Michael Malek Najjar

Degrees:

PhD, Theater and Performance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
MFA, Directing, York University, Toronto, Canada
BA, Theater, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Awards:

2025        University of Oregon Presidential Fellow in Arts Award            
2025        James F. Miller Artistic Development Fund for Faculty in Theatre Arts
2024        Special Initiative on Constructively Engaging the Conflict and Pursuit of Peace in Palestine/Israel Program Grant
2024        Williams Fund Instructional Grant        Williams Council, University of Oregon 
2022        Certificate of Merit, Directing            Kennedy Center/American College Theatre 
2021        Fund for Faculty Excellence Award        University of Oregon
2021        Faculty Research Mentor Award            University of Oregon
2021        Oregon Humanities Center Subvention        University of Oregon
2020        Summer Stipend for Humanities            University of Oregon
2019-2020    Ernest G. Moll Research Professorship        University of Oregon
2018        UO Summer Teaching Institute            University of Oregon
2018        Oregon Humanities Center Subvention        University of Oregon
2017        NEH Summer Institute Summer Scholar        Oregon State University
2017-2021    Rippey Innovative Teaching Award        University of Oregon
2016        Humanities and Creative Arts Award        University of Oregon
2016        Working Group/Active Teaching & Learning    University of Oregon
2016-2017    Rippey Innovative Teaching Award        University of Oregon
2016        Stanley B. Greenfield Faculty Award        University of Oregon
2016        Global Oregon Faculty Collaboration Award    University of Oregon
2015        Rutherford Initiative for ME Studies        University of Oregon
2014        Certificate of Merit, Directing            Kennedy Center/American College Theatre 
2014        Junior Professor Development Award        University of Oregon
2014        OHC/CAS Faculty Author Subvention Grant    University of Oregon
2013        Certificate of Merit, Ensemble Performance    Kennedy Center/American College Theatre
2012-2013    Rippey Innovative Teaching Award        University of Oregon
2007-2011    Eugene V. Cota Robles Fellowship        UCLA     

Courses:

Majors Seminar, Theatre History, Playwriting, Contemporary Arab-American Theatre, and Middle Eastern Theatre.

Pedagogical Statement:
The classroom and rehearsal hall are places for intellectual growth, creative expression, and open dialogue. I am dedicated to a pedagogy that encourages students to achieve their highest potential through collaboration, exploration, and inspiration. I believe that the theatre is a necessary forum in society that transforms audiences and theatre artists alike.

Research Interests:
Contemporary Arab-American Theatre and Performance, Contemporary Theatre, Ethnic Studies, Critical Race Theory, Arab-American Studies.

Awards and Accomplishments:

Special Initiative on Constructively Engaging the Conflict and Pursuit of Peace in Palestine/Israel Program Grant, 2025, Williams Fund Instructional Grant, 2024, Certificate of Merit, Directing, Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, 2022, Fund for Faculty Excellence Award, 2021, Faculty Research Mentor Award, 2021, Ernest G. Moll Research Professorship, 2019-2020, NEH Summer Institute Summer Scholar, 2017, Humanities and Creative Ars Award, 2016, Working Group/Active Teaching & Learning, 2016, Rippey Innovative Teaching Award, 2016, Global Oregon Faculty Collaboration Award, 2016, Rutherford Initiative for Middle Eastern Studies, 2015, Certificate of Merit, Directing, Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, 2014, Junior Professor Development Award, 2014, OHC/CAS Faculty Author Subvention Grant, 2014, U.C. Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, 2007-2011, UCLA Summer Research Mentorship, 2009, UCLA Center for World Languages Scholarship, 2008, President’s Award American Druze Society 2007, Master Teacher/Outstanding Service Award, Bend Theatre for Young People, 2003.

Publications:
Until I Return: The Selected Works of Ismail Khalidi. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2025 (co-edited with Hala Baki).

The Vagrant Trilogy: Three Plays by Mona Mansour. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2022 (co-edited with Hala Baki).

Middle Eastern American Drama: Communities, Cultures and Creators, 2021.

“Female Arab American Solo Performance and Stand-Up: A Burgeoning Genre of Arab American Art,” Sajjilu Arab American: A Reader in SWANA Studies. Edited by Louise Cainkar, Pauline Homsi Vinson, Amira Jarmakani. Syracuse University Press, 2021.

“Arab and Arab American Theatre: A Genre Absent from the American Theatrical Canon,” co-authored with Samer Al-Saber in Troubling Traditions: Canonicity, Theatre, and Performance in the US, ed. by Lindsey Mantoan, Matthew Moore, and Angela Farr Schiller. Routledge Press.

"Middle Eastern American Theatre: Communities, Cultures and Artists." Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021.

Heather Raffo’s Iraq Plays: The Things That Can’t Be Said, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2021.

“Teaching Middle Eastern Theatre: Challenges, Opportunities, and Rewards,” an article, in Theater in the Middle East: Between Performance and Politics, ed. by Babak Rahimi, Anthem, 2020.

"ReOrient 2019: A Homecoming for Golden Thread Alumni” https://goldenthread.org/posts/reorient-2019-a-homecoming-for-golden-thr...

Epilogue, “Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative”. Routledge Publishing, 2019.

The Selected Works of Yussef El Guindi, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2019.

“Theater: Plays by Women Playwrights, Directors, and Producers in Islamic Cultures” in Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, co-authored with Zeina Salame. Koninklijke Brill N.V., 2018.

“The Talented Ones” Review, Theatre Journal 70 (2018), pp. 255-256.

Six Plays of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, McFarland & Co., Inc. Publishers, 2018 (co-edited with Jamil Khoury and Corey Pond).

Arab American Drama, Film and Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present, McFarland & Co., Inc. Publishers, 2015.

Four Arab American Plays: Works by Leila Buck, Jamil Khoury, Yussef El Guindi, and Lameece Issaq & Jacob Kader, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013.

“‘There’s Nothing Funny About Your People”: Muslim American Humor in the Post 9/11 World,'” an article, in Muslims in American Popular Culture, ed. by Iraj Omidvar and Anne Rypstat Richards, Praeger, 2014.

“Re-evaluating the Syrio-American School: Gibran, Rihani and Naimy: East-West Interactions in Early Twentieth-Century Arab Literature by Aida Imangulieva,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 16, no. 62 (2010)

“Understanding Who We Are: A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories by Alia Malek,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine,vol. 16, no. 62 (2010).

“Loving His Country Through ‘Metadrama’: Alfred Farag and the Egyptian Theater,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 61 (2009).

“Embracing Inbetweeness: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah M.A. Gualtieri,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 61 (2009). http://aljadid.com/books/Embracinginbetweenness.html

“Nahda’s Children: Conscience of the Nation: Writers, State, and Society in Modern Egypt by Richard Jacquemond,” a Book Review, Al-Jadid Magazine, vol. 15, no. 60 (2009). http://aljadid.com/books/NahdasChildren.html

“Restaging Culture: Pacific Overtures 30 Years On,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, March 2005.

“The Shifting Shape of Recent Performance Art,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, January 2005.

“Writing from the Hyphen: Arab-American Playwrights Struggle with Identity in the Post-9/11 World,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, September 2004.

“Thirty-nine Years and Counting: A Look at East West Players’ ‘New Perspectives,’” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, July 2004.

“Phoenix Ascending: Seattle’s ACT Theater Rises from the Ashes,” Thompson Gale Arts & Humanities Community News, May 2004.

“Laurence Olivier,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

“Community Theater,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

“Death of a Salesman,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

“The Glass Menagerie,” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

Selected Production Credits:

Director: Los Dreamers, University Theatre, 2006; Director: THEM, touring production, Summer 2025; Director: Frankenstein: Playing with Fire, University Theatre, 2024. Director: She Kills Monsters, University Theatre, 2022. Director: God Said This, University Theatre, 2022. Director, Art, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 2021. Co-Director, Zafira and the Resistance, New Arab American Theatre Works @ The Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, 2019. Director, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World, Minority Voices Theatre @ The Very Little Theatre, Eugene, 2018. Scenes From 70* Years, Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco, 2019. New Threads, Golden Thread Productions, 2017. Lead Director for Semitic Commonwealth, Silk Road Rising, 2017. Director/Writer: Talib, Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago, 2010; Writer: Farewell Beloved, Royal Jordanian Film Commission Screenwriters’ Lab, Jordan, 2010; Hamlet, Bend Theatre for Young People, Oregon, 2007; The Love of the Nightingale, Portland Community College Theatre Arts, 2007; Urinetown, Portland Community College Theatre Arts, 2006; Precious Stones, Silk Road Theatre Project, 2003; Lysistrata, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, 2003.