I will be working as a Research Fellow within the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen's from 2013, following a temporary lectureship in French at the University of London Institute in Paris.  My research interests are in Francophone African literature and film, postcolonial studies, representations of displacement, gendered spaces and the body, immigration and its heritage.  I have published on recent debates surrounding migration in France, on representations of the body in migration, and on the diverse 'crossings' made by the displaced subject.  I am currently completing a monograph entitled Belonging Together: Narratives of Family Migration from North Africa to France.

As Research Fellow of the Instituite, my project Remembering North Africa in France will evaluate the burgeoning heritage projects in France surrounding North Africa and North Africans.  Looking at museums and exhibitions, commemorations and   memorials, and political groups who promote memory, this research will assess how North African heritage is accommodated in France.  The purpose of this study is to consider issues of memory alongside the mechanisms that determine State recognition of minority cultures.  This will enable greater clarity in our understanding of how memory functions within society and within urban spaces. Responding in particular to measures in place in 2012 to commemorate 50 years of Algerian independence, I will consider a variety of heritage projects, both state and society-led, to provide a timely contribution to the field of both Cultural Memory and Postcolonial Studies.

At the Institute I will develop links between heritage researchers in different departments at Queen's and globally in order to explore the following research questions from an interdisciplinary perspective: What level of responsibility should the State / society take for the heritage of minority populations?  Bearing in mind recent debates on 'apologising' for the past, what are the political issues surrounding commemoration and patrimony for Other cultures?  Under what conditions might these be overcome? Can they be overcome?  I would be delighted to discuss any of these issues with colleagues or students.

Current Collaborations

• "Rethinking Mobility in Francophone Women's Writing" - a co-edited book with Dr Kate Averis
• "Mobilities: Cultural Exchange Beyond Borders" Project Research Group - with Professor Margaret Topping and Dr Ros Sylvester

Publications - Books

• Forthcoming 2014: Single-authored book (based on PhD thesis): Belonging Together: Narratives of family migration from North Africa to France (IGRS books, forthcoming 2014), **winner of the IGRS books competition**
• Forthcoming 2014: Edited book (with Dr Kate Averis): Rethinking Mobility in Francophone Women's Writing.

Articles

• Published 2012: "Gendered spaces and wounded bodies: Yamina Benguigui’s Inch’Allah dimanche" in International Journal of Francophone Studies vol 15.2 (7000 words)
• Published 2012: 'Nabile Farès and the Poetics of Postcolonial Displacement', Research in African Literatures vol 43.1 (2012, 6000 words)
• Published 2008: 'Defining Integration: Review Article on Nicolas Bancel and Pascal Blanchard's Culture post-coloniale: 1961-2006, Azouz Begag's Intégration, Vincent Ferry, Piero D. Galloro and Gérard Noiriel's 20 Ans de discours sur l'intégration, Dominique Schnapper's Qu'est-ce que l'intégration and Lucile Schmid's L'Egalité en danger'. Francophone Postcolonial Studies 6.1 (2008), ISSN 1741-8283 (6000 words).

Chapters in Books

• Forthcoming March 2013: peer-reviewed chapter: 'The Impossible Return: Dreams of Home in Literature and Film from the Maghreb'. Coming Home? Vol. 3: Conflict and Return in a Post-Colonial World, ed. by Scott Soo and Sharif Gémie (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 6000 words). Contact: S.Soo@soton.ac.uk
• Published: peer-reviewed article: 'Metamorphoses in Migration: Fawzia Zouari's Ce pays dont je meurs.' Expressions of the Body: Representations in African Text and Image, ed. by Charlotte Baker (Bern: Peter Lang, 2009), ISBN 978-3-03911-546-4 (pp. 213–230, 6000 words).