Department Head: Prof. Haitham Zinham About the Program: This program focuses on Emirati folk literature, highlighting its sources, introducing its types and prominent figures, and tracing its artistic, thematic and functional characteristics and transformations, in comparison with regional neighboring literature of the same type and its global counterpart, through bringing Emirati folk literary texts into systematic analysis and researching their various historical and cultural contexts. The program also focuses on the generic survey of various aspects of folk literature in the country, whether those with global extension such as folk tales, myths, proverbs, songs and various poetic forms, or those representing Emirati uniqueness in poetry and prose. The program, while tracing sensitivities, experiences and transformations considering fields, generations and social classes, also fundamentally establishes the inherited Emirati values and reinforces their importance in consolidating social cohesion across various societal groups. The program is built on developments in global systematic observation of folk literary phenomena and texts, and new technical and digital developments in documentation and study, and employing research results in institutional projects.