Dr Zahia Smail Salhi
Head of Department

Tel: 0113 343 3416
Fax: 0113 343 3477
email: z.salhi@leeds.ac.uk

Research Interests

• Middle Eastern and North African Gender Studies
• Arabic Literature, Comparative literature
• Francophone Literature of the Middle East and North Africa
• Arab Cinema
• Culture and Society in the Middle East and North Africa
• The Arab Diaspora

Taught Courses

1. ARAB 2040 - The Modern Arabic Short Story
2. ARAB 2050 - Culture and Society in the Middle East
3. ARAB 3040 - The Arabic Novel
4. ARAB 3001 - Arab Cinema

Recent Publications

1-“The Genesis of French Writing in Colonial Algeria”, International Journal of Francophone Studies, vol.1, no.2, 1998.
2- Politics, Poetics and the Algerian Novel, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1999.
3- “Evolution of the Female Character in the Early Novels of Mohammed Dib”
International Journal of Francophone Studies, vol.3, no.1, 2000.
 4- “Language as Identity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Algeria” Offshoot: Journal of Translation and Comparative Studies, vol.3, no.2, 2000.
5-   “Nisā’al-Jazā’ir fī Muwājahat Qānūn al-Usra”, in Nadia Mahmud, Huqūq al-mar’a: Huqūq al-Insān, London: MECWS, 2000.
6-   “Wounded Smile: Women, Politics and the Culture of Betrayal”. Critique: Journal of Critical Studies of the Middle East, No. 18, Spring 2001.
7-   “Mina al-Dhāt al-Fardiya ila al-Dhāt al-Jamā‘iya: al-Masīra al-Riwā’iya li al-Mar’a al-Jazā’iriya”, Offshoot: Journal of Translation and Comparative Studies, vol.4, no.1, 2001.
8-    “Fifty years of Mohammed Dib’s Algerian Trilogy”. BANIPAL: Magazine of Modern Arab Literature, No.14, Summer 2002.
9 -   “Algerian Women, Citizenship, and the ‘Family Code’”, in Gender and Development, Vol.11, No3, November 2003.
10 -   “Algerian Women, Citizenship, and the ‘Family Code’”, in Caroline Sweetman (ed.), Gender, Development, and Citizenship, Oxfam Publications, 2004.
11 - “Maghrebi Women and the Challenge of Modernity: Breaking the Women's Silence", in Naomi Sakr (ed.), Women and Media in the Middle East: Power through Self-Expression, I B Tauris, 2004.
12 -   “Memory, Gender, and National Identity in the Work of Assia Djebar”, in Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings. Vol.4, No.1, 2004.
13-   The Anguished Scream: Studies in the Arab Diaspora, Edited volume (with Ian Richard Netton). Routledge: 2006.
14-   “Gendering the Imperial City: London in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North” in Zahia Smail Salhi and Ian Richard Netton (eds.) The Anguished Scream: Studies in the Arab Diaspora, Routledge: 2006.
15-   “Women in Islam” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. OUP: 2007.
16-   “Women, Gender and Sexualities: Representations in Print, Broadcast and Electronic Media: North Africa”, in Suad Joseph, Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Brill Academic Publishers: 2007.
17-   “Ahlam Mostghanemi” 3000 word essay in  Michael R Fischbach, Biographical Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East, Thomson Gale: 2007.
18- “Between the Languages of Silence and the Woman’s Word: Gender and Language in the Work of Assia Djebar” in International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Special Issue on "Language and Gender in the Mediterranean Region", vol. 190, 2008.
19 - “Representations of the ‘Femmes d’Alger’ in French Colonial Media”, in The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communications, issue 1, vol.1, 2008.
20- “Algerian Women as Actors of Change and Social Cohesion”, in Fatima Sadiqi, Women as Agents of Change in the Middle East and North Africa. Routledge: 2008. Forthcoming
21 - “Heard/Symbolic Voices: The Nouba of the Women of Mont Chenoua and Women’s Film in the Maghreb”, in Lina Khatib, The Form and Content of Story Telling in World Cinema, Wallflower Press, 2009. Forthcoming

Work in Progress

1-  A Special Issue of The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies on: Gender and Diversity in the Middle East, 2008.
2-  Middle Eastern Women, Diversity and the Shifting Values of the Modern World. Edited Volume, Routledge, 2009.
3- Currently working on two monographs one on Women in Islam, and another on Occidentalism in Maghrebi Literature.

Public/Guest Lectures

1-      University of Edinburgh, Institute for the Study of the Arab World and Islam, delivered a paper on “Women, Politics and the Culture of Betrayal”, 02 May 2000.  
2-      United Nations group in Sheffield: delivered a lecture on “Gender and Development in the Middle East”, 06 May 2002.

3-      University of Dublin, Trinity College: delivered a lecture on “Women in Islam”, 15 May 2002.
4-      Manchester University, The Middle Eastern Department: delivered a lecture on “Cinema in the Maghreb”, 04 December 2003.

5-     University of Exeter, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, delivered a lecture on “Maghrebi Women’s Cinema”, 04 May 2005.

6-     University of London (Royal Holloway) Screen Studies Group: delivered a lecture on "The Form and Context of Storytelling in World Cinema", 10 March 2006.
7-  University of Oxford, BRISMES Graduate Conference, “Publishing Journal Articles and Book Reviews”, 06 July 2007.

8-   University of Durham, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, delivered a lecture on Gender and Language, 05 February 2008.

9-     University of Durham, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, “Globalisation in Arab(ic) Literature and Culture”, 03 October 2008.

Conference Papers

•  The Department of English, The University of Kuwait, delivered a paper on ‘Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race: Colonial Encounters East and West’, 17-19 March 2001. Kuwait
• The Department of English, Ege University, International Cultural Studies Symposium, delivered a paper on “Gender in the Foreign City”, 5-7 May 2004. Turkey
• SOAS, University of London, BRISMES Annual conference, delivered a paper on ‘London in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, 4-7 July 2004. UK
• European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, delivered a paper on “Women between Private and Public Spheres”, 16-20 March 2005. Italy.
• European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, delivered a paper on “Unveiling the Veil: Unity in Diversity”, 22-26 March 2006. Italy.
• Edinburgh Institute for the Study of the Arab World and Islam, University of Edinburgh, “Workshop on Conducting Fieldwork in the Middle East”, 12 Feb.2007, UK

Other

1. Executive Director of BRISMES: The British Society of Middle Eastern Studies.
2. Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Francophone Studies
3. Editorial Board member of The Middle East Journal of Culture and Communications
4. Editorial Board member of Women’s Studies International Forum
5. Executive committee member in the Centre for Gender Studies at Leeds University.
6. Executive committee member in the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Leeds University
7. Associate Editor of an Anthology: Women Writing Africa: the northern region. Feminist Press, 2008.

Training and Supervision of Research Students

 (i) Students who have been awarded a degree:

• Ratna R. Abdul Razak: ‘Al-Mutanabbi: A Humanistic Psychological Approach’. Ph.D. June 2000.
• Nasser S. Al-Samaany: ‘ Travel Literature of Moroccan Pilgrims during the 17-19th centuries: Thematic and Artistic Study’. Ph.D., October 2000.
• Sharifa K.N. Al-Yahya’i: ‘ The Early Beginnings of al-Qasida al-Hurra in the Gulf States: 1970s-1980s’. Ph.D., May 2001.

4. Marisa Farrugia: ‘The Plight of Women in Egyptian Cinema’. Ph.D., September 2002.
5. Abeer Al-Abbasi: ‘Abbasid Children Literature’, MA, January 2003.
6. Jonathan Moore: Exploring Social Margins within Society in Ahdaf Soueif’s In the Eye of the Sun and Hanan Al-Shaykh’s Only in London’, MA, September 2003.
7. Abdullah Almeflh: ‘Saudi Poetry in the Last Quarter of the 20th Century: A Creative Analysis’, Ph.D., March 2004.
8. Ilham Al-Shallal: ‘The Image of Women in the Work of T. Al-Hakim: A Critical and Analytical Study’, Ph.D., September 2004.
9. Mansour Mohsen Dhabab: ‘Representations of the Western Other in Early Arabic Novels (1850-1915)’, Ph.D., November 2005.
10. Firdaus Isap, Co-supervision with Anne Macklin. ‘Quseir and the Hajj’, MA, 2006
11. Mona al-Omairi: ‘The Reception Theory: A Study of Kuwaiti Theatre’ (Ph.D), 2007.
12. Abeer Al-Abbasi: "Astrology in literature: how the prohibited became permissible in the Arabic poetry of the Mediaeval period" (Ph.D).

(ii) Ongoing:

1. Zubeida Metlo: ‘Honour Killings in the Pakistan’ (Ph.D).
2. Amina al-Rasheed: ‘Sudanese Women: Exile, Politics, Islam and the State’ (Ph.D).
3. Hiam al-Ghoussi: ‘Women’s Rights in Islam and Contemporary Ulama’ (Ph.D).
4. Ahmed Mohamad Al-Shilabi, ‘The Twentieth Century Libyan Novel’ (PhD)
5. Dima Al-Adwan, Analytical Study of Literary Translation: Midaq Alley and Respected Sir as Case Study
6. Wafa Dukmak, ‘ Harry Potter in Arabic: A Study of Translation Quality Assessment’
7. Idris Mansour, The Translation of Cultural Elements from Arabic into Malay in Rihlat ibn Battuta’
8. Abdullah al-Fawzan, Arabic Literature
9. Hasan Jaber Al-Faify, Arabic Literature
10. Suad Agil, Arabic Literature & Translation
11. Vahideh, Gender and Globalisation in Iran
12. Alaa Hamdan, Comparative Literature

External Examining

PhD/MA

I acted both as internal and external examiner at several UK Universities (Edinburgh, Manchester, Exeter, Durham) and International Institutions (Malta, Algeria).
I examined in the fields of Literature & Culture, Gender Studies, Linguistics, and Translation.

Moderator and External Examiner of degree programmes

1- Moderator of the Life Long Learning ‘Arabic and Islamic Studies’ Programme at Leeds University
2- Moderator for The School of Performance and Cultural Industries, at Leeds for the Bretton Hall extension in Israel. My work consisted on moderating the translation of the degree dissertation from Arabic into English (2002-2004).
3- External Examiner for MA in Translation (Arabic-English-Arabic) University of Westminster.
4-   External Examiner for BA Arabic programmes at the School of Modern Languages, University of Westminster,
5- External Examiner for Arabic Modules, Manchester Metropolitan University.