Profile
Dr. Alaa Mamdouh Akef is an Assistant Professor and MA/PhD supervisor at the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University. He is also a New Sinology Scholar certified by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. His research interests include Arabic corpus linguistics, AI-assisted language learning, digital humanities and Chinese-Arabic translation studies. Dr. Akef has published a number of research papers in core academic journals, and has served as principal investigator for several major projects in Arabic natural language processing (NLP), translation studies, and language resource development.
Educational Experience
B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University (2004–2008)
M.A. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Beijing Language and Culture University (2012–2015)
Ph.D. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Beijing Language and Culture University (2015–2020)
Work Experience
Boya Postdoctoral Fellow, Peking University (July 2020 – September 2022)
Assistant Professor, Department of Arabic, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University (October 2022 – present)
Research Interests
Arabic computational linguistics
AI-assisted language learning and translation
Digital humanities in Arabic and Chinese
Teaching Courses
Graduate-Level Courses
ØAdvanced Arabic Interpreting I
ØAdvanced Arabic Interpreting II
Undergraduate Courses
ØArabic Writing I
ØArabic Writing II
ØArabic Interpreting II
ØCairene Arabic (co-instructed)
Special Course
ØCorpus Construction and Applications for Language Learning
Selected Publications
Papers:
1. Towards a new mechanism for Arabic language monitoring (2025). Journal of Computational Linguistics & Arabic Language Processing, (1). (In Arabic).
2. Differences of the unique word usage in five Arabian newspapers: A dynamic circumstance corpus-based analysis (2025). Arab Studies, (16), 202-218. (In Chinese, CSSCI).
3. Development and teaching application of the Arabic general word list (2025). Middle Eastern Studies of PKU, (5), 145–159. (In Chinese).
4. A dynamic corpus-based investigation of Arabic newspaper distinctive words: Taking Al Riyadh newspaper of Saudi Arabia as an example. (2024). Linguistic Studies, (1), 166–180. (In Chinese, CSSCI).
5. Chinese-Arabic parallel corpus-based study of the translation of Chinese body idioms (2022). Philology, 39(77), 249–266. (In Chinese).
6. Construction of a Database of Parallel Phrases in Chinese and Arabic. In: Wu Y., Hong JF., Su Q. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Cham. vol 10709, 2018,1. (EI)
7. Arabic Collocation Extraction Based on Hybrid Methods. In: Sun M., Wang X., Chang B., Xiong D.(eds) Chinese Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing Based on Naturally Annotated Big Data. CCL 2017, NLP-NABD 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Cham. vol 105652017, 10. (EI)
Textbooks:
8. Co-author, Basic Arabic Listening Comprehension: A Foundational Textbook. Peking University Press, 2023.
Edited Volumes:
9. Co-editor, Proceedings of the 2023 Peking University National Essay Competition for Arabic Majors in Chinese Universities, Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 2024.
10. Co-editor, Proceedings of the 2024 Peking University National Essay Competition for Arabic Majors in Chinese Universities, Anglo-Egyptian Publishing House, 2024.
Translations:
11. Co-translator, A History of China–Oman Relations, Volume I (Arabic edition). Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 2025.
12. Co-translator, A History of China–Oman Relations, Volume II (Arabic edition). Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop, 2025.
13. Co-translator, One Hundred Modern and Contemporary Egyptian Poems (Chinese edition). Beijing Normal University Press, 2024.
14. Co-translator, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Chinese Cultural Knowledge (Arabic edition). Al-Arabi Publishing, Egypt, 2022
Research Projects
1. China’s path to building a modern state: attempts by grassroots governments (Co-PI). National Social Science Foundation - Chinese Academic Literature Translation & Publishing Project, 2023-2026.
2. Cultural Analysis of Sino-Saudi Literary Translation through Digital Humanities and Large Language Models: “The Dove’s Necklace” as a Starting Point (PI), A China–Saudi cultural research project under the “Bilateral Cultural Research Initiative” of the Ministry of Culture, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2025-2026.
3. Construction of Data Resources and Morphological Knowledge for Arabic NLP (PI). Horizontal project funded by the School of Information Science, Beijing Language and Culture University, 2024.
4. Arabic Language Consulting and Technology Cooperation Project (PI). Horizontal project funded by Huawei Cloud Computing Technologies Co., Ltd., 2023.
5. Research on the Egyptian Education System (PI). Country-specific Subproject of the 2025 Peking University Undergraduate Teaching Reform Program, 2025.
6. Digitalization and Localization of Arabic Writing Textbook (PI). Undergraduate Teaching Reform Project of Peking University, 2024.
7. Arabic Interpreting Training (PI). Undergraduate Teaching Reform Project of Peking University, 2023
Social Affiliations
1. Member, Young Scholars Committee of the Executive Council of the World Conference on Sinology
2. Member, World Association for Chinese Studies
3. Member, International Confucian Association
Honors and Awards
1. "New Sinology Scholar" Honorary Certificate, awarded by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, Ministry of Education of China (2025)
2. Certificate of Honor awarded by the Embassy of the State of Kuwait in China (2025)
3. First Prize (Humanities and Social Sciences), Best Teaching Demonstration Award, Most Popular among Students Award, and other awards, 22nd Teaching Skills Competition for Young Faculty Members, Peking University (2023)
Overseas Experience
1. 11th International Arabic Language Conference, Dubai, UAE — Oral Presentation, October 22–24, 2025.
2. Conference on Arabic Computational Linguistics and Language Data Enrichment, King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Keynote Speech, October 6–7, 2024.l
