chapters
“Omar Khayyám”, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, ed. by L. Spampinato. vol. 11 (Gale, 2011).
Research Interests
Nineteenth-century English literature
Medieval Persian poetry
Empire and colonialism
Translation studies
Fall 2023
ENGL 335: Literature of the Victorian Period
ENGL 332: Studies in 19th-Century British Literature
ENGL 331: 18th- and 19th-Century Writing by Women
Summer 2023
ENGL 262: British Literature from 1660 to 1900
Winter 2023
ENGL 454: Iran and Contemporary Diasporic Fiction (Advanced Studies in Postcolonial Writing)
ENGL 334: Studies in 19th-Century British Prose
ENGL 262: British Literature from 1660 to 1900
Fall 2022
ENGL 665: Classical Persian Poetry as World Literature
ENGL 332: Studies in 19th-Century British Literature
ENGL 262: British Literature from 1660 to 1900
Summer 2022
ENGL 262: British Literature from 1660 to 1900
Spring 2022
ENGL 331: 18th- and 19th-Century Writing by Women
ENGL 334: Studies in 19th-Century British Prose
ENGL 441: Forms of 18th- and 19th-Century Fiction
Fall 2021
ENGL 331: 18th- and 19th-Century Writing by Women
ENGL 332: Studies in 19th-Century British Literature
ENGL 326: The "Orient" and the 18th Century (Studies in 18th-Century British Literature)
