Occupation
Graduate Student (Doctoral)
ABOUT
Heather Porter Abu Deiab is a PhD candidate in Islamic Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies with a specialization in Islamophobia at McGill University. Her dissertation develops a method of critical literary reading for analysing anti-Muslim racism by engaging works set within colonial words and centered on gendered and racialized Muslim characters. Focusing on literary texts generically located within and between the boundaries of speculative fiction, alternative history, and historical fiction, her work attempts to locate a Muslim futurity in narrations of colonial pasts. Heather also holds a master’s degree in ethnic studies from San Francisco State University, where she was the inaugural recipient of the Edward Said Scholarship for academic achievement and community service by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas program. Her research focused on the role of the Muslim figure in the transatlantic transmission of racial hierarchies from pre-1492 Spain to the Americas.
Sub Areas
Anti-Racism
Colonialism
Ethnic American Studies
Gender/Women's Studies
Queer/LGBT Studies
Slavery
Geographic Areas of Interest
North America
Specialties
Anti-Muslim Racism/Islamophobia
Muslim Futurism
Alternative History/Speculative Fiction/Historical Fiction
Languages
English (native)
French (intermediate)
Arabic (elementary)
Education
MA
| 2016
| Ethnic Studies
| San Francisco State University
BA
| 2011
| Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Studies
| San Francisco State University
Abstracts
History, Racism and Futurism in Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account
