Mr Jared M.D. Mustafa-Holzapfel BA, MA
Part-Time Postgraduate Research Student, PGR Demonstrator, Undergraduate English
I completed my BA in English at the University of Southampton in 2013 with my dissertation on representations of female-to-male transgender characters in 20th Century literature. I returned to complete my MA in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Part-Time) from 2015 to 2017 with the final dissertation on same-sex desire in Khaled Khalifa’s No Knives in the Kitchens of this City and Hasan Namir’s God in Pink. I have been fortunate to continue developing this research for my PhD since 2018 on queer desires and gendered expression in Anglophone literature by authors from Arab nations within the Middle East, published after 2001.
My research examines the narrative and environmental construction of queer desire post 9/11 and the War on Terror. The project analyses novels by Arab authors writing from diaspora or from within their home nation, either in English or translated into English. These texts are for an English speaking audience and are activist in nature, intentionally subverting “traditional” narrative form to challenge preconceived societal expectations.
To make my analysis I am working with post-colonial, world lit, Arab and Middle East studies, gender studies, queer theory, international relations and politics, as well as theory on narrative form, time, and space. These activist texts engage with the identity politics of queer desire whilst challenging societal constructs, globalisation/westernisation, and religion (Islam and Christianity). I aim to cultivate a thesis that demonstrates some of the vast complexities and diversity within Arab novels and queer constructions to expand upon current areas of world literature and queer studies.
To make my analysis I am working with post-colonial, world lit, Arab and Middle East studies, gender studies, queer theory, international relations and politics, as well as theory on narrative form, time, and space. These activist texts engage with the identity politics of queer desire whilst challenging societal constructs, globalisation/westernisation, and religion (Islam and Christianity). I aim to cultivate a thesis that demonstrates some of the vast complexities and diversity within Arab novels and queer constructions to expand upon current areas of world literature and queer studies.