Ahmad Shboul was born in Shajarah, north Jordan. He holds a Licence ès lettres (B. A.) Honours, in History and Human Geography from the University of Damascus, and a PhD in Arab and Middle Eastern History from the University of London.
He was the founding Chair of the Department of Arabic & Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney (2001-2009), where he has taught for many years, and directed several research projects (including two ARC projects), and where he is an Honorary Research Associate. He had previously taught at the University of Jordan.
Ahmad has held senior research fellowships at Edinburgh University, Harvard University and the Australian National University.
At the community level, he has served as a Member of the Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs (Dept. of the Prime Minister & Cabinet), a Member of the Council for Australian Arab Relations (Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade); and earlier as an Ethnic Affairs Commissioner (Premier’s Department, NSW).
He has continued to give Radio and TV interviews on Arab, Islamic and Middle eastern issues, especially on the ABC and SBS,and occasionally on Radio New Zealand, Aljazeera English, and the BBC.
He was honoured in the 1988 Bicentennial Honours list as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Ahmad has published two major books and numerous book-chapters and articles in scholarly periodicals and encyclopaedias; his publications deal with Arab and Islamic socio-cultural and intellectual history, modern Arab and Islamic history and politics, Arab and Islamic perceptions of other societies and cultures, cultural aspects of the Arab and Muslim communities in Australia, the aesthetics of place in classical Arabic poetry, and the City in contemporary Arabic poetry and fiction.
He has served on editorial boards of several Australian and international scholarly journals and acted as a juror for the Australian Literature Board.
Ahmad has published numerous poems and pieces on literary and art criticism in the Arabic press (in Beirut, London and Sydney). He also presented a series of talks on modern Arabic poetry on SBS Arabic Radio in its early years. In 2013 he was preparing a selection of his poems (1979-1995) for publication in book form. He also writes poetry in English.
