Professor Geert Jan van Gelder FBA

Middle Eastern and African Languages and Literatures Middle East

Fellow type: UK Fellow
Year elected: 2005
Sections: Africa, Asia and the Middle East

Summary

Born in Amsterdam in 1947, Geert Jan van Gelder studied Semitic Languages (with Arabic as main subject) at the Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden (doctorate Leiden, 1982). He was employed as Lecturer in Arabic at the University of Groningen from 1975 until 1998, when he was elected Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford and became a Professorial Fellow of St John's College. He retired from the Laudian Chair in 2012 and returned to the Netherlands in 2015. He has published widely on Classical Arabic Literature, especially belles-lettres, poetry, poetics, stylistics, and the history of genres and themes.

Current post

Laudian Professor of Arabic Emeritus, University of Oxford

Past appointments

University of Oxford Laudian Professor of Arabic

1998 -

University of Oxford Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford

1998 -

University of Oxford Laudian Professor of Arabic Emeritus, University of Oxford

1995 -

University of Groningen, Netherlands Lecturer in Arabic

1975 - 1998

University of Amsterdam

1973 - 1975

Publications

Abu l-`Ala' al-Ma`arri, The Epistle of Forgiveness, ed. and tr. (with Gregor Schoeler) New York, 2013

Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology New York, 2013

Sound and Sense in Classical Arabic Poetry Wiesbaden, 2012

Beyond the Line: Classical Arabic Literary Critics on the Coherence and Unity of the Poem 1982

The Bad and the Ugly: Attitudes towards Invective Poetry (Hija) in Classical Arabic Literature 1988

Close Relationships: Incest and Inbreeding in Classical Arabic Literature 2005

Other Fellows of the British Academy

Professor Yael Navaro FBA

Professor Yael Navaro FBA is a social anthropologist who specializes in the study of politics, the state, and political violence and its aftermaths.

Professor David Mosse FBA

Historical anthropology of religion, social-political systems and livelihoods, especially with reference to Indian caste inequality and activism, religious pluralism (Hindu and Christian) and common property resources; the anthropology of knowledge, institutions and international development.

Professor Robert Hillenbrand FBA

Islamic art, with particular reference to Iran and Syria; medieval architecture, book painting and iconography

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