Staff Writer Sleiman El-Hajj Writes First Capote Thesis in AUB

Three-time AUB alumnus Sleiman El-Hajj, who received his master's degrees in English literature on June 28 and holds undergraduate degrees in biology and English and a minor in American Studies, wrote and defended the first MA thesis in AUB on the famous writer Truman Capote.

Having qualified Capote's non-fiction novel as a gay text advancing his own agenda, whether due to his disenchantment with the class-based politics from which his eventual plight originated or otherwise, Sleiman argues in his thesis that Capote "queers" the non-fiction novel genre by using In Cold Blood as an instrumental counter-narrative.

In talking about the three-term interim he spent in graduate studies at AUB, Sleiman jokingly describes the academic atmosphere of his department as "exasperatingly invigorating."

"Many of our professors graduated from prestigious alma maters," he said, "and when it came to research and publications, the competition among faculty became so tense it paradoxically became both stifling and motivating for us graduate students."

During his student years, Sleiman worked closely with Roseanne Khalaf, the founding director of AUB's creative writing program. Shortly after Israel's war on Lebanon in July 2006, their anthology Hikayat: Short Stories by Lebanese Women was released by Saqi Books in London. Sleiman's creative translations in the book were promptly singled out for acclaim by British critics in newspapers, such as The Independent.

Sleiman, who plans to travel abroad in a year's time to work on a doctorate in creative writing, was recently hired by AUB Trustee Myrna Bustani to undertake a major indexing research-based project. He continues to contribute articles and short stories for publication on a freelance basis, among them Narrative Magazine and the AUB Bulletin Today.