is Professor for Arabic Literature and Culture at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and member of the board of directors at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. Her edited volumes include Martyrdom and Literature: Visions of Death and Meaningful Suffering in Europe and the Middle East from Antiquity to Modernity (Reichert Verlag, 2004), Conflicting Narratives: War, Violence and Memory in Iraqi Culture (Reichert Verlag, 2012), and Commitment and Beyond: Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s (Reichert Verlag, 2015).