Parwana Fayyaz will be joining join the Department of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures as an assistant professor in January of 2025. Fayyaz’s research interests are deeply rooted in the interdisciplinary nature of pre-modern Islamic learning, particularly the narrative-poems that reflect the confluence of Greek, Arabic and Persian literary traditions 

Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and raised as a refugee in Pakistan, Fayyaz completed her undergraduate studies in comparative literature with a minor in creative writing (poetry) at Stanford University in 2015. In 2016, she completed a master’s in religious studies at Stanford, and she completed her Ph.D. at Trinity College, Cambridge. Her dissertation, “Poetry and Poetics: the Sufi Eye and the Neoplatonic Vision in Jāmī’s Salāmān va Absāl,” explores the mystical teachings and philosophical underpinnings in Jami’s narrative-poem. 

In addition to her academic contributions, Fayyaz is a poet. Her debut collection, 40 Names, bears witness to the lives of Afghan women, both in their homeland and in exile. The title poem of the collection won the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, showcasing her ability to weave personal narratives with cultural significance.