Dr. Mohammed Albakry is a professor of English Linguistics at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where he teaches various courses in linguistics and language education at the graduate and undergraduate levels. A former Fulbright Scholar, his research spans corpus linguistics, translation studies, and academic discourse, earning support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), UConn's Humanities Institute, and the Hanban Center of Language Education. Whether analyzing historical, literary, or institutional discourse, his work examines how language is strategically used to navigate sociocultural constraints and assert identity. He has published several books as well as numerous articles in highly ranked peer-reviewed journals, such as World Englishes, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Language and Literature, and Text & Talk, among others. Beyond his research, he has served on numerous national review panels, including the NEA Translation Projects Advisory Panel and the National Fulbright Scholar Review Committee. He has frequently been invited to give talks at academic institutions across the US and at universities in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Ghana, and China. He further extends his educational outreach through public writing and his podcast OnTranslation, which explores the complexities of language and translation from the classical past to the global present. 

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 Books 

Presentation of self in academic support genres: Job application statements. (2005). Michigan University Press.

Writing recommendation letters: The discourse of evaluation in academic settings. (2024). Michigan University Press.  

Translation and the Intersection of Texts, Contexts, and Politics. (2017). Palgrave Macmillan. 

Tahrir Tales: Plays from the Egyptian Revolution. (2016). Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press. 

Book Chapters 

-Albakry, M. (Forthcoming). From Cajun French to Cajun English in Louisiana: Language loss or cultural revival? In Language in the Changing South, William Kretzschmar & Anna Freeman. (Eds). Georgia University Press.

-Albakry, M. (2020). Beyond assimilation and othering: Theater translation and the translator’s agency, in Routledge Handbook of Arabic Translation, Sameh Hanna, Hanem El-Farahaty & Abdel Wahab Khalifa (Eds). Routledge.

-Albakry, M. (2017). Interrogating translation as a doubly political and contextual act, in Translations and the Intersections of Texts, Contexts, and Politics: Historical and Socio-Cultural Perspectives, Mohammed Albakry (Ed). Palgrave Macmillan.

-Albakry, M. (2016). Egyptian drama translated for the stage, In Tahrir Tales: Plays from the Egyptian Revolution. Mohammed Albakry & Rebekah Maggor (Eds). Seagull Books/ University of Chicago Press.

-Albakry, M. (2015). Telling by omission: Hedging and negative evaluation in academic recommendation letters, in Corpus-based Research in Applied Linguistics, Viviana Cortez & Eniko Csomay (Eds). John Benjamin.   

Research Articles  (Selected)

-Nelson, T. & Albakry. M. (2024). Navigating academic arguments: Teaching reporting verbs in transitional reading courses. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 54 (3), 172-189.

-Francois, J., Albakry, M. (2021). Effect of formulaic sequences on fluency of English learners in standardized speaking tests. Language Learning and Technology, 25 (2), 26-41.

-Li, M. & Albakry, M. (2017). Globalism and cultural tension: Discursive constructions of the English language in China’s print media. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 27.1.1-21.

-Bryan, C. & Albakry, M. (2016). “To be real honest, I’m just like you”: Analyzing the discourse of personalization in online sermons. Text &Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication Studies, 36.6. 683-703.

-Bryan, C. & Albakry, M. (2015). A little bit transparent with one another: Constructing vulnerability in the evangelical discourse of women preachers. Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16.4. 392-411.

-Albakry, M. (2014). Between the familiar and the foreign: Translating Arabic drama for the stage. Educational Theory, 64.5. 497-514.

-Albakry, M. & Warden, N. (2013). Ideological perspectives in language policy: Framing Nashville English-only debate. Languages and Linguistics, 32.1. 15-32.

-Albakry, M. (2012). Duality of expression: Revolutionary and linguistic politics in Ibrahim Al-Husseini's Comedy of Sorrows. International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, 13.1. 89-102.

-Ofori, D. & Albakry, M. (2012). I own this language that everybody speaks: Ghanaians’ attitude toward the English language. English World-Wide, 33.2. 165-184.

-Albakry, M. & Siler, J. (2012). Into the Arab American borderland: Bilingual creativity in Randa Jarrar’s Map of Home. Arab Studies Quarterly, 34.3. 109-122.

-Albakry, M. & Ofori, D.  (2011). Ghanaian English and code-switching in Catholic churches. World Englishes: Journal of English as an International and Intranational Language, 30.4. 515-532.

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-Albakry, M. (2025). Contested meanings in the digital parallel translations of sacred scriptures. Paper presented at the 8th International Association for Translation and Intercultural Communication (IATIS) Conference, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.

-Albakry, M. (2025, June 25). Keynote Speaker at the 4th International Sacred Texts Conference, “Between letter and spirit: Rethinking fidelity in translating sacred texts,” organized by the University of Ghana & University of South Africa, Accra, Ghana.

-Albakry, M. (2024). Self-presentation in the academic support genre of job applications. Paper presented at the 6th International English for Specific Purposes Conference. Ankara, Türkiye.

-Albakry, M. (2024). Can Cajun French survive? Investigating cultural attitudes and revitalization challenges in South Louisiana. Paper presented at the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL 91). University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

-Albakry, M. (2023). Self-promotion in academia: Constructing value positions and identity narratives in job application statements. Paper presented at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference. Brussels, Belgium.

-Albakry, M. (2023, April 25). Invited Speaker/Moderator at the translation roundtable “Translating across differences” organized by the University of the South (Sewanee), TN.

-Albakry. M. ( Feb. 16, 2022). Invited Speaker at the post-performance discussion “Found in translation: Shakespeare’s Coriolanus,” organized by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), North Carolina.

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