early feminisms and nationalist/Islamic discourses amongst Arabic-speaking communities and comparatively
emergence of Arabic fiction and conduct literature in the 19th century and their relation to gender activisms
feminisms, femininities and masculinities in Arabic literature
auto/biography in Arabophone and Francophone Middle East/North Africa
literature and politics of Arabic colloquials
literary translation—theory and practice
literature, censorship and incarceration
history of Arabic periodicals, especially the satirical press and the women’s press
visual and written caricature in Arabic periodicals
emergence of print culture, publishing history, formation of readerships and discourses on reading
Current and envisioned research projects:
monograph, on Zaynab Fawwaz (c1850-1914) and the politics of gender and nation in Egypt
monograph, Diaphanous Selves: Finding Women’s Autobiographical Practices in Egypt, 1885-1930
Translation, adaptation and circulation of texts in the eastern Mediterranean and beyond, 18th-early 20th centuries: Research network, initially funded by the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, University of Edinburgh; and then by the Higher Studies Fund, University of Oxford. Workshop held in Edinburgh, December 2015; second workshop, Oxford, Sept. 2017. Edited book in progress.
Female writers and 19th-century Arabic fiction (with a focus also on female readership, translation, and discourses of publishing, Egypt 1870-1930 in a Middle East/S. Asia context)
[possible future project] colloquial poetry, satirical prose, and caricature in the Egyptian press, 1880s-1920
practice-based and activist-oriented research on contemporary practices of Arabic literary translation, especially first-author/second-author [translator] interactions and the politics of publishing and marketing