Nicolas-Bilal Urick

Nicolas-Bilal Urick is a doctoral student in the department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania. Bilal's research primary concerns the relationship between pre- and early Islamic literature, multilingualism, and the Arab Mahjar (émigré) movement’s development of distinct poetic forms.  Bilal works in Arabic, English, French, Russian, and soon, Persian. He holds additional interests in diaspora studies, Persian migration literature, Biblical influence in modern Arabic, transnational literary salon culture, and Arabic literary criticism.

Bilal holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he wrote his Honors thesis on the migration of Romantic literary forms across Arabic and English cartographies.