Ayman A. El-Desouky is Senior Lecturer in Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature and Founding Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS, 2009-2012) at SOAS, University of London, UK. He has lectured at the University of Texas at Austin (1993-1995), the Johns Hopkins University (1995-1996) and at Harvard University (1996-2002) before he moved to London. He is currently preparing a book-length study on Figuring the Sacred in the Modern Arabic Novel.