Dr Rita Sakr

    English

    Lecturer / Assistant Professor; MA Programme Co-ordinator

    Iontas Building
    Ground Floor
    Office 0.19B
    (01)

    Biography

    I joined the Department of English at Maynooth University as Lecturer in Postcolonial and Global Literatures, after being Lecturer in World Literature at Goldsmiths (University of London), and previously, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Orient Institut Beirut (Max Weber Foundation), Research Councils UK “Partnership for Conflict, Crime and Security Research” Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Kent, and visiting lecturer at UCD, having completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK.  

    My teaching and research interests include literary and cultural production engaging forced displacement, postcolonialism and decoloniality, Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean studies, modern Arab (including diasporic) literature and film, modern Turkish and Kurdish literature in translation, critical geographies and the environmental humanities, the 'right to the city' in literature and film, human rights and humanitarianism, peacekeeping and peace-building, and post-conflict memory studies.  

    Among various other publications, I am the author of “Anticipating” the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Revolutionary Literatures and Political Geographies (Palgrave, 2013) and Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel: An Interdisciplinary Study (Continuum, 2012; and in paperback, Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). I co-edited The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Art, and Journalism: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut (Routledge, 2013) and James Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel (Rodopi, 2011).

    In 2014, I co-directed and co-produced the Research Councils UK-funded documentary film White Flags that focuses on peace-building through memory projects and the arts in post-war Beirut. Screenings and Q&A included: Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Being Human Festival, UK; World Poetry Day, Nicosia; Mansion Cultural Centre, Beirut.

    Recent and forthcoming publications focus on migrant and refugee cultural production (primarily Arab and Kurdish) at the crossroads of bio/necropolitics, more-than-human rights, the environmental and medical humanities and experimental aesthetics of forced displacement. I am currently working on a monograph exploring these areas.

    Recently completed and ongoing PhD supervision includes: "The Production of Space and its Subversive Functions in Contemporary Lebanese Literature" (Farah Aridi, Goldsmiths, completed) "The Body and the Environment in Contemporary Iraqi Literature" (Reema Hassan, MU, ongoing) and, as second supervisor, a project exploring the work of Teju Cole (Andrew Clarke, MU, ongoing).

    I am senior co-investigator, with Prof Sinead McGilloway (Principal Investigator-Founder Director of Maynooth Centre for Mental Health and Community Research) and Dr Anthony Malone (senior co-investigator-Maynooth Dep of Education), on a funded (QFI) research programme, titled SALaM-Ireland, part of an international collaboration based at the University of Washington in St Louis. This is a mixed-methods research project that seeks to assess the psychosocial needs of post-primary school students (13-18 years) resettled to Ireland from Arab-majority countries and to identify potential school-based strategies to foster support for this population. 

    I am a commissioning editor for the Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African (including diasporic) Literatures and Cultures volumes of the Literary Encyclopedia.

    From 2016 to 2019, I was a member of the Executive Council of the International Comparative Literature Association.

    I am a member of the Maynooth University Sanctuary Committee and of Scholars at Risk-Maynooth. I am co-founder of the Irish Network of Middle Eastern and North African Studies (INMENAS).

    Since January 2019, I have been coordinator of the MA English: Literatures of Engagement https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/english/our-courses/ma-english-literatures-engagement

    In 2020-21, I co-designed the interdisciplinary, cross-departmental Master of Arts: Cultures of Migration in the Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/study-maynooth/postgraduate-studies/courses/ma-cultures-migration

    I was a Judge of the 2021 International Dublin Literary Award: https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/judges/

    In October 2021, I am convening a free online course on "Global Migrant Literature and Culture" that is part of "A Pilot Project to Enhance Equal Participation and Inclusivity in the Virtual Learning Environment",  for which I received funding (with colleagues in the Department of Law) from the MU Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Fund and the support of Kildare Libraries.










    Books

      Year Publication
    2013 Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel: An Interdisciplinary Study.
    Rita Sakr (2013) Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel: An Interdisciplinary Study. London: Bloomsbury Academic. [Details]
    2013 Anticipating the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Revolutionary Literatures and Political Geographies.
    Rita Sakr (2013) Anticipating the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Revolutionary Literatures and Political Geographies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [Details]
    2012 Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel: An Interdisciplinary Study.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Monumental Space in the Post-Imperial Novel: An Interdisciplinary Study. London and New York: Continuum. [Details]

    Book Chapters

      Year Publication
    2022 'Arab(ic) Diasporic Literary Trajectories: Reinvented Magical Realisms, Biopolitical Ruptures, and Planetarity'
    Rita Sakr (2022) 'Arab(ic) Diasporic Literary Trajectories: Reinvented Magical Realisms, Biopolitical Ruptures, and Planetarity' In: Angela Naimou (eds). Diaspora and Literary Studies (forthcoming). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Details]
    2022 '‘The Severed Limb: Relational Life-writing Against Techno-biopolitical Violence in Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats With Me’'
    Rita Sakr (2022) '‘The Severed Limb: Relational Life-writing Against Techno-biopolitical Violence in Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats With Me’' In: Isabelle Hesse and Ned Curthoys (eds). Literary Representations of the Palestine/Israel Conflict after the Second Intifada (forthcoming). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Details]
    2020 'Expanding the Space of Human Rights in Literature, Reclaiming Literature as a Human Right: Cockroach and Carnival'
    Rita Sakr (2020) 'Expanding the Space of Human Rights in Literature, Reclaiming Literature as a Human Right: Cockroach and Carnival' In: Krzysztof Majer (eds). Beirut to Carnival City: Reading Rawi Hage. Amsterdam and New York: Brill/Rodopi, pp. 87-102. [Details]
    2018 'Heterotopia and its Discontents: Exploring Spatial, Social, and Textual Liminality in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach'
    Rita Sakr (2018) 'Heterotopia and its Discontents: Exploring Spatial, Social, and Textual Liminality in Rawi Hage’s Cockroach' In: Roxanne Rimstead and Domenic Beneventi (eds). Contested Spaces, Counter-narratives, and Culture from Below in Canada and Quebec. Toronto: Toronto University Press, pp. 88-106. [Details]
    2013 'We Teach Life, Sir”: States of Siege, Youth, and Filmed Testimony'
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2013) 'We Teach Life, Sir”: States of Siege, Youth, and Filmed Testimony' In: Hilary Ann Footitt and Andrew Knapp (eds). Liberal Democracies at War: Conflict and Representation. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 199-218. [Details]
    2013 'Interview with Robert Fisk'
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2013) 'Interview with Robert Fisk' In: Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (eds). The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Art and Journalism: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut. London and New York: Routledge, , pp. 184-90. [Details]
    2013 'Interview with Mischa Hiller'
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2013) 'Interview with Mischa Hiller' In: Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (eds). The Ethics of REpresentation in Literature, Art and Journalism: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 191-97. [Details]
    2013 'Interview with Mai Masri'
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2013) 'Interview with Mai Masri' In: Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (eds). The Ethics of REpresentation in Literature, Art and Journalism: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut. London and New York: Routledge, pp.198-204. [Details]
    2013 'Introduction'
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2013) 'Introduction' In: Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (eds). The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Journalism and Art: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1-20. [Details]
    2013 'War is Surrealism Without Art: Representing the Unrepresentable in Mahmoud Darwish, Rawi Hage and Robert Fisk'
    Rita Sakr (2013) 'War is Surrealism Without Art: Representing the Unrepresentable in Mahmoud Darwish, Rawi Hage and Robert Fisk' In: Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (eds). The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Journalism and Art: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 23-36. [Details]
    2011 '“That’s new […]That’s copy: Slightly Rambunctious Females on the top of Some Column! in Zola’s L’Assommoir and Joyce’s Ulysses'
    Rita Sakr (2011) '“That’s new […]That’s copy: Slightly Rambunctious Females on the top of Some Column! in Zola’s L’Assommoir and Joyce’s Ulysses' In: Rita Sakr and Finn Fordham (eds). Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. [Details]
    2011 'Joyce and the “pas mal de siècle”'
    Rita Sakr and Finn Fordham (2011) 'Joyce and the “pas mal de siècle”' In: Rita Sakr and Finn Fordham (eds). Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. [Details]

    Edited Books

      Year Publication
    2013 The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Journalism and Art: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (Ed.). (2013) The Ethics of Representation in Literature, Journalism and Art: Transnational Responses to the Siege of Beirut London and New York: Routledge. [Details]
    2011 Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel
    Rita Sakr and Finn Fordham (Ed.). (2011) Joyce and the Nineteenth-Century French Novel Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. [Details]

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2020 'Decolonial Imaginaries of Sanctuary in Behrouz Boochani's Work'
    Rita Sakr (2020) 'Decolonial Imaginaries of Sanctuary in Behrouz Boochani's Work'. CROSSINGS: JOURNAL OF MIGRATION & CULTURE, 11 (2):231-249 [Details]
    2019 'Imagining Mid-Nineteenth-Century Beirut as a City of the World: Public Intellectuals, Photography, Cartography, and Historical Literature”'
    Rita Sakr (2019) 'Imagining Mid-Nineteenth-Century Beirut as a City of the World: Public Intellectuals, Photography, Cartography, and Historical Literature”'. Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, 6 (1):31-57 [Details]
    2018 'The More-Than-Human Refugee Journey: Hassan Blasim's Short Stories'
    Rita Sakr (2018) 'The More-Than-Human Refugee Journey: Hassan Blasim's Short Stories'. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 54 (6 Refugee Literature):766-780 [full-text] [Details]
    2011 'Between Terror and Taboo: Monumentalisation as the Matrix of History and Politics in Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book and Snow'
    Rita Sakr (2011) 'Between Terror and Taboo: Monumentalisation as the Matrix of History and Politics in Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book and Snow'. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 38 :227-247 [full-text] [Details]
    2011 'Imaginative Migrations: An Interview [and an introductory essay] with the Lebanese-Canadian Writer Rawi Hage'
    Rita Sakr (2011) 'Imaginative Migrations: An Interview [and an introductory essay] with the Lebanese-Canadian Writer Rawi Hage'. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 47 (3):343-351 [full-text] [Details]
    2010 'Broken Pillars”: The Counter-Monumental Texture of Ulysses'
    Rita Sakr (2010) 'Broken Pillars”: The Counter-Monumental Texture of Ulysses'. Dublin James Joyce Journal, 3 :120-143 [full-text] [Details]
    2008 ''Staging Social and Political Spaces: Living Theatre in Joyce’s “The Dead”''
    Rita Sakr (2008) ''Staging Social and Political Spaces: Living Theatre in Joyce’s “The Dead”''. Journal of the Short Story in English, 51 [full-text] [Details]
    2007 'Negotiating Post-War Lebanese Literature: A Conversation with Rashid al-Daif'
    Rita Sakr (2007) 'Negotiating Post-War Lebanese Literature: A Conversation with Rashid al-Daif'. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 43 (3) [full-text] [Details]

    Other Journals

      Year Publication
    2012 'Writing the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Visions and Realities'
    Rita Sakr (2012) 'Writing the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Visions and Realities' Frame: Journal of Literary Studies, . [Details]

    Conference Contributions

      Year Publication
    2021 Oral Presentation at Transcultural Mo(ve)ments: Memories, Writings, Embodiments (online).
    Rita Sakr (2021) Oral Presentation at Transcultural Mo(ve)ments: Memories, Writings, Embodiments (online). [Oral Presentation], Transcultural Re-memberings of Planetary Sanctuary in Behrouz Boochani’s Poetics, University of Cardiff [Details]
    2019 Oral Presentation at Contemporary Literature: Politics and Aesthetics in Crisis.
    Rita Sakr (2019) Oral Presentation at Contemporary Literature: Politics and Aesthetics in Crisis. [Oral Presentation], Oral Presentation at collaborative symposium on Engaging an Aesthetics and Politics of More-Than-Human Rights in Rawi Hage's Works, Queen's University Belfast [Details]
    2019 Oral Presentation at Forms of Migration conference.
    Rita Sakr (2019) Oral Presentation at Forms of Migration conference. [Oral Presentation], Hassan Blasim’s Nightmare Realism” and the Re-imagining of the “Refugee Crisis”, University of Graz, Austria [Details]
    2018 Oral Presentation at 13th European Association for Modern Arabic Literature conference, Fiction and History: the Rebirth of the Historical Novel in Arabic.
    Rita Sakr (2018) Oral Presentation at 13th European Association for Modern Arabic Literature conference, Fiction and History: the Rebirth of the Historical Novel in Arabic. [Oral Presentation], Re-imagining Nineteenth-Century Beirut in Rabee Jaber’s Historical Fiction, Bayrūt Madīnat al-ʿĀlam, Universita degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale [Details]
    2018 Oral Presentation at 26th International James Joyce Symposium.
    Rita Sakr (2018) Oral Presentation at 26th International James Joyce Symposium. [Oral Presentation], Reconstructing “a Shout in the Street” in Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind, University of Antwerp [Details]
    2014 Oral presentation at Walls, Barricades, Borders, Gates: Political Negligence and the Twenty-First Century City.
    Rita Sakr (2014) Oral presentation at Walls, Barricades, Borders, Gates: Political Negligence and the Twenty-First Century City. [Oral Presentation], Re-Transit Beirut: Diasporic, Refugee, and Other Spaces, SOAS, University of London [Details]
    2013 Oral Presentation at British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Conference 2013.
    Rita Sakr (2013) Oral Presentation at British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Conference 2013. [Oral Presentation], Syrian Prison Writings: An Archive of Human Rights Abuses, Popular Discontent, and Radicalisation, UCD, Dublin [Details]
    2013 Oral Presentation at Identity and Conflict.
    Rita Sakr (2013) Oral Presentation at Identity and Conflict. [Oral Presentation], Remapping the Revolutionary Middle East: Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love and Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, University of Balamand [Details]
    2012 Oral Presentation at Days of Rage conference.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Oral Presentation at Days of Rage conference. [Oral Presentation], Writing the Egyptian Revolution: The Literature and Journalism of Mohamed Salmawy and Alaa al-Aswany, University of Kent [Details]
    2012 Oral Presentation at Shifting Borders conference.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Oral Presentation at Shifting Borders conference. [Oral Presentation], A New MENA?: Re-inventing the American Democratization Project in the Arab World,’ Shifting Borders, American University of beirut [Details]
    2012 Oral Presentation at British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Conference 2012.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Oral Presentation at British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Conference 2012. [Oral Presentation], Imagining 2011: The Literatures of the Arab Uprisings, London School of Economics [Details]

    Published Reports

      Year Publication
    2013 ‘Irish Peacekeeping in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL): A Historical, Political, and Socio-Cultural Study.
    Rita Sakr (2013) ‘Irish Peacekeeping in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL): A Historical, Political, and Socio-Cultural Study. Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut, Beirut. [Details]

    Book Review

      Year Publication
    2021 Review of Fictions of Migration in Contemporary Britain and Ireland by Carmen Zamorano Llena (in New Hibernia Review).
    Rita Sakr (2021) Review of Fictions of Migration in Contemporary Britain and Ireland by Carmen Zamorano Llena (in New Hibernia Review). Book Review [Details]
    2021 Landscapes of Violence: Review of God 99 by Hassan Blasim (in Dublin Review of Books).
    Rita Sakr (2021) Landscapes of Violence: Review of God 99 by Hassan Blasim (in Dublin Review of Books). Book Review [Details]
    2017 Review of The Lebanese Post-Civil War Novel: Memory, Trauma, and Capital (in Contemporary Levant).
    Rita Sakr (2017) Review of The Lebanese Post-Civil War Novel: Memory, Trauma, and Capital (in Contemporary Levant). Book Review [Details]
    2014 James Joyce in the Nineteenth Century (in James Joyce Broadsheet).
    Rita Sakr (2014) James Joyce in the Nineteenth Century (in James Joyce Broadsheet). Book Review [Details]
    2014 Review of Architecture and Modern Literature (in James Joyce Quarterly).
    Rita Sakr (2014) Review of Architecture and Modern Literature (in James Joyce Quarterly). Book Review [Details]
    2013 Review of Transits: The Nomadic Geographies of Anglo-American Modernism (in James Joyce Quarterly).
    Rita Sakr (2013) Review of Transits: The Nomadic Geographies of Anglo-American Modernism (in James Joyce Quarterly). Book Review [Details]
    2013 Review of In the Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar (in Wasafiri).
    Rita Sakr (2013) Review of In the Country of Men and Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar (in Wasafiri). Book Review [Details]
    2013 Review of Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies).
    Rita Sakr (2013) Review of Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies). Book Review [Details]

    Documentary

      Year Publication
    2014 White Flags.
    Rita Sakr and Caroline Rooney (2014) White Flags. Documentary [Details]

    Electronic Publication

      Year Publication
    2018 Cultural Imaginaries of Mid-Nineteenth Century Beirut as “City of the World”.
    Rita Sakr (2018) Cultural Imaginaries of Mid-Nineteenth Century Beirut as “City of the World”. Electronic Publication [Details]

    Encyclopedia Entry

      Year Publication
    2020 Hisham Matar (updated and expanded-3500 words).
    Rita Sakr (2020) Hisham Matar (updated and expanded-3500 words). Encyclopedia Entry [Details]
    2020 Rawi Hage (updated and expanded-2750 words).
    Rita Sakr (2020) Rawi Hage (updated and expanded-2750 words). Encyclopedia Entry [Details]
    2011 Rawi Hage.
    Rita Sakr (2011) Rawi Hage. Encyclopedia Entry [Details]
    2012 Hisham Matar.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Hisham Matar. Encyclopedia Entry [Details]

    Invited Lectures

      Year Publication
    2020 The ethico-politics of mixed-genre, relational life-writing in Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats with Me (Goldsmiths Centre for Comparative Literature).
    Rita Sakr (2020) The ethico-politics of mixed-genre, relational life-writing in Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats with Me (Goldsmiths Centre for Comparative Literature). Invited Lectures [Details]
    2017 Keynote Address: Heterotopic Displacements in Migrant and Refugee Narratives.
    Rita Sakr (2017) Keynote Address: Heterotopic Displacements in Migrant and Refugee Narratives. Invited Lectures [Details]
    2012 A History of Violence: Landscapes of Memory in Orhan Pamuk’s Novels.
    Rita Sakr (2012) A History of Violence: Landscapes of Memory in Orhan Pamuk’s Novels. Invited Lectures [Details]
    2012 Orhan Pamuk and the Contested History of Post-Imperial Turkey (University of Kent).
    Rita Sakr (2012) Orhan Pamuk and the Contested History of Post-Imperial Turkey (University of Kent). Invited Lectures [Details]
    2018 Imagining Mid-Nineteenth-Century Beirut as a “City of the World”: Public Intellectuals, Photography, Cartography, and Historical Literature (School of Orinetal and African Studies).
    Rita Sakr (2018) Imagining Mid-Nineteenth-Century Beirut as a “City of the World”: Public Intellectuals, Photography, Cartography, and Historical Literature (School of Orinetal and African Studies). Invited Lectures [Details]
    2013 Human Rights in Contemporary Arab Literature.
    Rita Sakr (2013) Human Rights in Contemporary Arab Literature. Invited Lectures [Details]
    2012 Irish Peacekeeping in Lebanon.
    Rita Sakr (2012) Irish Peacekeeping in Lebanon. Invited Lectures [Details]

    Invited Seminars

      Year Publication
    2015 A Cultural-Geographical Reflection on Migrant Routes in Mid-nineteenth-Century Beirut (OIB).
    Rita Sakr (2015) A Cultural-Geographical Reflection on Migrant Routes in Mid-nineteenth-Century Beirut (OIB). Invited Seminars [Details]

    Media

      Year Publication
    2020 RTE Brainstorm: A Guide to the Best Arabic Literature in Translation.
    Rita Sakr (2020) RTE Brainstorm: A Guide to the Best Arabic Literature in Translation. Media [Details]
    2019 Main guest on BBC World Service Weekend.
    Rita Sakr (2019) Main guest on BBC World Service Weekend. Media [Details]
    2018 One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend.
    Rita Sakr (2018) One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend. Media [Details]
    2016 One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend.
    Rita Sakr (2016) One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend. Media [Details]
    2015 One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend.
    Rita Sakr (2015) One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend. Media [Details]
    2014 One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend.
    Rita Sakr (2014) One of two main guests on BBC World Service Weekend. Media [Details]

    Conference Hosted

      Year Publication
    2020 Social Justice Week, Righting/Writing Refuge screening, conversation and symposium with Behrouz Boochani (Scholars at Risk-Maynooth).
    Rita Sakr and Jeneen Naji (2020) Social Justice Week, Righting/Writing Refuge screening, conversation and symposium with Behrouz Boochani (Scholars at Risk-Maynooth). Conference Hosted [Details]
    2014 An interdisciplinary conference co-organised with CCLPS, SOAS (Dr Karima Laachir) Walls, Barricades, Borders, Gates: Political Negligence and the Twenty-First Century City.
    Rita Sakr (2014) An interdisciplinary conference co-organised with CCLPS, SOAS (Dr Karima Laachir) Walls, Barricades, Borders, Gates: Political Negligence and the Twenty-First Century City. Conference Hosted [Details]
    2012 An interdisciplinary conference on Media and the Arab Springco-organised with Professor Liam Kennedy at UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies.
    Rita Sakr (2012) An interdisciplinary conference on Media and the Arab Springco-organised with Professor Liam Kennedy at UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies. Conference Hosted [Details]
    2012 An interdisciplinary conference, part of the RCUK, PACCS resesrach programme Imagining the Common Ground, and co-organised by University of Kent and the Lebanese University (Dr May Maalouf).
    Rita Sakr (2012) An interdisciplinary conference, part of the RCUK, PACCS resesrach programme Imagining the Common Ground, and co-organised by University of Kent and the Lebanese University (Dr May Maalouf). Conference Hosted [Details]

    Webinar

      Year Publication
    2021 A Conversation with Hassan Blasim on Literature, Displacement and Resistance.
    Rita Sakr and Reema Hassan (2021) A Conversation with Hassan Blasim on Literature, Displacement and Resistance. Webinar [Details]
    2021 Response to Kinda Nassli's Angela's Ashes Through a Syrian Refugee's Eyes (Social Justice Week event).
    Rita Sakr (2021) Response to Kinda Nassli's Angela's Ashes Through a Syrian Refugee's Eyes (Social Justice Week event). Webinar [Details]
    2020 Gaza: A Conversation With Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell.
    Rita Sakr and Denis Condon (2020) Gaza: A Conversation With Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell. Webinar [Details]
    2020 Conversation with Claire Gallien on Anglo-Arabic Writing and the Practice of Worldliness.
    Rita Sakr (2020) Conversation with Claire Gallien on Anglo-Arabic Writing and the Practice of Worldliness. Webinar [Details]

    Professional Associations

      Association Function From / To
    International Comparative Literature Association Member of the Executive Council 01-AUG-16 / 01-AUG-19
    European Association for Commonwealth Literatures and Language Studies Member /
    Irish Association for American Studies Member /
    Irish Network for Middle Eastern and North African Studies Co-founder; Founding member 01-JUL-20 /
    Centre for Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London Affiliated Member 01-SEP-20 /
    Multilingual Locals & Significant Geographies: For a New Approach to World Literature (MULOSIGE). An ERC Horizon 2020 project at SOAS Critical Friend 01-JUN-19 /
    European Association of Modern Arabic Literature Member 01-JUN-18 /

    Committees

      Committee Function From / To
    University of Sanctuary Committee Member 2019 /
    Postgraduate Teaching Coordinator of MA/Chair of Working Group 2019 /
    Scholars at Risk Network Ireland-Maynooth University Committee Member 2019 /

    Education

      Year Institution Qualification Subject
    2009 University of Nottingham PhD English Studies (Global Literatures)
    2020 Sciences-Po Completed online course "International Migrations: A Global Issue" Migration

    Languages

      Language Reading Writing Speaking
    Arabic Fluent Fluent Fluent
    English Fluent Fluent Fluent
    French Fluent Fluent Fluent
    Italian Functional Functional Functional

    Consultancy

      Client Description
    UN in the Arab World programme of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs
    Study of Irish Peacekeeping in Lebanon
    Dublin UNESCO City of Literature
    Member of Judging Panel of 2021 International Dublin Literary Award

    Reviews

      Journal Role
    Literary Encyclopedia Editor
    Routledge Reviewer
    Journal Of Postcolonial Writing Reviewer
    British Journal Of Middle Eastern Studies Reviewer
    Political Geography Reviewer
    Contemporary Women'S Writing Reviewer
    Postcolonial Text Reviewer
    Diaspora Reviewer
    Journal Of North African Studies Reviewer

    Other Activities

      Description

    BBC World Service 2-hour "Weekend Show" Guest in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 (commenting on political, socio-economic, and cultural news and exploring aspects of my academic research and teaching).

    Expert reviewer of translations of Irish literature to the Arabic language for Literature Ireland

    Expert interviewee on the RTE documentary: Peacekeepers: The Irish in South Lebanon

    Teaching Interests

    Teaching includes:
    Year 3 UG Core module EN302 Critical Geographies (module coordinator and co-lecturer with Dr Corley, ongoing)
    Year 3 UG Core module EN303 Experimental Forms (co-lecturer with Dr Sullivan, ongoing)
    Year 3 UG Elective EN379 Global Arab Migrant Writing and Film (ongoing)
    Year 2 Core module EN204 Literatures of Place (module coordinator and co-lecturer with Dr Corley, 2018-19)
    Year 2 Great Books (co-teaching with colleagues, ongoing)

    MA Elective EN6012 Imagining The Post-Imperial City
    "Gaza" Section on MA Elective EN6006 Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and Culture

    PhD Supervision:
    Completed: "The Production of Space and its Subversive Functions in Contemporary Lebanese Literature" (Farah Aridi, Goldsmiths)
    Ongoing: as principal supervisor: "The Body and the Environment in Contemporary Iraqi Literature" (Reema Hassan, MU)
    Ongoing: as second supervisor, "'Describe the Problem Properly': Hybridity and Ambiguity in the work of Teju Cole" (Andrew Clarke, MU)