Dr. Ramzi M. Salti was born on February 22, 1966 in Lebanon. French educated in Beirut, he completed his high school education in Jordan where he graduated by earning his British G.C.E. (General Certificate of Education) and Tawjihi degrees. In 1983, he moved to the United States where he earned his B.A. in French and English (1988) from Santa Clara University. He went on to earn his M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1997) in Comparative Literature (Arabic, French, English) at the University of California at Riverside.
Dr. Salti has been a full-time Lecturer in Arabic at Stanford University since 1998. He is also a fully Certified ACTFL Certified Oral and Written Proficiency Tester of Arabic by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
He authors his own ‘Arabology’ blog at www.arabology.org and hosts a weekly radio program titled ‘Arabology’ which airs on KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM. Podcasts are available at https://soundcloud.com/arabology/sets.
Dr. Salti’s collection of short stories, titled ‘The Native Informant & Other Stories: Six Tales of Defiance from the Arab World’ was published in 1994 to much crtitical acclaim and he consistently publishes essays and articles in such journals as World Literature Today, The International Fiction Review, The Journal of Arabic Literature, and Notes on Contemporary Literature; he also was a regular reviewer of Arabic literature for “World Literature Today” and his Doctoral thesis, which surveys the (mis)representations of marginalized sexualities in Arabic Literature, has also been published, in segments, in various scholarly journals.
Dr. Salti has taught a wide array of courses in Arabic Language and Literature at such institutions as Santa Clara University and U.C. Riverside and has worked, since 1998, as a full time Lecturer in Arabic at Stanford University where he has organized and participated in numerous symposia, events that center on Arab-American literature, Postcolonial theory, Arabic Pop Culture, and the use of technology in language acquisition courses.
Salti has also amassed several prestigious awards during his years at Stanford, including the Stanford Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2004-5), the ASSU’s Honorable Mention for the Teacher of the Year Award (2009) and the Knight Favorite Professor Award by the John S. Knight Fellowships Program for Professional Journalists, Class of 2005, 2009, and 2013. He has also received mutiple grants from the Stanford Arts Institute to bring such Arabic cultural icons as Mike Massy, Yasmine Hamdan and Pierre Dulaine to the Stanford campus.
In addition to his academic writings, Salti has also worked as an Entertainment writer for various magazines and has published dozens of articles about the music and film industry in such periodicals as “The Los Angeles Times,” “The West Hollywood Weekly,” “4-Front Magazine;” he has also published several in depth articles about Olivia Newton-John, including a lengthy, critically acclaimed biography and complete discography of Newton-John in “DISCoveries” magazine (1995); he has also interviewed several celebrities including Debbie Harry (Blondie), academy award winning actress Marlee Matlin, Mashrou’ Leila, Tania Kassis, Tania Saleh, Yasmine Hamdan, Rania Kurdi, Dina El Wedidi, Arab Idol winners and many others. He has also moderated and presented, and DJ-ed several Arabic music events and lectures at Stanford including concerts by Emel Mathlouthi, DAM, Omar Offendum, and Mike Massy.
Salti currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area where he devotes his time to writing, blogging, radio broadcasting and teaching at Stanford University.
