You are here : Version anglaise > Fellows > Fellows 2022-2023

Séjour court

Jumana
BAYEH

Arts and literature - Australia

Research topics

PROJECT

Precarious Borders : The Nation-State and the Arab Diaspora Novel in English

The year 2016 marked the centenary of the nation-state in the Arab Middle East and the development of an unprecedented refugee crisis that resulted from the implosion of the borders established with the infamous 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. This project will reveal how literature by Arab diaspora writers, residing in Australia, Canada, the UK and US, engages with the idea of the nation-state. Arab literary writing in English is closely tied to its diaspora, making it particularly significant for considering how literature registers the transformative effects of migration and border transgression on our understanding of the nation. Covering the century-long period since the first Arab diaspora novel emerged in 1911, this project provides a far-reaching analysis of literary engagements with the nation-state across four Arab diaspora sites, and illustrates the importance of literature for our understanding of migrant populations and the impact of the erosion of national borders.

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

Jumana Bayeh is Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is the author
of The Literature of the Lebanese Diaspora(2015) and numerous articles on Arab diaspora fiction.