1
EMAN A. GHANAYEM
Department of Asian American Studies • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • 1208 W Nevada St Urbana, IL 61801 • 217.417.3883 • [email protected]
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2020-21 Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
EDUCATION
2020 Ph.D., English (Literary Studies), 2020
Minor degrees in American Indian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2011 M.A., English Literature, 2011
University of Jordan – Amman, Jordan 2009 B.A., English Language and Literature, 2009
University of Jordan – Amman, Jordan DISSERATION
Title: “Nations without Nationalisms: On Palestinian and American Indian Literary Imaginations” My dissertation argues that indigeneity, as expressed in American Indian and Palestinian literatures, offers a necessary critique of nationalism as a product of the colonial west, as well as representing an alternative form of belonging that is land-oriented, relational, and can function without a state.
Chair: Jodi A. Byrd
Committee: Susan Koshy (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Mimi Thi Nguyen (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), LeAnne Howe (University of Georgia), and Nadine Naber (University of Illinois at Chicago)
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
American Indian and Indigenous literatures; Arab and Arab American literatures; diasporic, refugee, and prison writings; global Indigenous studies; feminist and queer theory; postcolonial and third world studies
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed article: “Colonial Loops of Displacement in the United States and Israel: The Case of Rasmea Odeh,” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 47: 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 2019): 71-91. Special issue: Guest edited with Rebecca Macklin, “Native American Narratives in a Global
Context,” a special issue of Transmotion, 5.1 (2019).
Introduction to special issue: co-authored with Rebecca Macklin, “Indigenous Narratives: Global Forces in Motion,” Transmotion, 5.1 (2019): 1-10.
In progress, invited forum contribution: co-authored with Rana Sharif and Jennifer Mogannam, “Critical Refugee Studies Forum,” in a special issue of Amerasia, edited by Yen Le Espiritu and Lila Sharif.
2 Online Publications and Blogposts:
“Towards Better Ally-Ship for Palestine: A Letter to the US Activist Community,” Mondoweiss, 23 March 2017, https://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/palestine-activist-community/.
“‘What’s at Stake?: Intersectional Conversations in a Post-Truth Era,’” Kritik, UIUC Unit for Criticism, 2 March 2017, https://unitforcriticism.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/whats-at-stake-intersectional-conversations-in-a-post-truth-era-response-by-eman-ghanayem/. “Criminalizing/Civilizing the Palestinian,” UIUC Faculty Blogspot, 8 September 2014,
https://uiucfaculty.blogspot.com/2014/09/eman-ghanayem-criminalizingcivil-izing.html. GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Spring 2020 U of California, Irvine Global Scholars Early Career Fellowship
2018-2019 U of Illinois Graduate College Block Grant, Full Funding
2017-2018 U of Illinois Graduate College Block Grant, Partial Funding Summer 2017 U of Illinois Graduate Student Nicholson Fellowship
2014-2015 U of Illinois INTERSECT (interdisciplinary arts and humanities research and
training) Graduate Fellowship from the American Indian Studies Program, fellowship program title: “Global Indigenous Studies: The State of Play” Summer 2014 U of Illinois English Department Summer Fellowship
2013-2014 U of Illinois INTERSECT (interdisciplinary arts and humanities research and
training) Graduate Fellowship from the American Indian Studies Program, fellowship program title: “Global Indigenous Studies: The State of Play”
2009 U of Jordan Full Scholarship for Graduate Study (declined)
AWARDS
Summer 2020 Summer Fellowship Award, the Donald A. Smalley Fellowship
Spring 2020 U of Illinois English Department Conference Travel Award
Spring 2019 U of Illinois English Department Conference Travel Award
Fall 2017 U of Illinois English Graduate Program’s Kirkpatrick Fund, plus Rusk Excellence Funds
Spring 2017 U of Illinois English Department Hobart L. and Mary Kay Peer Poetry Award for First Place in Graduate Creative Writing
Fall 2016 U of Illinois English Graduate Program’s Excellence Funds
Spring 2016 U of Illinois American Indian Studies Conference Travel Award Spring 2016 U of Illinois English Graduate Program’s Excellence Funds DISTINCTIONS
2015-2017 Ranked Excellent in the University of Illinois Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES)
Fall 2016 Passed with Distinction, Field Examination in “Indigenous Literatures of the Modern Settler State”
SHORT TERM PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPS
3 The Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies Summer Institute, program title:
“Revitalizing Indigenous Languages” with Dr. Jenney Davis and Dr. Margaret Noodin. Chicago, Illinois (July 8-26, 2019).
The School of Criticism and Theory 2017 Summer Program at Cornell University, workshop title: “Humanity” with Dr. Faisal Devji. Ithaca, New York (June 18-July 27, 2017).
The Sixth Summer Session of the Institute of World Literature at Harvard University, programs: “The Scale of World Literature” with Dr. Nirvana Tanoukhi and “Multi-Scale Literary Studies” with Dr. Jing Tsu. Boston, Massachusetts (June 20-July 14, 2016).
The Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies Summer Institute, program title: “Looking for Native Sovereignty” with Dr. Jennifer Denetdale and Dr. David Correia. Chicago, Illinois (July 13-August 8, 2015).
“Interrogating the Non-Human Turn,” a University of Illinois multi-session workshop, led by Dr. Jodi Byrd, Dr. Samantha Frost, Dr. Radhika Govindrajan, Dr. Susan Koshy, and Dr. Trish Loughran. Champaign, Illinois (April 3-17, 2015).
Global Indigeneity Reading Group and Workshop, led by the University of Illinois American Indian Studies faculty and INTERSECT graduate fellows. Champaign, Illinois (August 2013-December 2014).
Salon Ada: A Creative Writing Two-Day Workshop with Chickasaw author and professor LeAnne Howe, Ada, Oklahoma (June 2014).
INVITED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
“Debunking Thanksgiving,” a conversation with the Arab American community – The Palestinian American Community Center in New Jersey, November 23, 2020.
“Settler Colonialism & the Indigenous Struggle in the U.S. and Israel,” a panel discussion with Dr. Jennifer Denetdale, Dr. Yara Hawari, and Dr. David Uahikeaikaleiʻohu Maile, organized by RISD Students for Justice in Palestine – Rhode Island School of Design and Brown
University, October 13, 2020.
An Interview with Zein El-Amine, Shay wa Nana, WPFW 89.3, October 7, 2020, https://www.wpfwfm.org/radio/programming/archived-shows.
“Unwriting Literary History: Palestinian & Indigenous Literary Imaginaries” a PalREAD discussion workshop with Dr. Amal Eqeiq, Dr. Refqa Abu-Remaileh, Dr. Paul M. Worley, and Dr. Rita M. Palacios – Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, February 2020.
“Indigeneity in Palestine,” a collaborative workshop with Dr. Amal Eqeiq that interactively
translated “indigeneity,” as iterated in North and Latin America, into Arabic with Palestinian college students – Bethlehem University, West Bank, October 2019.
“For Whom Indigeneity Matters: Homelands, Displacement, and the Modern Arab Refugee” – University of Illinois at Chicago Arab American Cultural Center, October 2019.
Roundtable comments on free speech and academic freedom at the Global Terrain of Free Speech Conflicts Conference – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 2017.
“Gender, Intergenerational Relationships, and Other Social Issues in Our Communities” – The Palestinian Youth Movement Summer School in Riverside, California, July 2015.
“What’s in a Border?” The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Women and Gender History Symposium, titled “Dissent, Hip-Hop, Palestine,” November 2014.
4 “Taking Tribalography Global,” the Native American House: Indigenous Research Symposium –
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 2014. SELECT CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
“Towards Poetic Justice: Palestinian Women Writers Contesting Global Violence,” Arab American Studies Association 2020 Conference – San Diego, California, 2021 (exact date to be decided, originally postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions).
“Palestinian Indigenous Methodology: The Literary Journeys of Ghassan Kanafani,” sponsored by the CLCS Global Arab and Arab American Forum, Modern Language Association – participation via Zoom, January 7-10, 2021.
“Global Relationality: A Historical Map of Palestinian-Indigenous Connections,” Middle East Studies Association – participation via Zoom, October 5-17, 2020.
“New Directions in Comparative Indigenous Criticism” (a roundtable), Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting – Hamilton, New Zealand, June 2019. “Traveling Indigeneity: Native Global Networks across Settler Borders,” Native American Literature
Symposium – Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2019.
Co-organized a panel and presented a paper titled “Issues in US-Palestine Academic Exchange,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting – Chicago, Illinois, November 2017. Co-organized a panel and presented a paper titled “Homes and Exiles within Colonial Transits: A
Comparative Approach to the US and Israel,” Sixth Annual Migrations without Boundaries Graduate Student Conference – Michigan State University, October 2017.
“Transgressive Life and the Recognition of the Indigenous Subject beyond Sovereignty,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting – Toronto, Canada, June 2017.
Co-organized a panel and presented a paper titled “Water in the Context of Native Removals: A Comparative Approach,” Native American Literature Symposium – Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2017.
“Towards Culture-Oriented Commitment: The Case of Palestine in the US Academy,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting – Denver, Colorado, November 2016.
“Confinable Bodies: From the ‘Muselmann’ to the ‘Mad Muslim Terrorist,’” Mnemonics Summer School titled “The Other Side of Memory: Forgetting, Denial, Repression” – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 2016.
Co-organized a panel and presented a paper titled “‘The White Joke’: Native Laughter and the Contours of Settler Colonial Anxieties,” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting – Honolulu, Hawaii, May 2016.
“Ghost-lings: Invisibility, Death and Hauntings in Indigenous Poetry,” Native American Literature Symposium – Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 2016.
“Nested Sovereignty: Rereading the Choctaw-Chickasaw Post-Removal Alliance,” Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies Conference – Chicago, Illinois, August 2015. “The Politics of Aesthetics: A Comparative Approach to American Indian and Palestinian Literary
Intersections,” Native American Literature Symposium – Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 2015.
5 “The Aesthetics of Global Experience: A Study of Traveling Identities in Alice Walker’s Overcoming
Speechlessness and LeAnne Howe’s Choctalking on Other Realities,” Native American Literature
Symposium – Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 2014.
“Family Relations in the Works of Susan Power and Ghassan Kanafani,” Native American Literature Symposium – Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 2011.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Spring 2021 Instructor of Record
Department of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, AAS 375 Prison, Race, and Terror, cross-listed in Gender and Women’s Studies and Latino/a Studies
Summer 2020 Instructor of Record
Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, GWS 378 Fairytales and Gender Formation, cross-listed in English Fall 2015 -
Spring 2017 Instructor of Record Department of English; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ENGL 116 Introduction to American Literature (Spring 2017)
RHET 105 GC Writing and Research, Global Crossroads (Fall 2016* and Fall 2017*)
RHET 105 Writing and Research (Fall 2015* and Spring 2016*)
*Ranked excellent in the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) Spring 2012 -
Summer 2013 Lecturer English Department, Birzeit University (Ramallah, West Bank)
ENGL 233 Writing I (Spring 2012, Summer 2012, Fall 2012, and Spring 2013, six sections overall)
ENGL 234 Writing II (Spring 2013)
ENGL 238 Introduction to Literature (Spring 2013)
ENGL 335 American Literature (Spring 2013 and Summer 2013) ENGL 330 Early British Literature (Fall 2012, two sections overall)
ENGL 331 British Literature 18th Century to Present (Spring 2012, Summer 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, and Summer 2013)
Oct 2010 -
May 2011 Arabic Language Teacher and Course Coordinator – The Modern Arabic Language International Center (MALIC) in Amman, Jordan UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND RELEVANT EMPLOYMENT
2019-2020 Research Assistant to Professor Junaid Rana, Department of Asian American
Studies, University of Illinois
2017-2018 University of Illinois English Graduate Student Association Communications Committee Member
2016-2017 Office Assistant in the English Undergraduate Advising Office, University of Illinois
2015-2016 President of the University of Illinois American Indian/Indigenous Graduate Students Association
6 PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Studies Association Arab American Studies Association Middle East Studies Association Modern Language Association
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association LANGUAGES
Arabic (native language) Hebrew (beginner) REFERENCES Jodi A. Byrd
Associate Professor, English and Gender and Women’s Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Email: [email protected] Mimi Thi Nguyen
Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Email: [email protected]
Nadine Naber
Interim Director, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies and Global Asian Studies University of Illinois at Chicago
Email: [email protected] Susan Koshy
Director, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory Associate Professor, Asian American Studies and English University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
