Ala Alryyes

Dr. Ala Alryyes is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY). His academic work bridges eighteenth-century British literature, philosophy, and postcolonial studies with a focus on war's cultural impact and spatial representation.

• Key Research Areas:
• Eighteenth-century fiction and philosophy
• War's influence on literary epistemology
• Cartographic representation in early novels
• Autobiographical narratives of enslaved individuals

His publications include two monographs: Original Subjects: The Child, the Novel, and the Nation (Harvard UP, 2001) and A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said (Wisconsin UP, 2011), which won the American Association of School Librarians' Best Books for General Audiences award. His current book project explores war's knowledge in early novels (1660-1771). Notably, his translation of Omar Ibn Said's autobiography inspired the opera Omar, premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2022.

• Selected Publications:
• "Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe: ‘Maps,’ Natural Law, and the Enemy" (2020)
• "War at a Distance: Court-Martial Narratives" (2008)
• "Description, the Novel, and the Senses" (2006)