The first seminar was under the supervision and questioning of Dr. Ahmed Qabaha and Dr. Mohammed Hamdan. The first group,  to present their project,  had Areej Abdullah and Rahma Shaar .The title of  their project   was  “Is Civalization a Veneer? Darkness of the Human Soulin  WilliamGolding’s Lord of the Flies and Thomas Hardy’s Heart of Darkness. In their presentation they showed  full understanding of the political sphere in the sub -context of literature with a view at society. Next  group  had  three students who took on the task of preparing their mini-theses individually . Sahar Ramadan was first with “Caught in Two Ages: Doctor Faustus’ Crisis of Belonging” with a hard look at the world of literature. She introduced a new way looking  at Doctor Faustus and his  search for identity. Duha Assi’s  paper  entitled  “The Awakening of Two Women: Ibsen’s Nora and Shaw’s Eliza.” Using literature as a reference point, she dwelt  on  women’s role in society and its perception of that  role. Last student in the  group  was Ashraqat Sasour with a paper  entitled  “Torn between Two Types of Prejudice: The Dilemma of Black Women in Stockett’s The Help.” Addressing  a sensitive subject, Ashrqat used literature to demonstrate the way the world deals with Black women, using the catalyst of racial rights and women’s rights  as  a juxtaposition with the novel.

 

The second seminar was under the supervision of   Dr. Abdul Kareem Draghmeh and Dr. Bilal Hamamreh.  The seminar  had nine  students  divided into two groups; one had  three students; another had   four, and  a third had  two    students. The first group had Marah Utair, Heba Sadaqa, and Marah Abu-Salah. Their  paper entitled  “Hollywood Movies Through the Lens of Edward Said’s Orientalism”  examined  the way Hollywood depicts the Middle East  against  the  background of   Edward Said’s book of the same title . This choice shows how bold  the students  were in  holding a mirror up  to the face of Hollywood, showing  rights from wrongs in its cinematography. This also showed a deep understanding of Edward Said’s text and a deep understanding of the Arab world. The group Sana’ Sholi, Sarah Amer, and Rawan Attallah,  .In their project, “A Postcolonial Reading of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” the  students looked  into Mohsin Hamid’s most inspired works that dwell on society and religion in the society itself. Their choice of a postcolonial reading shows their confidence  in analysis of  a text in a way that doesn’t limit their imagination or thinking. Concerning religion, society, and  the literary text, theirs was one of  most interesting and worthwhile projects presented on that day. The next two presenters on that day for this seminar were Rami Kukhun with his “A Presentist Reading of Brave New World: The Modern Impact of Social Mutation on Politics and Education.” He   presented  a reading of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Worldin terms of its  influence on education and politics in today’s world. A modern take on a classic novel, Kukhun attempted to show how a more modern look into the novel, one that dealt mainly with  education and politics, affects our world today and how one might attempt to perceive  it in future projects. The final presentation in  seminar was NoufSaleh’s “The Mythological Approach in Analyzing  John Synge’s Riders to the Sea.” A classic in the world of drama and a hallmark in our education in the department, Saleh merged two of literature’s most coveted genres and analyzed a text in a way that introduced mythological elements to that world. This way of presenting information and dissecting it  in a way new to that text is profound  and shows the department’s weighing of important subjects and different ways of interpretation of literary texts.

The third seminar on that day, held in room 94, was supervised by      Lecturer Iman Hammad and  instructor Sameer Mahmoud.The  seminar had  three  groups; two /three-member groups and one/ two-member group. The first presentation in  that seminar,  delivered by  Dalia Qasrawi, Aya Bozia, and Ru’ya Odeh, was entitled  “Translation of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Magic Finger/’Children Literature.” Taking on the difficult task of translation, this group    translated children lullabies and tales into a modern Arabic version  for Arab children to enjoy. The task of translation  was very challenging , meaning this project took heavy amounts of reading of different translations and works to provide a coherent translation suitable for young Arab children. The second presentation wasby MaramReda, NiveenNassar, Anas Haj Ahmad. Entitled Designing Two Games: Letters and Numbers for 1^st Graders, ”  the task at hand for this group was to create a game  and demonstrate  how  it  could be  used  in first grade language  calssroomto the  game combined  learning and fun . This was not an easy task by all means as these students had to design the game from the ground up, designing questions and challenges for the students to face, insuring an educational but fun game. A brilliant idea in itself, one of the members of this project, Anas Haj Ahmad commented that a variation of this   game could  be “very helpful for young students who like to game all day but not to study. ” Finally, the last group in this  seminar was the duo of Hanin Bassan and Shahd Imar with their project entitled  “I prefer not to… Bartleby, the Scrivener: Self and Space.” In this paper, the  two students  turned   their attention to one of literature’s most sophisticated works that deal with the human psyche. This project attempted to shed light on the awkward thinking and actions of Bartleby, a scrivener in Wall Street. This character and story is one of Herman Melville’s greatest works, and shows the willingness of these students to dive into the human mind in  an attempt to  understand more clearly the thinking patterns of this odd character.

The fourth seminar, held in room 100, was supervised by the pair instructor ReemQa’danand Dr. Sufian Abu Arrah. Two of the  seminar   participants  were  Yasmin Abu Obeid and Doa’a Omariya with their “Gender Inversion on Facebook and Palestinian Women.” This project focused on the online discourse in the  world of Facebook and how the Palestinian women find it risky of being discriminated against  even in the online world. The aim of the project was  to call for a refrain from discrimination against women in the online world, for them to have a safe haven from prejudice, and to seek out the ways these women attempted  to  shield themselves from harm’s way. Another  two participants  were HadeelAtteyeh and Hiba Al-Alem with their ”Translation Problems in For the Sake of Your Green Eyes.”Another project to  deal with translation, Atteyehand  Al-Alemventured  into world of the the genre of imaginative text;  their project  had  required immense hours of research to get the translation of the text coherent and correct. This project was lauded by professors for the level of professionalism demonstrated in the  translation. Finally, the last participants in  the seminar were  SajaAlawni, QamarQararia, andAbeerSalamah Entitled “Religious Culture in Matran's and Al Wakeel's Translationof Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice,” the students presented an  analysisAl -Wakeel’s translation. This project touched   on religion andtranslation of  culture from  one language culture to another. Not shying away from a difficult task, this project required the immense  effortand drawn out finding of research that dealt with the subject at hand. It is a hallmark for the students’ ability to dissect information at a glance and then have the ability to delve further into a piece of information for the purpose of knowing more about  it andits  making.

The fifth seminar, held in room 10, was supervised by Dr. RamiQawareeq and Dr. Sameer Isa. They supervised two groups of  four members in each The first group had IlhamDeik, Aseel Salah, Lama Darawshah, and RaghdahSrouji with their “Subtitling Implied Meaning in AnimationMovies” With their focus  on  the world of animation, this group addressed  the field of subtitles and the implied meaning behind them, added by  those who create and review these  movies. Of course,  the target group for animated movies  are  more often   than not   are young age children .The subtitles presented to them from a movie help them learn the language  of  the movie . However, often the one who  adds and reviews the translated subtitles of these movies gives them meaning beyond the scope of the actual movie and often has  deep implied meaning the reader subconsciously takes into consideration and, therefore, this  affect his/her opinion   of the movie and what it stands for. This project had   required the participation of each member, doing their part to insure the original meaning would be  understood well and the implied meaning be  dissected well so that these meanings could  be brought into more focus and judged as they are and not, often, part of the actual dialogue of the movie. This projected opened the minds of audience  to the danger of subtitles and how often one watching the movie, reading the subtitles, with the subtitles changing his/her perception of the movie in a way that wasn’t clear before.  The last  group to present in this seminar  had  Shifa Marie, Abeer Mahameed, NadinKoni, and Raneen Lahloh with their “Obama's Farwell Speech: A Discourse Analytic Perspective. ” Focusing on presidential discourse, this group focused on the United States’ 44^th President and the first African-American president in its history. The project was an analysis of the farewell speech of one of America’s greatest ever presidents and one of the most influential people of his era. This project required the students to delve into each and every word and sentence that came out of the President’s mouth, conveying meaning beyond the scope of the normal listener. A speech of great magnitude, it  still swims in the hearts of Americans to this day. The students’ analysis gives it the fullest of honors with the students magnificently conveying the meaning beyond the words adequately and in a way that paints the picture of a great speech of  a great man.

The penultimate seminar of the day was held in room 110 and was  supervised by Dr. Fayez Aqel and Department Chair  Dr. Ekrema Shihab. This seminar had  three students: Budoor Amleh, Abdul Rahman, and Yahya Ayat Sawalha Entitled  “Jabra's and Mutran's Translation of Religious Culture in Shakespeare’s Macbeth” was  analysis of  the translation of Macbeth, one of the greatest works of literature in human recorded history. This projected expected  the  students to be coherent  to be  understood by  the audience. The project also required the students to fully grasp the play and each of its catalyst parts to insure the translation of this great play gives it justice. The students did brilliantly in this project, diving into the mind of Shakespeare and the world of the play, while also delving into the minds of the translators to insure a full and adequate translation of this play. They also searched through  many translations which have dealt with literary   and their adequate translations to have a full view on how to correctly assess the translation.

The final seminar of the day, held in room 120, was supervised by Dr. Ekrema Shehab and examined by    Dr. Ayman Nazzal and Dr. Ruqayya HerzAllah.  The one group seminar,  the largest of any on that day,  had six students:Yakop Ghazal Cohen, Ibrahim Ramadan, Mays Tayyem, Manar Salameh, Rawan Ghanem, and Ansar Haj Assad.  Entitled “Challenges in Translating GautamMukerjee’sEconomics of Globalization,” of the  seminar  was attended by both classmates, friends, and  family  members. The project required the students translation of Gautam Mukerjee’s Economics of Globalization, a book consisting of 220 pages, from  English into the  Arabic. A detailed report was also written, with the book, on the challenges the students    faced during the translation and the ways the students overcame them The project required immense work and cooperation on the part of the students in both the translation  itself and the report writing  on the experience of  its translation . Long hours of research were put into the fields of Arabic and English as languages, the world of economics and globalization, and the world of translation.  Dr.Nazzal described it as “outstanding” with Dr. Ruqayya, more modestly putting it as “very, very,  very good.”

 

            And so forty-six students presented their projects successfully in front of their respective  examiners, with friends and family members  in attendance. The English Department    congratulates these students on their hard work and   completion of these  projects.

 

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