Emeritus Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies, City College of San Francisco, California, USA.
M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio; graduate-level course work in political science, history, and comparative religions. Recipient of Fulbright scholarship and two National Endowment for the Humanities awards. Several publications. Latest book published in August 2013: Reading and Writing with Multicultural Literature: In Search of Reconciliation and Peace (3rd edn).
More about me
Taught English and world literature courses, reading, composition, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary studies for 36 years on a full-time basis at City College of San Francisco, including visiting professorship at University of California, Berkeley. The courses that I have taught range from freshman reading and writing to advanced electives, such as Survey of English Literature courses and Great Books of Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. As Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies for 6 years, I designed/developed and taught several courses, such as American Cultures in Literature and Film, Asian Humanities (focusing on cultures of India, China, Japan, and West Asia), Shakespeare for All Time, Introduction to Islam, Current Issues and Topics in Pakistan and India, and similar courses. I have published several articles. My book Reading and Writing with Multicultural Literature is being used in college-level reading and writing courses. This book includes literary selections from across cultures. Besides major texts of the Western literary canon, it has poems by authors, such as Omar Khayyam, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal, Rabindranath Tagore, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Waseem Barelvi, Pablo Neruda, Janice Mirikitani, Joseph Bruchac, Langston Hughes, Pat Mora, Li-Po, Nizar Qabbani, Maya Angelou, Jalaluddin Rumi, Mahmoud Darwish, Kevin Young, and many others. For story selections, among major authors included are Saadat Hassan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Kyalo Mativo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Chitra Divakaruni, Sherman Alexie, RabindranathTagore, Alan Kaufman, Betty Shamieh, Lu Hsun, Alifa Rifaat, Amrita Pritam, Julio Ortega, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ibrahim An-Nasir, Ihsan Abd al-Quddus, Naguib Mahfouz, Ghalib Hamza Abu al-Faraj, and Paradon Sakda. Included, moreover, are most canonical texts, such as stories by William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Ernest Gaines, Richard Wright, O. Henry, and James Joyce.
One of my lectures – “A Mirror to our Faces” -- on Khushwant Singh at an International Sikh Conference was published as a chapter in the book titled Sikh Art and Literature (Routledge, 1999). At the invitation of a Tunisian university, I went there to offer a series of seminars in March 2012. I often give Skype lectures to overseas universities at their request.
For humanitarian work, I served as a director of Central Asia Institute for 10 years, including three years as its Chair from 2009 to 2012. Central Asia Institute is a U.S. charity organization that promotes literacy, especially for women, by opening close to 200 schools in the remote and neglected regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Currently, I teach world literature and Middle Eastern Studies courses at City College of San Francisco as an emeritus professor.
More about me
Taught English and world literature courses, reading, composition, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary studies for 36 years on a full-time basis at City College of San Francisco, including visiting professorship at University of California, Berkeley. The courses that I have taught range from freshman reading and writing to advanced electives, such as Survey of English Literature courses and Great Books of Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. As Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies for 6 years, I designed/developed and taught several courses, such as American Cultures in Literature and Film, Asian Humanities (focusing on cultures of India, China, Japan, and West Asia), Shakespeare for All Time, Introduction to Islam, Current Issues and Topics in Pakistan and India, and similar courses. I have published several articles. My book Reading and Writing with Multicultural Literature is being used in college-level reading and writing courses. This book includes literary selections from across cultures. Besides major texts of the Western literary canon, it has poems by authors, such as Omar Khayyam, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal, Rabindranath Tagore, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Waseem Barelvi, Pablo Neruda, Janice Mirikitani, Joseph Bruchac, Langston Hughes, Pat Mora, Li-Po, Nizar Qabbani, Maya Angelou, Jalaluddin Rumi, Mahmoud Darwish, Kevin Young, and many others. For story selections, among major authors included are Saadat Hassan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Kyalo Mativo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Chitra Divakaruni, Sherman Alexie, RabindranathTagore, Alan Kaufman, Betty Shamieh, Lu Hsun, Alifa Rifaat, Amrita Pritam, Julio Ortega, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ibrahim An-Nasir, Ihsan Abd al-Quddus, Naguib Mahfouz, Ghalib Hamza Abu al-Faraj, and Paradon Sakda. Included, moreover, are most canonical texts, such as stories by William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Ernest Gaines, Richard Wright, O. Henry, and James Joyce.
One of my lectures – “A Mirror to our Faces” -- on Khushwant Singh at an International Sikh Conference was published as a chapter in the book titled Sikh Art and Literature (Routledge, 1999). At the invitation of a Tunisian university, I went there to offer a series of seminars in March 2012. I often give Skype lectures to overseas universities at their request.
For humanitarian work, I served as a director of Central Asia Institute for 10 years, including three years as its Chair from 2009 to 2012. Central Asia Institute is a U.S. charity organization that promotes literacy, especially for women, by opening close to 200 schools in the remote and neglected regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Currently, I teach world literature and Middle Eastern Studies courses at City College of San Francisco as an emeritus professor.