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 primarily concerns "modern" Arabic prose as a source of homemaking, homecoming, and belonging for Arab writers during the Nahda (Renaissance) period of cultural production. Bilal seeks to orient the early twentieth century Mahjar (émigre) literary movement in critical relation to the formation of the Arabic novel. Particularly, he is interested in interrogating the revolutionary intersection of Romantic literary formations and the qasida tradition harnessed by Mahjar literati across transnational networks between Cairo, Mount Lebanon, and the Americas. Bilal works in Arabic, English, French, and soon, Persian. Bilal holds additional interests in Arabic literary theory, Biblical influence in the modern Arabic novel, and leftist political expression embedded in written metaphor.

Nicolas-Bilal Urick 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.