Prof. Hariclea Zengos

Professor Hariclea Zengos, a distinguished professor of literature, is the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah. With more than 28 years of experience, Prof Zengos has been selected to provide leadership and vision in strategic planning and implementation of programs and lead School development activities.

Prof. Zengos earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the American College of Greece. She then graduated with an M.A. in English from Clark University, where she also taught for two years. Later, she earned a Ph.D. in English from Tufts University and a Master of Education from Harvard University.

Before joining AURAK, Prof. Zengos was Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Research and Professor in Residence, English and American Studies at the Northwestern University in Qatar overseeing several academic programs and research activities. She has significant experience in curriculum development and assessment, strategic planning, fundraising and research.

Prof. Zengos is a passionate researcher and her research interests are the construction and politics of race, gender and ethnicity in contemporary American and Anglophone literature, particularly postcolonial literature. Her current research projects include analyzing all types of migration, in addition to displacement, and the way it is portrayed in contemporary world English literature.

• Ph.D. Tufts University (English, 1989)
• M.Ed. Harvard University, Graduate School of Education (Higher Education Administration, 1987)
• M.A. Clark University (English, 1985)
• B.A. The American College of Greece, summa cum laude (English, 1981)

Publications/As editor

• Eleftherios Venizelos: Unknown Aspects of the Man: Conference Proceedings. Athens: The American College of Greece, 2009.
• The Kimon Friar Lecture in Neo-Hellenic Arts and Letters, series editor. Athens: Attica Foundation Publications.

Book chapters and essays in edited collections

• “At Home in the World: Transnational Hearn.” Proceedings: International Symposium
• “The Open Mind of Lafcadio Hearn: His Spirit from the West to the East.” Ed. Shingo Nagaoka. Tokyo: Planning Committee for the Memorial Events in Greece to Commemorate the 110th Anniversary of Lafacdio Hearn’s Death, 2014.
• “Redefining Parameters: Greek-Australian Literature.” Australian Made: A Multicultural Reader. Eds. Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. Sydney, Australia: Sydney UP, 2010: 314-333. (reprinted)
• “Redefining Parameters: Greek-Australian Literature.” Reading Down Under - Australian Literary Studies Reader. Eds. Amit Sarwal and Reema Sarwal. New Delhi: SSSS Publications, 2009: 271-82.
• “An Introduction to the Work of Vassilis Lambropoulos.” Thirteenth Annual Kimon Friar Lecture
• (“Reflections on Tragedy in Greek Post-Modern Fiction”) by Vassilis Lambropoulos. Athens: American College of Greece, 2009.
• “Multicultural Melbourne: Mapping the City in Christos Tsiolkas’ Loaded.” New Urges in Postcolonial Literature. Ed. Sunita Sinha. New Delhi: Atlanta Publishers, 2009.
• “Evan Connell,” Dictionary of Literary Biography, American Short Story Writers Since WWII. Eds. Richard Lee and Patrick Meanor. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark, Layman, 2007. 73-80.
• “Lawrence Durrell.” The Literature of Travel and Exploration. Ed. Jennifer Speake. London: Routledge, 2003.
• “Karen Blixen.” The Literature of Travel and Exploration. Ed. Jennifer Speake. London: Routledge, 2003.
• Zengos and Anita G. Gorman, “Patrick Leigh Fermor,” Dictionary of Literary Biography, British Travel Writers: 1940-1997, v. 204. Eds. Barbara Brothers and Julia M. Gergits. Detroit: Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1999: 68-81.
• “Three Greek Writers and their ‘Migrant’ Experiences: Angelo Loukakis, Vasso Kalamaras, and George Papaellinas.” Antipodes: A North American Journal of Australian Literature (Winter 1988): 99-101.

Conference paper presentations

• “Gratitude Politics and Hospitality in Dina Nayeri’s The Ungrateful Refugee. MLA International Symposium, University of Glasgow, Scotland, June 2-4, 2022.
• The Refugee Experience and the Limits of Hospitality (panel chair). MLA International Symposium, University of Glasgow, Scotland, June 2-4, 2022.
• “Viet Than Nguyen and the Un-American Refugee.” Bridges Across Cultures IV, ISI Florence – the Umbria Institute – Washington and Jefferson College, Maiori, Italy, June 24-28, 2019.
• “Hemingway and the Smyrna Catastrophe of 1922: A Close Reading of ‘On the Quai at Smyrna.’”
• Hemingway in Paris, XVIII International Hemingway Conference, American University in Paris and La Sorbonne, July 22-28, 2018.
• “Displacement in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees.” The American Short Story: New Horizons. The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, October 5-7, 2017.
• “Colonial Nostalgia and the Imagined Self in the Kenyan Memoirs of Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham.”
• Bridges Across Cultures Conference, ISI Florence – the Umbria Institute – Washington and Jefferson College, July 2, 2015.
• “Reflections on Greece’s Social Crisis: What Can the Liberal Arts Do?” Global Liberal Arts Alliance Conference, The American College of Greece, Athens, June 2012.
• “Philhellenism in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Greek Travel Books.” From the Grand Tour to Mass Tourism: The Modern History of the British Abroad.” University of Newcastle, April 1-2, 2010.
• “Diaspora Identities in the Greek-Australian Short Story: A Focus on Angelo Loukakis and George Papaellinas.” 10th International Conference on the Short Story in English, University College, Cork Ireland, June 19-22, 2008.
• “Multicultural Melbourne: Mapping the City in Christos Tsiolkas’ Loaded.” South Central Modern Language Association Conference, Memphis, TN, November 1-3, 2007.
• “Commercial Culture and the Construction of Identity in Cisneros’ ‘Barbie-Q’ and Viramontes’ ‘Miss Clairol.’” American Literature Association Conference, Boston, MA, May 26-29, 2005.
• “Gender and Performativity in David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly. Salzburg Seminar, Session 408, April 5, 2003.
• “Eros, the Body and the Spirit: The Figure of Mary Magdalene in Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ.” The Trace of the Other: Conference on Literature and Theology, Westminster College, Oxford, England, September 13, 1996.
• “Race, Gender and Politics in the African Works of Elspeth Huxley.” Ngugi wa Thiong’o: Texts and Contexts, Penn State University, April 8, 1994.

Work in progress

• Translation (into Greek) of Japanese ghost stories by Lafcadio Hearn “Viet Than Nguyen and the Un-American Refugee” essay