Sayed Kashua

Sayed Kashua is Mellon Fellow in Arts Practice and Scholarship at the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. He is a Palestinian-Israeli novelist who has written three best-selling novels (all three of which have been translated into English). He is the author of a very popular weekly column for Haaretz newspaper, the creator of an award-winning prime-time TV series (“Arab Labor”), and he wrote the script for “Dancing Arabs” which premiered at the 31st annual Jerusalem Film Festival this summer. Through all of these mediums, Kashua provides Israeli audiences with a frank and often comical picture of the social and cultural dynamics of Israel/Palestine as they are experienced by someone who straddles the two societies (as a Palestinian who is a citizen of Israel and was educated in Hebrew speaking schools and universities).