Oumelbanine Zhiri is a professor at UCSD (University of California, San Diego), where she teaches French, Arabic and comparative literature, and world history.
Her research focuses on the literatures and cultures of Europe, North Africa, and Europe during early modernity (16th, 17th, and 18th centuries).
She is particularly interested in the cultural connections between these regions, including geographical representations and travel narratives, diplomatic, political and legal relations, intellectual and artistic exchanges. She has worked extensively on early modern brokers who contributed to the development of cultural links between Europe and North Africa, including Hasan al-Wazzân / Jean Léon l’Africain, and Ahmad ibn Qâsim al-Hajarî.
