Samer Al-Saber

Samer Al-Saber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre, scholar, director, and playwright. He comes to Williams after serving for over a decade at the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, the School of Theater at Florida State University, and the Theater Department at Davidson College. He received the Walter J Gores Award at Stanford and the Undergraduate Teaching Award at Florida State University, the most prestigious teaching award at both institutions. His scholarly work appeared in Theatre Research International, Performance Paradigm, Critical Survey, Theatre Survey, Jadaliyya, Counterpunch, This Week In Palestine, and various edited volumes, such as Palgrave’s Performing For Survival, Edinburgh Press’ Being Palestinian, and Routlege's Troubling Traditions. He is co-editor of the anthology Stories Under Occupation and Other Plays from Palestine (Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press) and editor of To The Good People of Gaza (Bloomsbury Press). He also co-edited the just-released Arab, Performance, and Politics by Routledge (2024). Directing credits include Betty Shamieh’s As Soon As Impossible, Hasan Abdelrazzak’s The Prophet, Arthur Milner’s Facts, and a Palestinian adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in Arabic). As a playwright, most recently in 2023, he wrote and directed Declonizing Sarah for Chicago’s Uprising Theater. He recently directed Ghassan Kanafani’s Returning To Haifa for Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco, an adaptation by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace, and a widely acclaimed sold-out production. Look out for his acting and writing turn in the short film Barja'lak, which is in festivals throughout 2025.