Staff profile

I have an MA in English Literature (American University of Beirut) and a PhD in the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East (SOAS, University of London). Before coming to Durham in 2012, I taught at the American University of Beirut and the University of Manchester and I was also a post-doctoral researcher on the AHRC/ESRC “Islamism in Arab Fiction and Film” project at Lancaster University.

I have a primary research specialism in modern Middle Eastern literatures, film and cultures with a particular interest in questions of health, illness and disability. My monograph The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature (Syracuse University Press, 2014) is the first major study of female physical illness and disability in contemporary Arabic literature of the Levant and Egypt from 1950 to the present. Please see the following link for further details: http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2014/female-suffering-body.html.

I also have an additional specialism in literature and religion, particularly literary and filmic representations of Islamism from the Middle East and North Africa. I have co-edited a collection of essays (with Lindsey Moore) entitled Islamism and Cultural Expression in the Arab World (Routledge, 2015). I also specialise in gender and postcolonial literatures and film more broadly and have published a number of articles and book chapters that explore my research interests. In more recent years, I have written articles on death and dying in the context of Middle Eastern visual culture. Finally, I am also a short story writer and playwright.

Since 2017, I have been working on a research project that extends my interests in Middle Eastern literatures, film and the medical humanities: a cultural history of cancer in the Arab world. This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of its Open World Research Initiative. One strand of the project  Performing Arab Cancer , which is grounded in arts-based-research, has been shortlisted for the AHRC / Wellcome Trust 2020 Medical Humanities Awards in the Best International Research category. Based on extensive qualitative fieldwork (in the form of personal interviews) conducted with female cancer patients from the Arab world, Performing Arab Cancer deploys creative, performative, visual and critical practice to generate a ‘living archive’ of Arab female cancer stories and testimonies. As part of my work on this strand, I wrote, produced and curated a series of creative arts outputs – including two ethnodramas, a film and a video installation – in collaboration with international artists, healthcare practitioners and cancer NGOs to highlight women’s subjective experience with the disease. For further details please see: https://www.dur.ac.uk/owri/subprojects/thatdisease/ and https://www.dur.ac.uk/owri/impact/cancer/

• Death and Dying in Literature and Visual Culture
• Modern Middle Eastern Literatures, Film and Cultures
• Illness and Disability
• Religion and Literature/Film
• Gender
• Postcolonial Literature and Film

• 0000: : 2020: Performing Arab Cancer project is shortlisted for the AHRC / Wellcome Trust 2020 Medical Humanities Awards in the Best International Research category.

Authored book

• Hamdar, Abir. (2014). The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.

Book review

• Hamdar, Abir (2012). Media Warfare. Review of Channels of Resistance in Lebanon: Liberation Propaganda, Hezbollah and the Media. By Zahera Harb. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 5.
• Hamdar, Abir (2012). Review of Contemporary Arab Women Writers: Cultural Expression in Context. By Anastasia Valassopoulos. Women: A Cultural Review, Special issue on Transnational Feminisms
• Abir Hamdar (2000). Review of In the House of Silence: Autobiographical Essays by Arab Women Writers. By Fadia Faqir. Al-Raida XVII(89).

Chapter in book

• Bradley, A. & Hamdar, A. (2016). Imagining Islamism: Representations of Fundamentalism in the Twenty-First Century Arabic Novel. In The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion. Knight, Mark Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 446-456.
• Hamdar, Abir (2015). 'Those Who Cure You Will Kill You':The Doctor and the Terrorist in Arab Fiction and Film. In Islamism and Cultural Expression in the Arab World. Hamdar, Abir & Lindsey Moore Routledge. 123-137.
• Hamdar, Abir (2003). Exile, Home and Identity: Constructing Alternative Spaces in Hamida Na'na's The Homeland. In Crisis and Memory: The Representation of Space in Modern Levantine Narrative. Seigneury, Ken Wiesbaden: Reichert. 211-222.

Edited book

• Hamdar, Abir & Moore, Lindsey (2015). Islamism and Cultural Expression in the Arab World. Durham modern Middle East and Islamic world series, 35. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Journal Article

• Hamdar, Abir (2023). Prostheses of disability: Islamic fundamentalism and the disabled body in postcolonial Arab fiction. Medical Humanities
• Hamdar, Abir (2022). Severed Heads in Iraqi Diasporic Visual Production: Aleiby, Baldin and Alsoudani. Textual Practice
• Hamdar, Abir. (2021). Staging Silence: Arab Women's Cancer Experience. Studies in Theatre and Performance 41(2): 197-211.
• Hamdar, Abir (2020). 'Voice of Resistance': Rim Banna, Cancer, and Palestine's Body Politic. Medical Humanities 46(3): 234-242.
• Hamdar, Abir (2019). Between Representation and Reality: Disabled Bodies in Arabic Literature. International Journal of Middle East Studies 51(1): 127-130.
• Hamdar, Abir (2018). The Syrian Corpse: The Politics of Dignity in Visual and Media Representations of the Syrian Revolution. Journal for Cultural Research 22(1): 73-89.
• Hamdar, Abir (2014). “We are all Hizbullah now” narrating the Party of God. Journal for Cultural Research 18(2): 158-170.
• Hamdar, Abir (2012). The Switzerland of the Middle East: Play. MovingWorlds: Journal of Transcultural Writings 12(Special issue on Asylum ).
• Hamdar, Abir (2012). Rashid al-Daif. The Literary Encyclopedia
• Hamdar, Abir (2012). Hassan Daoud. The Literary Encyclopedia
• Hamdar, Abir (2012). The Colour of Scrambled Eggs: A Dramatic Monologue. Medical Humanities 38.
• Hamdar, Abir (2011). Aesthetic Visibility: Female Illness/Disability in Hasan Dawud's Makhyaj Khafif. Al-Abhath: Journal of the Centre of Arab and Middle Eastern Studies 58-59.
• Hamdar, Abir (2010). Female Physical Illness and Disability in Arab Women's Writing. Feminist Theory: Special Issue on Arab Feminisms 11(2): 189-204.
• Hamdar, Abir (2010). The Smell of her Urine: Short Story. MovingWorlds: Journal of Transcultural Writings 10(Special Issue, Ten Years Forward.).
• Hamdar, Abir (2010). Representations of Women, Gender and Islamic Cultures in Films: Lebanon. Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures
• Hamdar, Abir (2010). The Silicone Bomb: Play. Callaloo 4(32).
• Hamdar, Abir (2009). Jihad of Words: Gender and Contemporary Karbala Narratives. Yearbook of English Studies 2009 39(1/2): 84-100.
• Hamdar, Abir (2009). The Sushi Meal: Short Story. Brand Literary Magazine 5.
• Hamdar, Abir (2008). The Hole Beside her Lady Zeinab: Short Story. MovingWorlds: Journal of Transcultural Writings, Pillars of Light: Exploring Muslim Cultures 1(8).
• Hamdar, Abir (2006). Under the Heat of the Scorching Sun: Short Story. MovingWorlds: Journal of Transcultural Writings, Telling Stories, Telling Lives 1(6).
• Hamdar, Abir (2004). Masculinity, Manhood and Machismo in Radwan el-Kashef's Film Arak el-Balah. Al-Raida XXI: What about Masculinity(104-105): 113-117.
• Hamdar, Abir (2003). The Gender Sensitive Fact File: Profiles of the Arab League Countries. Al-Raida 100(20): 93-137.
• Hamdar, Abir (2001). Marriage, Madness and Murder in Alia Mamdouh's Mothballs and Salwa Bakr's The Golden Chariot. Al-Raida
• Hamdar, Abir (2000). Women Centers in Jordan. Al-Raida 90-91(17-18): 15-19.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Hamdar, Abir. (2020). Hair Talk. Video Installation. Video Concept and Direction by Dima Alansari, Technical Director Suha Choucair. 4-7 February. Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute, AUBMC. Beirut, Lebanon. Video.
• Hamdar, Abir. (2017). Short Film: Wasafuli al-Sabr. Directed by Soha Choucair & Lina Abyad. Edited by Moonshot Post-Production. Film.

Performance

• Hamdar, Abir. (2020). Hair Talk. Performance Piece Directed by Lina Abyad. Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute - AUBMC. Beirut, Lebanon.
• Hamdar, Abir. (2018). Hospital Performance: Wasafuli al-Sabr [Eng. Title: I am Waiting For You]. Directed by Lina Abyad. 8 February. Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute -AUBMC, Beirut, Lebanon.
• Hamdar, Abir. (2018). Hospital Performance: Wasafuli al-Sabr [Eng. Title: I am Waiting For You]. Directed by Lina Abyad. 1 December. Nabih Berri Government University Hospital, South Lebanon.
• Hamdar, Abir. (2017). Hospital Performance: Wasafuli al-Sabr (Eng. Title: I am Waiting for You). Directed by Lina Abyad. 8 August. Lebanese American University Medical Centre-Rizk Hospital, Beirut.
• Hamdar, Abir. (2017). Wasafuli al-Sabr (Eng. title: I am Waiting for You). Directed by Lina Abyad. 19 July - 29 July. Madina Theater, Beirut.
• Hamdar, Abir (2014). Lecture Performance: I Want to Tell You Something. 15th EACLALS TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE 2014, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck.
• Hamdar, Abir (2010). The Silicone Bomb. Directed by Lina Abyad. 7th Creative Independent Forum in Alexandria; and the Amman International Theatre Festival AITF in Jordan.
• Hamdar, Abir (2009). The Silicone Bomb. Directed by Lina Abyad. The Lebanese American University of Beirut, Gulbenkian Theatre. Further performances at the Hamana Festival in Lebanon; the 12th International Theatre Festival at the Lebanese American University; and Madina Theater in Beirut.