about

dormir debout – a French expression meaning, literally, ‘to sleep standing.’ Usually used in the expression ‘une histoire à dormir debout,’ meaning “a story at which to sleep standing,” in other words, a really boring story. So boring, in fact, that despite the act of standing usually discouraging sleeping, one passes right out….

Currently working on my MA in Zoroastrian Studies/Old Iranian languages at SOAS.

My interests are much more varied, though, and include:

[Arab, especially Libyan, folklore and oral traditions with an emphasis on poetry],

[epic poetry, particularly that shared among old Indo-European languages, viz. the Icelander Sagas, the Song of Roland, the Iliad, Beowulf, and the epics of the Armenian/Iranian/Indic traditions],

[old/middle Iranian languages, e.g. Avestan, Bactrian, Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Old Persian, and early Indo-European philology, though not IE reconstruction],

[gypsies in the Middle East, medieval underground culture and vagabondery, and secret groups/movements],

[old manuscripts, their finding and conservation],

[phenomenologies of sound, concrete and acousmatic music].