Karen McNeil

Education

Experience

Research

Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Created the first large-scale corpus of Tunisian Arabic, available free to the public at tunisiya.org. Corpus contains materials from a wide variety of genres, including folktales, talk radio, blogs, and screenplays, and is accessible through a custom-built search and concordancing tool. This corpus has been of value to scholars all over the world, including in a recent book: Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators by David Wilmsen of the American University of Beirut. The ultimate goal of the corpus is to provide data for reference materials for Tunisian Arabic (and North African Arabic more broadly), most critically a bilingual Tunisian-English dictionary and basic coursebook for Tunisian Arabic. http://www.tunisiya.org

I'm currently working on the translation of Lebanese writer Inaya Jaber's book Nobody Gets Lost in Beirut.

Publications

• Arts, T. (2014). Oxford Arabic Dictionary (Revising Editor). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• McNeil, K. (forthcoming 2018). “Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Creating a written corpus of an unwritten language.” In Hardie, A. et al (eds.), Arabic Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• McNeil, K. (2017). “Fī (‘in’) as a Marker of the Progressive Aspect in Tunisian Arabic.” In Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects: Common Trends – Recent Developments – Diachronic Aspects. Zaragoza: University of Zaragoza Press.

• World Literature Today (forthcoming 2018). “I Have the Right to be a Stranger.” Translation, with Miled Faiza, of Arabic short story “Yaḥuqqa liy an akūn gharība” by Inaya Jaber.
• Banipal. 60: Autumn/Winter 2017. “Lamia Makaddam: Four Poems.” Translation, with Miled Faiza, of four Arabic poems by Lamia Makaddam: “Bāyaʕa al-khubz,” “Iḏā katabtu al-shiʕr yawman,” “Fustān qaṣīr,” and “La budda anna yankasir shayˀun fī al-nihāya”.
• Banipal. 49: Spring 2014. “Searching for Grandmother’s House.” Translation of Arabic short story “Al-baḥth ʕan bayt al-jadda” by Hassouna Mosbahi.
• Al Jadid Magazine. Vol. 18, no. 67: 2014. “A Faraway Room” and “Puppets”. Translation of two Arabic poems by Miled Faiza: “Tilka al-ghorfa al-baʕīda” and “Al-dumā”.
• Banipal. 39: Autumn/Winter 2010. "An Interpretation of the House During Our Absence" and "On the Edge of the World." Translation, with Tristin Cranfield, of two Arabic poems by Miled Faiza: "Taˀwīl al-bayt ithna al-ghiāb" and "ʕAla hāfa al-'arḍ”.
• World Literature Today. May-June 2008. "An Interpretation of Absence" and "Black and White." Translation of two Arabic poems by Miled Faiza: "Taˀwīl al-ghiāb" and "Abiyaḍ wa aswad”.

• al-Quds, September 15, 2013. "Qasīdatān." Selected poems by Sharon Olds, with Miled Faiza.
• al-Ghawoon, May 1, 2010, “Sāḥa min ḥalmatayya ḥalībi.” Selected poems by Sharon Olds, with Miled Faiza.
• al-Ghawoon, November 1, 2009. "Imraˀa tumazziq fustānahā kay tastaṭīʕa al-jarī." Selected poems by Sharon Olds, with Miled Faiza.

• Banipal. Autumn/Winter 2010. “Portrait: Ezzedine Madani,” with Miled Faiza.
• Jamaliya, September 23, 2007, "'Qatalū al-rasūla' .. nizār qabbānī wa zawjatuhu balqīs - Qirāˀa li-shiʕar nizār qabbānī bi-ʕayūn amrīkiyya ['They Have Killed the Prophet:' Nizar Qabbani and his wife Belquis - A reading of Nizar Qabbani's poetry through American eyes]."
• Jazoor, September 11, 2007, "'Qatalū al-rasūla' .. nizār qabbānī wa zawjatuhu balqīs - Qirāˀa li-shiʕar nizār qabbānī bi-ʕayūn amrīkiyya ['They Have Killed the Prophet:' Nizar Qabbani and his wife Belquis - A reading of Nizar Qabbani's poetry through American eyes]."

• Presenter, Arabic Linguistic Forum, July 2018. “Use of 'nominal' negation with Tunisian verbs.”
• Keynote Speaker, International Symposium on Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects, University of Vienna (Austria), July 6, 2015. "Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Creating a Written Corpus of an "Unwritten" Language."
• Presenter, International Symposium on Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects, University of Vienna (Austria), July 7, 2015. "Fī (‘in’) as a Marker of the Progressive Aspect in Tunisian Arabic: A cognitive approach.”
• Presenter, Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics, Lancaster University, July 2013. “Corpus-based lexicography for a language with a rich lexicographical tradition: The case of Arabic,” with Tressy Arts, Oxford University Press.
• Presenter, Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics, Lancaster University, April 2011. “Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Creating a written corpus of an unwritten language,” with Miled Faiza.
• Presenter, Jil Jadeed conference, University of Texas - Austin, February 2011. “Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Creating a written corpus of an unwritten language.”

• Marcel Khalife: Translated Marcel’s dedication on his son Rami Khalife’s album “Stories” (2016) from Arabic to English, with Miled Faiza. Also interpreted Marcel’s speech at Harvard University, November 8, 2014.
• Yolla Khalife: Translated titles and lyrics for her album “Hawak” (2015) from Arabic to English, with Miled Faiza.
• Adonis: Interpreted for Adonis during his appearance at Brown University, March 13, 2013.

Skills

• Modern Standard Arabic
• Tunisian Arabic
• Egyptian Arabic
• Levantine Arabic
• Spanish
• French