Federico Corriente selected to be a member of the Spanish Royal Academy

The Arabist will occupy seat “K,” which has been vacant since the death of Ana María Matute in 2014.

On April 6, 2017, the Plenary Session of the Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) chose Arabist Federico Corriente Córdoba (Granada, 1940) to occupy chair “K,” which has been vacant since the death of Ana María Matute in June 2014.
 
Corriente, holder of a bachelor’s degree (1963) and PhD (1971) in Semitic Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is currently an honorary professor at the University of Zaragoza, where he has headed the department of Arabic Language and Literature. He is the author of many publications in his field of specialization, as well as several Arabic-Spanish and Spanish-Arabic dictionaries.

Federico Corriente’s candidacy was submitted by the academy members Juan Gil, Miguel Sáenz and Aurora Egido. Also aspiring to the position was playwright José Sanchis Sinisterra.
As established by the RAE by-laws and regulations, the new academy member must soon read his acceptance speech in order to take possession of his chair at the institution.

Federico Corriente will be responsible for officially opening the international seminar titled “Translators, Copyists and Interpreters: Transmission of the Bible in Arabic during the Middle Ages,” to be held from April 26-28 at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba. The opening conference on Wednesday, April 26 at 9:30 a.m. will be moderated by the Arabist and seminar organizer Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (University of Cordoba) and is titled: Canonization of texts through linguistic archaism and higher registers: the case of the Psalter fragment published by Prof. Violet.

Source: RAE