Gabriel Asfar

French and Arabic

Division: Languages and Literature
Year Appointed: 1983

Education:
B.A., Hamilton College, Phi Beta Kappa; M.A., Ph.D., Princeton University

Areas:
French, Arabic, Francophone literature

Positions:
Princeton University and Middlebury College

Publications:
Dr. Asfar has published articles in French Review, Oeuvres et Critiques, and other journals; he has also written reviews, commentary, and contributions to books on French and Francophone literature, including Images of Arab Women (Three Continents Press, 1979), Critical Bibliography of French Literature (Syracuse University Press, 1980), Literature of Africa and the African Continuum (Three Continents Press, 1984), and Faces of Islam in Sub-Saharan Literature (Heinemann, 1991). He was a contributing writer to the proficiency-based French Test Series, Level I textbook and teacher's guide, Nouveaux Copains (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1988); and coauthor of the Level II and Level III textbooks and teacher's guides, Nous, les jeunes (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1990), and Notre Monde (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1991). He is also coauthor of the Performance Assessment components of the Level I and Level II French language series, Bienvenue and A Bord (McGraw-Hill/Glencoe, 1998).

Special Activities:
He served as editorial translator for the Arabic segment of Children in War, a documentary by Susan and Alan Raymond broadcast on HBO in January 2000. He has been a consultant to the Educational Testing Service, and is currently developing a new test of French language proficiency, the TFI (Test de Français International) for the ETS-based Chauncey Group. He is the translator, with Denise Asfar, of Maya Roy's Musiques cubaines (Paris: Actes Sud, 1998; Princeton, NJ: Wiener Publishing, 2002. In December 2006 and January 2007, Dr. Asfar served as consultant in Arabic to filmmaker Errol Morris on a documentary concerning conditions in the Iraqi prison of Abu-Ghraib.

Contact Information:
Office: Hall College Center, 2nd floor
Phone: (413)-528-7227
Fax: (413)-528-7365
Email: gvasfar@simons-rock.edu