Barbara Romaine
Barbara Romaine (born 1959) is an academic and translator of Arabic literature. From 2008 to 2021 she taught in the Department of Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University, where she also edited a periodical, Writing in Tongues: A Global Interdisciplinary Journal. Romaine has translated a number of literary works from Arabic to English. These include: Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery by Bahaa Taher (University of California Press, 1996) Siraaj by Radwa Ashour (University of Texas Press, 2007) Spectres by Radwa Ashour (Interlink Books, 2011) Blue Lorries (original title in Arabic, Farag) by Radwa Ashour (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, 2014) A Cloudy Day on the Western Shore by Mohamed Mansi Qandil (Syracuse University Press, 2018) Waiting for the Past (original title in Arabic, What Will Come) by Hadiya Hussein (Syracuse University Press, 2022) Biography Romaine trained as a classicist. In 1987 she was sent to Egypt to research Roman sites in and around the city of Alexandria. Fascinated by the Arabic language, over the next six years she attended university extension classes, two intensive (full-immersion) summers at Middlebury College, and a year on fellowship at the American University in Cairo (1992-1993). She taught Arabic at the College of William and Mary