This seed-stage project will enable the research collaborators to work together on a proposal for a multi-year grant devoted to a comparative study of the translation and reception of Arabic and Hebrew literature in the West. One of the project’s goals is to create digital resources and mapping tools that visualize the networks through which texts are translated and circulated across different languages and regions. Concurrently, we want to use the project as a platform for reflecting on the stakes of comparative literary study in contexts of violence and extreme crisis. Our hypothesis is that an investigation on the scale of the network – rather than through individual case studies that focus on the biographies of individual actors and close readings of particular translations – will facilitate comparative analysis. During Dima Ayoub’s Visiting Fellowship in the summer of 2025, we plan to learn how to use existing mapping tools and identify what is missing in the existing toolkit for our purposes. With this information in hand, we can reach out to colleagues in the digital humanities who can help us continue to hone our skills and develop new tools as needed. We also plan to convene workshops with colleagues in the field of Modern Middle Eastern Literature - at the University of Chicago and beyond - in order to consider how to broaden the project beyond our two case studies.