CAIS academic, France Meyer, has been promoted to Level B. On behalf of all CAIS staff, Prof Saikal offered his warmest congratulations to France for her promotion. He said 'This is a well-deserved achievement, recognising her highly valued contributions to the Arabic program, the Centre and College. I am very pleased for France and the Centre.'

France was appointed to the CAIS Arabic program in 2011. She lectures in the Arabic program and is a Literary Translator. She has a BA and an MA in Arabic Language, Literature and Civilisation from the Aix- Marseille University, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, France. She is a past recipient of the Institut Français du Proche- Orient  (IFPO) Arabic studies scholarship.

France has translated 18 works of Modern Arabic Literature into French, seven of them by Egyptian writer and Nobel Prize of Literature Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Ms Meyer has worked in collaboration with the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and is a translator and reviewer of Modern Arabic literature for several major French Publishing Houses. Her latest translations include Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein à Bagdad (Piranha - 2016) Naguib Mahfouz’s Wedding Song (Les Noces du Palais - 2015 Abdul Rahman Mounif Cities of Salt  (Villes de Sel - 2013).

France's latest work is a literary translation from Arabic (Moroccan) to French, of writer Yassin Adnan’s novel Hot Maroc (Published in Arabic in 2016 by Dar al-Ain, Cairo, Egypt). The translation will be published by ACTES SUD, France.
The book is a feast for any student of Arabic, as Ms Meyer explained, Hot Maroc is written in Modern Standard Arabic interlaced with Moroccan dialect. The title of the book, Hot Maroc, refers to the name of a highly successful online magazine, run by the protagonist Rahhal. As well as his online writing, Rahhal is a literary scholar of pre-Islamic and early classical Arabic texts. Hence the novel contains many citations from a great range of works.