Sami Alkyam, a PhD candidate, was invited to join the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University in the Fall of 2012. Sami studies Arabic and Anglophone and Francophone literature from Africa and the Arab world, with an emphasis on contemporary Arabic novel, culture, and film. Sami holds two Masters, the first of which is in applied linguistics and the second is in African Languages and Literature. His MA thesis in African Languages and Literature was a linguistic analysis of second language compositions. His current research interests include depictions of dictators and tyranny in the Arabic novel. Sami is also interested in literary translation, language teaching, second language acquisition, and the use of technology in instruction. He has been teaching Arabic at UW-Madison and three other campuses in the United States for the last 6 years.