Nasser Meerkhan

Assistant Professor

5218 Dwinelle Hall

meerkhan@berkeley.edu

Office Hours: Tu 10:30-11:30, Thu 9-10 (Zoom)

Education
Ph.D., Spanish Literature, University of Virginia (2017)
M.A., Hispanic Studies, Villanova University (2013)
B.A., Spanish Literature, Damascus University, Syria (2011)

Research Interests
Medieval & Early Modern Iberian literature
Women writers of Medieval Iberia and the Middle East
Historiography in Medieval Iberia
Semitic maqamat
Don Quixote

Publications
“False Hopes and Flawed Sainthood in Don Quixote: Khiḍr, Al-Mahdī, and the Knight of the Green Coat.” Hispanic Review, 87: 3, Summer 2019, pp. 285–308.

"Islamogothic Iberia: The Tārīkh of Ibn al-Qūṭīyah." The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia. Routledge, 2021. 197-212.

“El pasado como antídoto contra la incertidumbre: La leyenda Morisca de Alí ibn Abi Talib y el Alcazar de Oro.” España a través de sus mitos. Iberoamericana. Ed. Carrie Ruiz & Daniel Arroyo-Rodriguez, [expected 2023].

Courses Taught

SPANISH 135 Challenging Genres (Spring 2018), Women of Medieval Iberia (Fall 2018), Frame-tale narratives (Fall 2019).
SPANISH 107A Medieval and Early Modern Survey
SPANISH 285 The World of Alfonso X The Wise
NES 153 Synagogues, Cathedrals, and Mosques: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Iberia

Book Project

Tentatively titled From Muses to Makers: Women Writers of Medieval Iberia, Nasser’s book project retells the literary history of medieval Iberia from the perspective of women writers. The project aims to document, explore and analyze the methods with which medieval Iberian women writers resorted to genres that were historically considered appropriate for women – namely elegy for those writing in Arabic and confessional prose and poetry for those writing in Castilian – in order to develop a variety of themes – satire, panegyrics, and homoerotic love, among others. Ultimately, the book’s examination of texts by medieval Iberian women brings to the surface the measures they took to (re)produce meaning through social interactions, at once appropriating and subverting the channels that they had at their disposal to push against constant attempts to restrict their creative processes.

Other Current Projects

  • Book chapter on prophecies and legends in the literature of crypto-Muslims of Late Medieval and Early Modern Iberia [Spanish].
  • Article on philosophical treatise Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan and the picaresque [Arabic].
  • Article on Averroes’ epitome of Plato’s Republic [English].