Mohssen Esseesy

Mohssen Esseesy

Mohssen Esseesy

Professor of Arabic and International Affairs, Coordinator of the Arabic program


Contact:

Office Phone: (202) 994-6179
801 22nd St NW Washington DC 20052

Dr. Esseesy is a Professor of Arabic and International Affairs, the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Language and Civilizations (CNELC) (2014-2020), CNELC Deputy Chair (2012-2014); and the former Executive Director of the GW Summer National Security Internship (2008-2010). Dr. Esseesy is the Co-editor of the Global Business Languages journal and is a member of the GW-CIBER, and the Steering-Committee of the Institute of Middle East Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. Dr. Esseesy is a member of the editorial board of the Routledge Language Studies in Language and Identity (RSLI) series. He served a three-year term as an elected member of the Executive Board of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA) (2003-2005).


Trained in linguistics, Dr. Esseesy’s research encompasses historical and applied linguistics. Within historical linguistics, his research focuses on language change by grammaticalization in Arabic and Semitic. Within applied linguistics, his research interest includes language for specific purposes, particularly business language; curriculum development; and foreign language pedagogy and assessment. 

Peer-Reviewed Books

  1. Al-Munjiz: Advanced Business Arabic, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press 2020.

  2. Grammaticalization of Arabic Prepositions and Subordinators: Corpus-Based Study, Leiden: Brill 2010.

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

  1. Grammaticalization in Arabic, in Karin Ryding and David Wilmsen (eds.) Cambridge Handbook for Arabic Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2020

  2. Typological Features of Grammaticalization in Semitic, in Heiko Narrog and Bernd Heine (eds.) Perspectives on Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018: 35-56.

  3. Arabic for Specific Purposes: Problems and Potentials, in Kassem Wahba, Liz England, and Zainab Taha (eds.) Handbook for Arabic Language Teaching Professionals in the 21st Century, Revised Edition, London and New York: Routledge, 2018: 185-198.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  1. Reanalysis, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics IV. Editor- in-Chief Kees Versteegh. Leiden: Brill, 2009: 37-43.

  2. Semantic Bleaching, in Encyclopedia of Arabic and Linguistics IV. Editor-in-Chief Kees Versteegh. Leiden: Brill, 2009: 160-164.

  3. Semantic Extension, in Encyclopedia of Arabic and Linguistics IV. Editor-in-Chief Kees Versteegh. Leiden: Brill, 2009: 164-169.

  4. Grammaticalization, in Encyclopedia of Arabic and Linguistics II. Editor-in-Chief Kees Versteegh, Leiden: Brill, 2006: 191-198.

  5. Apposition, in Encyclopedia of Arabic and Linguistics I.  Editor-in-Chief Kees Versteegh, Leiden: Brill, 2005: 123-126.

Book reviews

  1. Review, The Arabic Language Today. Alfred Beeston. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006. In Modern Language Journal, vol. 92, No. 3 2008: 484-485.

  2. Review, English Grammar for Students of Arabic. By Ernest McCarus. Ann Arbor: The Olivia and Hill Press, 2007, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol. 41, No. 1, Summer 2007: 63-64.

  3. Review, Diversity in Language: Contrastive Studies in Arabic and English Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. (eds.) Zeinab Ibrahim, Sabiha T. Aydelot, and Nagwa Kassabgy. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000. In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol. 37, No. 1, Summer 2003:163-164.

Ph.D., (with Distinction) in Arabic (linguistics), Georgetown University
M.A., Near Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Propaedevtica in Egyptology, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
B.A., Archaeology, Cairo University (Egypt).