Family: married Dr Victoria Beard (Associate Provost of UND) 1968

Education: BA, Stanford 1966; MA, University of California 1968; PhD, Indiana University 1974

Career: Michael Beard has been a member of the UND faculty since 1979. His professional experience includes service with the Peace Corps and as a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, Egypt from 1974 until 1979. He then spent a year on a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches both in UND’s Department of English, but he is also a specialist in Middle Eastern literature. Since coming to UND, Michael Beard has given more than 50 presentations at conferences and meetings, and he has been a reviewer, editor and co-editor for prestigious bulletins, magazines and books. In addition to his extensive service work in this area, he has been a regular consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is co-editor of Middle Eastern Literatures incorporating Edebiyât (see url below).

Honours and awards: Fulbright Fellowship to the University of Jordan 1996, Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor Award, UND

Publications include: Hedayat's ‘Blind Owl’ as a Western Novel 1990, Naguib Mahfouz: From Regional Fame to Global Recognition (co-editor) 1993, Walking with the Wind by Abbas Kiarostami (translated from Persian and co-edited with Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak) 2002; more than 100 articles and reviews on comparative literature (especially relations between Europe and the Islamic world), the modern period, literary criticism (especially genre theory and theory of translation), the novel, the 17th century, James Joyce, popular culture, Italian language and literature

Contact details: Address: Merrifield Hall, Room 100-B, Department of English, 276 Centennial Drive, Stop 7209, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA; Tel: +1 701-777-2775; Tel: +1 701-777-3321 (office ext.); Fax: +1 701-777-2373; Email: michael_beard@und.nodak.edu ; Email: michaelbeard@mail.und.nodak.edu ; Website: http://www.und.edu/dept/english/index.html ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1475262x.asp/ .