Mohammad A.
Quayum is Professor of English at International Islamic University Malaysia
(IIUM), and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law
at Flinders University, Australia. He was a Visiting Professor of English and
Asian Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton
University) in 2003-04. His previous affiliations include University Putra
Malaysia (1996-2003), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1993-96),
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh (1992-93) and University of Chittagong,
Bangladesh (1979-88).
Quayum obtained his MA in English Literature (with First Class and Distinction) from Lakehead University,
Canada, in 1984 and his PhD from Flinders University (South Australia), in
1991. He is the author, editor or translator of twenty five books in
the areas of American literature, Asian Literature and Postcolonial
literatures, including The Essential
Rokeya: Selected Works of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) (Leiden,
Brill, 2013), Rabindranath Tagore:
Selected Short Stories (New Delhi, Macmillan, 2011), The Poet and His World: Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagore (New
Delhi, Orient Longman, 2011), Imagined
Communities Revisited: Critical Essays on Asia-Pacific Literatures and Cultures
(Kuala Lumpur, IIUM Press, 2011), A
Rainbow Feast: New Asian Short Stories (Singapore, Marshall Cavendish,
2010), Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian
Literature (Singapore National Library Board, in partnership with the
Singapore Arts Council, 2009), One Sky,
Many Horizons: Studies in Malaysian Literature in English (Kuala Lumpur,
Marshall Cavendish, 2007), Peninsular
Muse: Interviews with Modern Malaysian and Singaporean Poets, Novelists and
Dramatists (Oxford, Peter Lang, 2007), Saul Bellow and American
Transcendentalism (New York, Peter Lang, 2004), The Merlion and the
Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia (New
Delhi, Penguin, 2002), Colonial to Global: Malaysian Women’s Writing in
English 1940s – 1990s (Kuala Lumpur, IIUM Press, 2001, 2003), Singaporean
Literature in English: A Critical Reader (Kuala Lumpur, University Putra
Malaysia Press, 2002), Malaysian Literature in English: A Critical Reader
(Pearson Malaysia, 2001), Saul Bellow:
The Man and His Work (New Delhi: B.R. Publishing, 2000), and In Blue
Silk Girdle: Stories from Malaysia and Singapore (Kuala Lumpur, University
Putra Malaysia Press, 1998).
Quayum is also
the author of fifty-odd articles in
distinguished peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Commonwealth
Literature, World Literature Written in English and Wasafiri in
the UK; Kunapipi, New Literatures Review, CRNLE Journal, Quodlibet:
The Australian Journal of Trans-national Writing and Transnational
Literature in Australia; Crossroads:
Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, South Asian
Review, Journal of South Asian Literature, Interdisciplinary
Literary Studies, MELUS, Saul Bellow Journal, Studies in
American Jewish Literature, Notes on Contemporary Literature
and American Studies International in the US; Postcolonial Text
in Canada; New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies in New Zealand; English Studies in
Africa in South Africa; Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities in Taiwan;
Indian Journal of American Studies, Literature and Criticism,
The Aligarh Critical Miscellany, The Visvabharati Quarterly
and CIEFL Bulletin in India.
Quayum’s books have been reviewed in American Studies
International (USA), Ariel (Canada),
Asiatic (Malaysia), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong
Kong), Diliman Humanities (Philippines), Journal of Commonwealth Literature
(UK), Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies (USA/India), Journal
of Postcolonial Writing (UK),
Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian
Studies (Malaysia), Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, RELC Journal (Singapore), RIMA
(Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Association, Australia), South Asian Review (USA), Sun Yat-sen
Journal of Humanities (Taiwan),
Transnational Literature (Australia),
World Literature Written in English (UK), and in many newspapers in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and
Singapore.
Quayum was a
recipient of the USIS Regionalisation Fellowship in 1995; Flinders University
Visiting Fellowship in 1996; IRPA Research Grant from the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation Malaysia in 2000 and 2002; Visiting Professorship at
Flinders University in 2009, and Senior Research Fellowship at the Singapore
Management University in 2009 and 2010. He received Teaching Excellence Award
at University Putra Malaysia in 1997 and 1998, and Quality Research Award at
International Islamic University Malaysia in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (at the
Faculty Level; three years consecutively). He was co-editor of the prestigious
literary journal World Literature Written in English for eight
years (1992-2000; published by the Oxford University Press, Singapore), and is
the Founding Editor of Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and
Literature (indexed in
Elsevier’s Scopus). He is on the advisory board of four leading journals
in his field: Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge, UK), Transnational
Literature (Australia), Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies
(USA) and Diliman Humanities (the
Philippines). His research interests range from 19th and 20th century
American literature to contemporary Asian literature, with special focus on
Indian literature, Bengali literature and Malaysian-Singaporean literature.
Quayum is a
Bangladeshi citizen and an Australian Permanent Resident. He was born on June
30, 1954. He lives in Gombak, Kuala Lumpur with his wife, Natasha and daughter,
Sasha.
