Karim Mattar is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A descendant of survivors of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, he works at the intersection of Palestine studies, the humanities, and higher education. He is currently at work on two book projects. The Ethics of Affiliation seeks to develop a curriculum and a public pedagogy of truth and reconciliation in historic Palestine, focusing on the areas of education, culture, public institutions, civil society, and law. Reflections on Palestine: Exile, Privilege, Responsibility interweaves personal experience, family history, cultural critique, and political analysis to tell a multigenerational, transcontinental story of responsibility to the oppressed. Also a dedicated community organizer, Karim works at the local, state, and national levels to enhance public awareness and understanding of Palestinian literature, history, and politics and to advocate for free speech and academic freedom in the Palestinian case. Karim received his D.Phil. in English at the University of Oxford in 2013, and writes and teaches more broadly on comparative Middle Eastern literatures and cultures, the history of the novel, media and technology, and critical theory. Karim is author of Specters of World Literature: Orientalism, Modernity, and the Novel in the Middle East (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), and with Anna Ball, co-editor of The Edinburgh Companion to the Postcolonial Middle East (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). In addition to numerous articles, chapters, and reviews in leading publications, Karim has also edited or co-edited the journal special issues “The Global Checkpoint” (Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2014; w. David Fieni), “Cartographies of Dissent” (English Language Notes, 2014), and “Pandemic!: COVID-19 and Literary Studies” (English Language Notes, 2023; w. Jason Gladstone and Nan Goodman).
keywords
Palestine studies; comparative Middle Eastern literatures and cultures; history of the novel; media and technology; humanism and the humanities; critical university studies; critical theory
ENGL 2017 - World Literature
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022
Songs. Epics. Autobiographies. Novels. Tales. Plays. Films. These genres appear across cultures, languages, and historical periods. This course focuses on how genres work in a variety of cultures and time periods, reading work written in English and in translation. Students will gain a deep understanding of the possibilities of that genre as well as an introduction to the way that literature travels between cultures. Topics and focus will vary by instructor.
ENGL 2040 - Money Matters: Literature and Finance
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Spring 2024
This course focuses on the interplay between literature, culture, and the world of money, trade, economics, and finance. Students may consider how literary, cultural, and visual artworks spread alongside trade routes; how writers and artists have depicted financial bubbles, boom and bust cycles, and economic crashes; and how culture is tied to capitalist systems that writers and artists have criticized and boosted. Students may visit Norlin�s Special Collections and the CU Art Museum.
ENGL 2112 - Introduction to Literary Theory
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2023
This course introduces students to a wide range of critical theories essential to the study of literature. Critical theories have broad applications because they provide ways to interpret all cultural products, including visual arts, music, and writing. We will investigate some of the major movements relevant to literary studies, which may include, for example, cultural studies, structuralism, feminisms, ecocriticism, critical race theories, postmodern theory, media theories, etc.
ENGL 3116 - Topics in Advanced Theory
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Fall 2019
This course will focus on a specific topic in critical theory. The class is designed to give students a deeper understanding of a theoretical issue or problem. Topics will vary by semester. Check department description for details. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics.
ENGL 3930 - Internship
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Fall 2021
Provides academically supervised opportunity for upper-division students to work in public or private organizations on projects related to students' career goals and to relate classroom theory to practice. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Department enforced prerequisite: 3.0 GPA and faculty supervision.
ENGL 4018 - Literature and Globalization
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Fall 2018
This is a special topics course that studies how the rise of globalization, internationalism, and transnationalism has shaped literary and cultural works in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Topics vary each semester and may include, for instance, analyses of cross-cultural and economic exchanges, migrations and hybrid identities, the legacies of imperialism, or the globalization of English as a literary language. Check department description for details. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics.
ENGL 4116 - Advanced Topics in Media Studies
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Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
This course explores specific topics in the history, theory, and practice of mediation. Past topics have included history of the book, theories of digital media, and the theory and practice of multimedia forms. Topics vary each semester. Check department description for details.
ENGL 4206 - Writing for the Real World
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Fall 2023
Trains students in advanced techniques of writing with a view toward �real world� application'that is, usefulness after graduation. Emphasis on writing for a variety of audiences and techniques for achieving conciseness, clarity, expressiveness, logic, and appropriateness of diction and evidence. Readings include classic and contemporary writings about writing and exemplary professional essays from a variety of fields. Previously offered as a special topics course.
ENGL 4697 - Special Topics in Ethnic US Literatures
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Spring 2020
This course will go in-depth into a special topic in ethnic US literatures through texts drawn from African American, Chicana/o/x, Latina/o/x, Native American and Indigenous, Asian American, and/or Arab American traditions. Topics vary by semester. Check department description for details. Same as ETHN 4692.
ENGL 4820 - Honors Seminar
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Fall 2021
Prepares prospective honors students to write honors theses. Focuses on sharpening the skills needed to write a successful thesis, including research techniques and the ability to evaluate and respond to secondary materials. Required for Honors in English Literature.
ENGL 4830 - Honors Thesis
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
Students accepted to English Departmental Honors are enrolled in this course.
ENGL 5559 - Studies in Special Topics 3
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Fall 2024
Studies special topics that focus on a theme, genre, or theoretical issue not limited to a specific period or national tradition. Topics vary each semester. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours.
ENGL 6959 - Master's Thesis
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Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
