Research

• Authorship and Text Composition:
  The Function and staging of Authorship, as well as the communication of the different strategies to convey education and entertainment are of special interest.
• History of emotions:
  How are emotions brought to life in texts? Which corresponding terminology, metaphors, and periphrases do we find in pre-modern texts? Which values ​​are associated with emotions? How can the analysis of Arabic source texts enrich the discourse of the history of emotions? The reading of „al-Faraǧ baʿd aš-šidda“ von at-Tanūḫī
• Literary Practices - Theoretical Approaches:
  A constant concern is the re-reading of prose texts and poetry through theoretical approaches in order to understand and update this very rich textual material and to include it in interdisciplinary research discourses. This proposes new readings, but also puts categories of literary historiography to test and reviews concepts such as tradition and innovation. History and theories of metaphor are examined in the following research project:  "The War-Metaphor in Arabic Poetry: A Study of Innovation, Tradition, and Literary Practices".

The following dissertation projects deal with contemporary literary and creative works in the Arab world:

Peter Konerding: „Pokémon goes Alhambra. Linguistic ideology and popular culture in Maghreb-Arab narrative prose“ (completed).

Safinaz Saad: "Female Subjectivity from a Feminine Authorial Perspective"

Felix Wiedemann: "The Arabic Hip Hop Nation – An Example for Glocalized Postcolonial Culture" (completed).

In the emerging field of TAFL didactics, the Bamberg department of Arabic Studies engages, particularly, in the development and research of teaching Arabic as a foreign language at Bavarian secondary schools. In cooperation with the school ofpedagogics, a publication about Bavarian elective lessons was published.

Moreover, the department has organized several DAAD - funded workshops, in collaboration with the University of Oran - Ahmed Ben Bella (Algeria), on the theme of Arabic as a foreign language at universities. Further German-Arab collaborations exist with Moroccan and Lebanese universities. In February 2020, the DAAD-sponsored workshop "Receptive Dialectical Competency and Intercomprehension in AraF Didactics" took place in cooperation with the University of Mohamad V. Rabat and the American University of Beirut (Lebanon). 

In addition, two conferences have been organized and held in Bamberg in cooperation with the Association of teaching Arabic in German speaking countries (Fachverband Arabisch e. V.). The conferences served to establish teaching Arabic as a new field of science in German-speaking countries.

Prof. Dr. Lale Behzadi is currently supervising the following doctoral projects:

• Safinaz Saad (BaGOS) „Female Subjectivity from a feminine Authorial Perspective“
• Linda Salerno (BaGOS) "Incorporating ICC (Intercultural Communicative Competence) in TAFL (Teaching Arabic as Foreign Language): a case study at beginner and elementary levels"

Completed doctoral projects:

• Alfred El-Khoury"The Old and the New in Premodern Arabic Poetry: Metaphor as Vantage Point“ 
• Peter Konerding „Pokémon goes Alhambra. Sprachideologie und Populärkultur in arabisch-maghrebinischer Erzählprosa“
• Hadeel Hasan „Aesthetic Dimensions in Contemporary Arabic Literature – Syrian Female Writers of the Nineties“
• Felix Wiedemann „The Arabic Hip Hop Nation – An Example for Glocalized Postcolonial Culture“