Ph.D. in Literature, Linguistics and Translation, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
M.A. in Arabic Rhetoric, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
B.A. in Arabic Language and Literature, Yarmouk University (Irbid, Jordan)

Dr. Afaf Bataineh joined the American University in Dubai in August 2022 as Professor of Arabic. Previously, she worked for Zayed University, the American University in Kuwait, and the American University of Sharjah. Dr. Bataineh has twenty-two years of experience in higher education where she served as a faculty member, researcher, and academic administrator. She taught courses on Arabic literature, Arabic language, linguistics, critical thinking, Arab women writers, Arabic heritage, Arab culture, research methods, and translation. Her most recent research focuses on bilingualism, translanguaging, linguistic landscapes, and language policy and planning.

Additionally, Dr Afaf is a novelist. She published Al-‘Ighwā’ Al-‘Akhīr (The Last Temptation) and Khārij Al-Jasad (Outside the Body), both in Arabic, with Saqi Books, London/Beirut.

Moreover, Dr. Bataineh translated Democracy and Democratization: Processes and Prospects in a Changing World by Georg Sorensen from English into Arabic. She also translated Linguistic Criticism by Roger Fowler.

Dr. Afaf is acquainted with Arab, British, and American higher education models. She is bilingual (Arabic-English) and deeply appreciates the linguistic, cultural, and ethnic diversity of the Arab world.

Recent publications:

• Bataineh, A. (2021). Language policy in higher education in the United Arab Emirates: Proficiency, choices and the future of Arabic. Language Policy 20(2), 215–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09548-y.
• Al-Bataineh, A. & Gallagher, K. (2021). Attitudes towards translanguaging: how future teachers perceive the meshing of Arabic and English in children’s storybooks. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 24(3), 386-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1471039.
• Gallagher, K. & Bataineh, A. (2020). An investigation into the linguistic landscape of translingual storybooks for Arabic-English bilingual children. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 41(4), 348-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1621326 4.
• Palfreyman, D., and Al-Bataineh, A. (2018). ‘This is my lifestyle, Arabic and English’: students’ attitudes to (trans)languaging in a bilingual university context. Language Awareness 27(1-2), 79-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2018.1431244.