Mohammad R. Salama
Mohammad R. Salama
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Professor
Arabic: Classical Arabic; Qur’anic Studies; Comparative Literature; Intellectual History, Postcolonialism
I bring a decade of academic leadership experience across two large public institutions, with a particular focus on inclusive faculty development, shared governance, and strategic growth in the humanities and social sciences.
As an academic leader committed to fostering faculty excellence and visionary leadership, I have worked to enhance environments at prominent institutions such as San Francisco State University and George Mason University by promoting scholarly achievement and collaboration. My tenure has been characterized by the development of impactful national and international partnerships and a sustained commitment to strengthening liberal arts education. My interdisciplinary research in Comparative Literature, coupled with a deep commitment to the highest standards of faculty professional growth and achievement, has propelled advancements in academic innovation and excellence. I remain steadfast in my dedication to inclusive faculty excellence in teaching, research, and service, integrating these essential principles into the fabric of our academic community.
As Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in Mason’s thriving College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), I lead efforts to support faculty and foster a culture of inclusive excellence aligned with Mason’s distinctive educational mission—serving one of the country’s most diverse student populations. My role encompasses proactive faculty recruitment and retention, performance management, and career development, ensuring alignment with the college’s vision for excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, creative activity, and service. I lead the college’s faculty performance management and career development efforts, coordinate new faculty orientations, manage the postdoctoral research and teaching fellows program, and support joint appointment negotiations and documentation. I am also responsible for maintaining efficient coordination and alignment of CHSS faculty affairs activities and governance practices with university-wide faculty affairs policies, support structures, and initiatives.
I manage key elements of faculty affairs, including the Conflict of Commitment review process in RAMP, support joint appointment negotiations, and review Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) cases. This includes oversight of multi-year contract actions, tenure-line reviews, and promotions to associate and full professor. I am also actively engaged, in close collaboration with CHSS senior staff, in strategic budgeting and planning processes and in routine problem-solving and operational management across the college. I collaborate with CHSS senior staff on LAU reorganization initiatives critical to the long-term delivery of shared services support for faculty and staff.
Beyond these responsibilities, I participate in the shared governance of the college through ex officio service on the CHSS Faculty Assembly’s Term Faculty Affairs Committee and Executive Committee. I work with academic units on reviewing and updating workload guidelines, unit bylaws, and unit RPT guidelines. I also serve as part of a university-wide network of associate deans for faculty affairs, collaborating on problem-solving, modeling best practices, and advancing organizational development in faculty support.
My professional growth has been significantly shaped by participation in numerous leadership workshops and seminars in recent years, enhancing my capabilities in strategic budgeting, planning, and problem-solving. These experiences have strengthened my ability to build trust through effective communication, manage key relationships, and utilize data to support a culture of evidence-based decision-making. I work closely with the college’s leadership team on cross-functional projects, including Academic Planning, and serve on relevant university standing committees, councils, and ad hoc working groups to ensure CHSS faculty affairs activities and governance practices are well-coordinated with university-wide structures. I remain fully committed to supporting work-life balance and fostering a learning- and teaching-centered culture that reinforces our collective dedication to Mason’s distinctive mission of serving a diverse and dynamic student population.
Selected Publications
Published Books:
God's Other Book: The Qur’ān between History and Ideology (University of California Press, 2024)
The Qur’ān and Modern Arabic Literary Criticism: From Țāhā to Naṣr (London: Bloomsbury, May 2018)
Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt: From the Monarchy to the Republic (Cambridge University Press, December 2018)
Islam, Orientalism, and Intellectual History: Modernity and the Politics of Exclusion since Ibn Khaldūn (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011)
German Colonialism: Race, The Holocaust, and Postwar Germany. Co-edited with Volker Langbehn (New York: Columbia UP, 2011)
Recent Articles:
“A Bridge too Far? Ludovico Marracci’s Translation of the Qur’ān and the Persistence of Medievalism." Co-authored with Christopher Livanos. Boundary2 Vol. 50. No.2 (2023)
“Cairo in Her Eyes: Space and Gender Dynamics in Naguib Mahfouz’s Bayn al-Qasrayn.” Routledge Handbook on Cairo (Routledge, 2022).
“The Untranslatability of the Qur’ānic City.” Chapter contribution to The City in Arabic Literature: Classical and Modern Perspectives. (Edinburgh UP, 2018)
“Fundamentalism” in Futures of Comparative Literature: ACLA Report on the State of the Discipline. Routledge (2017)
“Naguib Mahfouz, The Postcolonial (Re)Turn” in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. (New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)
“Postcolonial Arabic Literature” The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies (New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)
أدب اﻟﻌﺎﻟﻢ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻤﺮﻛﺰﯾﺔ و اﻟﺘﮭﻤﯿﺶ: ﻗﺮاءة ﻓﻲ اﻷدب اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻲ ﻣﺎ ﺑﻌﺪ الآستعمار.
ALIF: Journal of Comparative Poetics. A Special Issue on World Literature, No. 34 (2014)
“Science in Islam.” Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. (Oxford UP, 2009)
“Arabs and the Arab World.” Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World. Oxford. (Oxford UP, 2008)