US couple bags Dh1M award
abu dhabi — A US-based couple has bagged a Dh1 million honour in the UAE for portraying Arab culture as compassionate and tolerant among the Westerners, it was announced on Wednesday.
Professors Jaroslav Stetkevych and Suzanne Stetkevych have been named the 2019 Cultural Personality of the Year as part of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
The Stetkevychs have enriched the “global perspectives of Arab people and their traditions”, said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi.
abu dhabi — Professors Jaroslav Stetkevych and Suzanne Stetkevych have been named ‘Cultural Personality of the Year’ at the 13th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
The husband and wife will receive their award at a ceremony to be held at Louvre Abu Dhabi Auditorium Plaza on April 25, during the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Winning the Cultural Personality of the Year award comes with a prize of Dh1 million, a gold medal bearing the emblem of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, and a certificate of appreciation.
“Through enlightening Western audiences about Arabic culture, the Stetkevyches have enriched the global perspectives of our people and traditions,” said Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) and deputy chairman of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award’s board of trustees.
“The authors’ new methodologies focus on how Western scholars should read Arab literature, tackling orientalist takes on Arabic poetry. The Stetkevyches’ research portrays Arabic culture as one that is marked with compassion and tolerance.”
Dr Ali bin Tamim, secretarygeneral of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, said: “The Stetkevyches have made a distinguished and unparalleled contribution to Arab culture and literature in the English language, and the positive impact their research has had on Arabic culture cannot be overstated.
“There have been numerous examples of Arabic families whose members have been prolific in promoting cultural projects, such as the Timur family in Egypt and the Bustani family in Lebanon.
Arabic poetry has consistently seen several families rise in prominence due to their literary talents. It is a phenomenon that had almost disappeared in the modern era, until the Sheikh Zayed Book Award reinstated this Arabic tradition, which focused largely on
the importance of family, by awarding this honour to the Stetkevyches.”
Arabic poetry is the central focus of the couple’s research, concentrating on this complex art form that contains numerous metaphors and linguistic tools to convey a diverse range of cultural content. The Stetkevyches’ work
presents a series of key studies that demonstrate the authors’ comprehensive knowledge of Arab literature.
Additionally, their work displays a critical understanding of poetry, which underscores the very essence of Arabic poetic rhetoric.