Photo credit: Nicole McConville
about
I am a cultural historian studying food and gender in the Maghrib & Mashriq. I’m currently an assistant professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where I teach classes on the culture, gender history, literature, and food of the Arabic-speaking world. I’m currently writing a book that tells the story of modern Egypt through a cultural history of the tomato. 🍅
Food, kitchens, and cookbooks are at the heart of my scholarship, which focuses on modern Egypt & Morocco. My research and writing begin with the premise that if we take culinary knowledge seriously in all its forms (written, oral, embodied) it can offer us new ways of understanding the world. Studying food and cooking can offer insight into lived forms of culture that elude, refuse, and even sometimes resist dominant narratives and categories we take for granted –– yet which tend to be foundational to how we understand ourselves and the communities to which we belong. I think of food as a starting point for writing cultural histories beyond the limitations of nationalist and colonial frameworks.
My scholarship has appeared in Gender & History, Middle Eastern Literatures, Gastronomica, Global Food History, Mashriq & Mahjar, the Journal of Women’s History and the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies; other bylines include Eater and ArabLit Quarterly. I’m also the co-editor of Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean (University of Texas, 2021).
I have taught at Georgetown, Tufts, and the University of Maryland; I also work as a translator (from Arabic) and have written a food blog since 2010. You can find a full C.V. here.
I have degrees from Georgetown (PhD, MA) and from Yale (BA). My work has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright program, the Social Science Research Council, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, among others.
people will talk: interviews & mentions
Food Historian and Assistant Professor of Arabic Anny Gaul Receives NEH Grant, by Liz Tracy, University of Maryland College of Arts & Humanities, July 6, 2023.
Beyond Recipes: How Anny Gaul Studies Cookbooks, by Vicki Valosik, CCAS Newsmagazine, Winter/Spring 2022.
A “Simultaneously Hidden and Deliciously Obvious” History of Levantine Cuisine, interview in The Nation, February 22, 2022.
Making Levantine Cuisine: New Texts Out Now, interview in Jadaliyya, March 11, 2022.
Who Is Responsible for Dessert Hummus?, by Jaya Saxena, January 7, 2022.
Cooking Taro: Egypt’s Famous Epiphany Dish, by Amira Howeidy, Ahram Online, January 19, 2021.
Afikra Conversations, December 17, 2020.
Middle Eastern Food: Six Lenses, by Barbara Petzen, The Geography Teacher, September 2020.
Slow-Simmering Solace, by Jonathan Guyer, Radcliffe Magazine, Fall 2020.
Medieval Arabic cookbooks: Reviving the taste of history, Al Jazeera, March 13th, 2020.
Kitchen Talk, interview on Bulaq podcast, June 4, 2020.
#TetaThursdays, Instagram Live conversation with Tony Tahhan, May 7, 2020.
How Anny Gaul Does History, interview in Contingent Magazine, April 17, 2020.
La cuisine marocaine, un mélange de civilisations, traditions et cultures (French) / Moroccan cuisine, a melting pot of peoples and cultures (English), interview on YaBiladi, January 9, 2020.
10 Recipes from Medieval Arabic Texts, ArabLit, November 28, 2019.
Interview segment on Shay wa Nana radio show, WPFW Radio, Washington, DC, October 9, 2019.
Food for Thought: A Discussion with Former ARCE Fellow Anny Gaul, interview in Scribe: The Magazine of the American Research Center in Egypt, Fall 2019.
Blogs You Should Be Adding to Your Bookmarks, HAZINE: A Guide to Researching the Middle East and Beyond, March 28, 2019.
The Cuisine of Tetouan, podcast recorded at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Maghrib Studies, Tangier, Morocco, October 24, 2018.
Cooking with the Benalis: a recipe for makouda, airy potato croquettes, NRC Handelsblad, the Netherlands, August 17, 2018.
Kitchen Tales from Egypt and Morocco, interview segment on Late Night Live, Radio National Australia, February 8, 2018.
A Baker's Dozen of Food History Blogs, Rachel Laudan: A Historian's Take on Food and Food Politics, November 17, 2017.
Judhabat Tabbalah Recipe From Scents and Flavors: "It Comes Out Very Nicely," Library of Arabic Literature blog, October 30, 2017.
Reviving the Forgotten Flavours of the Ottoman Palace Kitchen, by Stephanie D'Arc Taylor, Middle East Eye, August 10, 2015.
The Carton - Jazz Manouche - Spring 2014, The Culturist blog, April 10, 2014.
Shahrazad's Pharmacy: Literary Objects That Delight and Instruct, by Will Barnes, ArabLit, March 25, 2014.
The Sounds of Cairo, by Razan Al Zayani, The Carton: Jazz Manouche, no. 9, Spring 2014.
7 Delicious Bowls of Authentic Middle Eastern Hummus, by Miriam Berger, BuzzFeed, November 11, 2013.
Dinner at Anny's, Paris, Devour Blog, September 8, 2013.
grants, fellowships, awards
Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities (2023)
Independent Scholarship, Research & Creativity Award, University of Maryland, College Park (2023)
Junior Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, College of Arts & Humanities, University of Maryland, College Park (2022)
Global Food History Prize for an Emerging Food Historian (2021)
Commendation, Sophie Coe Prize for Food History (2021)
First Prize, Literary Category, American Association of Teachers of Arabic Translation Contest (2018)
American Institute for Maghrib Studies Short-Term Research Grant (2018)
BSA-Pine Tree Foundation Fellowship in Culinary Bibliography, Bibliographical Society of America (2018)
Dissertation Research Travel Grant, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University (2018)
Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (2016-17)
Multi-Country Research Grant, Council of American Overseas Research Centers (2016-17)
Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant, American Research Center in Egypt (2016)
Cherwell Studentship Award, Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery (2015)
Center for Arabic Study Abroad Fellowship, American University in Cairo, Egypt (2013-14)
Fulbright U.S. Student Research Grant, Jordan (2012-13)