Dani Nassif received his doctorate in Arabic Studies from the University of Münster (Summa Cum Laude). Since 2024, he has been a research associate at the University of Regensburg, within the Department for Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS). His research explores the history of wars in the Middle East, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary histories of Lebanon and Iraq. He is also interested in Western-Arab relations during periods of political and cultural upheaval, knowledge production and cultural transitions, the intersection of religion and anti-terrorism strategies, as well as collective trauma, archives, and memory. He has published several peer-reviewed articles and is the author of ?Trauma, Memory, and the Lebanese Post-War Novel: Beirut’s Invisible Histories in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction“ (Palgrave, 2024). He has also been active as a copyeditor, translator, and journal referee at Alif (the AUC Journal in Cairo) since 2019.
Before joining DIMAS, Nassif served as the principal coordinator of a joint history project between the University of Regensburg, the University of Baghdad, and Al-Nahrain University in Iraq (DLLG Project). He also worked as an adjunct lecturer at the University of G?ttingen and the University of Münster after completing his doctorate in 2019 through the DFG Research Training Group “Literary Form: History and Culture of Aesthetic Modelling.” During this time, he was also a member of the research group Contested Amnesia, Dissonant Narratives at the University of Zurich. In addition to his research, Nassif has a longstanding commitment to teaching and curriculum development. He has held roles as an instructor and academic coordinator at several leading institutions in the UAE and Lebanon, including six years at the University of Balamand and Notre Dame University.
Office: BA.820, Bajuwarenstr. 4
E-mail: Dani.Nassif@geschichte.uni-regensburg.de
Telephone number: +49 941 943 68566
CV
Academic Positions
| May 2024-October 2024 | Research Associate at the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge (during research sabbatical of Dr. Siarhei Bohdan) |
| 2019-2023 | Project Coordinator, DAAD University Cooperation Project between University of Regensburg, University of Baghdad, and al-Nahrain University (Baghdad, Iraq) |
| Since 2021 | Visiting Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragter), University of G?ttingen |
| 2010-2016 | English and Arabic Language Instructor, University of Balamand (Balamand, Lebanon) |
| 2011-2016 | Instructor, Notre Dame University (Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon) |
Academic Training
| 2016-2022 | Doctorate in Arabic Studies (summa cum laude), University of Münster. Title of Dissertation: "New Explorations in Trauma and the Lebanese War Novel: Labyrinthine Ruins, Invisible Disappeared, and Impossible Testimonies in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction" Member of the Graduiertenkolleg Research Group "Literarische Form. Geschichte und Kultur ?sthetischer Modellbildung" |
| 2017-2022 | Member of the SNSF Research Group "Dissonant Narratives: Post-Conflict Literature and Archives," University of Zürich |
| 2010 | CELTA (A Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) |
| 2010 | M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Balamand (Balamand, Lebanon) |
| 2003 | B.A. and T.D. in English Language and Literature, Lebanese University (Beirut, Lebanon) |
Research
Research Interests
- Lebanese History and Culture: The Lebanese Civil Wars, Beirut’s Reconstruction, and The Lebanese Revolutions
- The History of the War Disappeared in the Arabic World
- Trauma Testimony in Arabic-Speaking Contexts (Lebanon and Iraq)
- History of ISIS in Northern Iraq and Syria
- Secular and Religious Discourses During and After the Arab Spring
- Knowledge Production and Exchange Between the West and the Arab World
- Trauma Theory and War Memories in Arabic Publications
- History of the Middle East in the 20th and 21st Centuries
- European-Arab Relations in Political and Cultural Transitions
- Religion and the State in Europe and the Arab World
Third-party funding and research funding
UR Fellows Program for early career researchers (funding of the research project “Writing a ‘History Without Documents’: Using Literary and Creative Sources to Write the History of Post-Conflict Societies)” (with Prof. Dr. Timothy Nunan)
Publications
Trauma, Memory, and the Lebanese Post-War Novel: Beirut’s Invisible Histories in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.
“The Invisible History of the Lebanese Civil War: Autobiographical Metafiction of a Surviving Disappeared in Rabī? Jābir’s al-I?tirāfāt.” Fiction and History: the Rebirth of the Historical Novel in Arabic, edited by Sobhi Boustani, Rasheed El-Enany, Monica Ruocco and Patrizia Zanelli, Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino, 2022, pp. 91–113.
"?????? ?????? ??????: ?????? ??????-??????? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ????." ????? ?? ?????? ??????: ???? ??????? ????????? ??? ??? ????? ?. ???–???. ?Fantasie und Trauma: Tot-Leben Zeugnisse in Rabee Jabers Berytus“. Literatur Konfrontiert die Sterblichkeit, Alif 42, 2022, pp. 267-297.
“The War, the Undead, and the Labyrinthine a?lāl: The Case of Postwar Beirut in Rabee Jaber’s Novel The Mehlis Report.” Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations, edited by Enass Khansa, Konstantin Klein, and Barbara Winckler, Kadmos, 2022, pp. 325–342.
“al-Mawtu ?amalun shāqq: Death, Corpse, and the Afterlife During the Syrian War.” Arabic Literature in a Posthuman World, edited by Stephan Guth and Teresa Pepe, Harrassowitz, 2019, pp. 249-258.
Teaching
Summer Semester 2025
- Middle Eastern Revolutions, European Interventions: Politics, Culture and History (1919-2011)
Summer Semester2024
- Middle Eastern Revolutions, European Interventions: Politics, Culture and History (1919-2011)
Winter Semester 2023/24
- Trauma and Cultural Production in Post-Conflict Societies: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon