Ibrahim Al Saafin (Chair)

Ibrahim Al Saafin (Chair) is a Jordanian academic, critic, poet, novelist and playwright. He is former Professor of Modern Literary Criticism at the University of Jordan. He obtained a BA in 1966, an MA in 1972 and a PhD in 1978, all in Arabic Language and Literature from Cairo University. He has worked at the University of Jordan as well as the Universities of Yarmouk, Jordan, Tennessee in the United States, King Saud in Riyadh, the UAE and Sharjah Universities. He has also edited or been on the advisory boards of numerous academic and cultural periodicals and has served as a trustee of several universities and prizes. He is the founding head of the Association of Jordanian Critics and, since 1983, external member of the Indian Academy for Arabic language. In 1993, he won the Jordanian State Appreciation Award for the Arts and in 2001, the King Faisal International Prize. He has published more than 32 books of literary criticism, academic studies and creative writing.