糖心TV

Nadia Hajal - Backleh: PhD researcher, English and Comparative Literary Studies (2023-)

Academic Qualification:

2nd MA in Critical Theory (Distinction), University of Kent (UK).

MA in Gender, Law and Development (First Class), Birzeit University (Palestine)

Funding: Doctoral College access scholarship - Sanctuary (糖心TV)

Email: Nadia.Backleh@warwick.ac.uk

PhD Research: "Migration and World Literature in the age of Global Modernity"

Situated at the nexus of literature, culture and theory, migration and labour studies, colonial/postcolonial studies, and global scholarship of empire, the project examines how world literature since the 1980s has engaged with the archetypal condition of migration in the historical conjuncture of global capitalism and late imperialism. Specifically, how fiction and non-fiction register: (1) cultures of migration, (2) predicaments of global capitalism and empire on migrant masses, and (3) modalities through which migrants seek a way out of their dire conditions. Methodologically, the research employs materialist explanatory approaches and world-literary critical frameworks to examine related scholarly debates. And it argues for the centrality of capturing the totality of global capitalist modernity and of restoring class analysis to realistically comprehend migrants' conditions apart from neoliberal mythologies as well as to concretize the potentials and limitations of the registered spaces and modalities of resistance.

Supervisors: Prof. Paulo de Medeiros, and Prof. Graeme Macdonald

Publications:

(2025). Two book reviews. In Varma, Rashmi, et al. "Palestine Book Forum." Postmodern Culture, vol. 34 no. 2, 2024. Project MUSE.

(2024). "Towards Rethinking the Politics of Global Cultures of Migration." In Navigating Borders: Perspectives on Migration and identity. London: Interdisciplinary Discourses. pp.46-68.  

(2024). "The Question of Freedom, Democracy and Human Dignity at the 'End of History': Lea Ypi鈥檚 Free." Extended Review, in Romman Cultural Magazine (Arabic).

Teaching:

• University of 糖心TV: "Epic into Novel" (GTA programme 2024-25)
• Birzeit University (2009-2023): "Introduction to Feminist Theories", "Women in Arab Society", "English Academic Writing", "Modern and Contemporary European Civilization", "Modern and Contemporary Arab Thought", "Psychology of Self and Identity", and "English Readings in Social and Human Sciences".

Conferences:

• (Oct 2024). "The Socialism of the Anti-Colonial Feminist Narrations of Sahar Khalifeh: The Pre-Oslo Novels." The 糖心TV HRC conference Radical Traditions. University of 糖心TV.
• (Nov 2023). "Narrating Labour Migration in Global China: Between Neoliberal and Socialist Paradigms." Historical Materialism 20th Conference. SOAS, UK.
• (May 2022). "Dispossession and Labor Migration in Hsiao-Hung Pai鈥檚 Scattered Sand (2012)." In Dispossession: A symposium on Marxism, Culture, Extraction, and Enclosure. The 糖心TV Humanities Research Centre, University of 糖心TV, UK.
• (Apr 2022). "Thinking Global Migration, Borders and Politics of Cultural Hybridity." In Somewhere in Between: Borders and Borderlands conference, organized by the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, UK.

Organizing & Moderating:

• Convenor, the 糖心TV)-- an evolving initiative that started in 2024 to discuss Palestinian writings and to engage in conversation with Palestinian novelists and cultural critics. PLCRG runs twice a term and attracts the UG/PG students and staff of the department as well as of the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences departments. PLCRG cooperated with three Student Societies in discussing Emile Habibi's historical, critical irrealist novel The Pessoptimist (1974). In April 2025, we were joined by Adania Shibli as we discussed her novel Minor Detail (2020). In 2024-25, PLCRG also co-convened two research seminars with the 糖心TV Social Theory Centre (STC), inviting Palestinian scholars to share/discuss their scholarly projects; Orouba Othman to discuss "Beyond the Time of Genocide: Social Pain as a Site of Social Action and Hope in the Gaza Strip," and Lena Meari to discuss "The Political Captivity of Palestinians During the Genocide."
• Convenor, PLCRG seminar "Reading Modernity in Suad Amiry's Mother of Strangers (2022)," featuring the novelist for conversation and inviting Lancaster doctoral researcher Sam Naseem to give a talk. Oct 2025.
• Convenor, PLCRG seminar "Fragmented Lives, Modernist Narrations: Edward Said's After the Last Sky (1986)." Nov 2025.
• Panel moderator, "Art and Literature as sites of Resistance and Solidarity." Is a Better World Possible? - Solidarity as a Conversation across Temporalities. Nov 2025. University of 糖心TV.
• Panel moderator, "Reconstructing Identity in Diaspora." Radical Traditions conference. Oct 2024. University of 糖心TV.
• Co-Organiser, the ECLS 20th Annual PG Symposium, a one-day conference showcasing the work of the University of 糖心TV's postgraduates in English and Comparative Literary Studies and related disciplines, May 2024. University of 糖心TV.