Karla Mallette

Karla Mallette is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan. Her research examines literary exchanges across the medieval Mediterranean.

She investigates communications between Arabic and Romance literary traditions, particularly in medieval Sicily. Her scholarship analyzes how translations between Greek, Arabic and Latin shaped Mediterranean cultural landscapes.

Honored with the Glasscock Humanities Book Prize, her publications include 'European Modernity and the Arab Mediterranean' which critiques Orientalist philological scholarship. Current projects explore cosmopolitan languages in the medieval Mediterranean.

Administrative roles include directing the Global Islamic Studies Center and affiliations with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia.