Arththi Sathananthar

ABOUT ME

My areas of research expertise include contemporary literature (20^th – 21^st centuries), postcolonial theory, world literature and comparative literature, life writing, Middle East studies, diaspora studies, memory studies, gender studies, and cultural studies. My doctoral thesis explored how the trope of homecoming and the representation of ancestral houses are constructed by Arab Anglophone writers whose narratives are set in conflict zones. I examined critical aftermaths of colonial legacies in the Middle East and these legacies direct impact on family histories of displacement and exile.

I have worked on various interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. I was the Co-Director for the Women’s Paths Research Group 2017/2018. This project focused on intersectional feminism and activism with a key focus on women from the Global South. In 2019 I attended the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship hosted by Beyond Borders Scotland. As a fellow on this programme, I trained in conflict resolution, mediation and dialogue methodologies as part of the UN Security Council 1325 Resolution on the role of women in peacebuilding strategies. Additionally, I was the Administrative Assistant for the Institute of Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (2019 – 2021). I assisted in co-curating and co-designing interdisciplinary research activities/public talks. I was also a LEAP (Leeds Excellence in the Arts Programme) Mentor (2018 – 2021). This role involved supporting undergraduate students to access and participate in research networks within the university as well as organize and coordinate research discussion workshops. Most recently, I was a Research Assistant on the ‘Iluminating Collections’ project at the University of Leeds. I worked closely with library curators and local women’s organization (MAFWA Theatre) on making medieval illustrated manuscripts accessible for public engagement. I am also a British HEA (Higher Education Academy) Associate Fellow.

My new project ‘A Literary Cartography of Palestinian Space and Place’ investigates a decolonial approach to the socio-cultural study of Palestine by exploring how memoir is an important apparatus in reshaping political narratives. It examines contemporary Palestinian geography and history through the critical importance of life writing. The project seeks to reassert and reclaim Palestinian space and place in an Israeli social order where Palestinian sites continue to be erased.

PUBLICATIONS

‘Fabulation and Fabrication: Constructing the Atlal in Anthony Shadid’s House of Stone’ in Special Issue: Intercultural Mobilities, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 42.6 (2021), 753–768

‘Rebuilding Baghdad: Placing Memoir in the Archive in Marina Benjamin’s Last Days in Babylon and Tamara Chalabi’s Late for Tea at the Deer Palace’, in Memory, Voice, and Identity: Muslim Women’s Writing from across the Middle East edited by Feroza Jussawala & Doaa Omran (New York: Routledge, 2021)

Arththi Sathananthar, Victoria Clark & Kevin Jones, ‘Towards a National Collection – Illuminated Manuscripts and Community Engagement’, Leeds University Library Blog < https://leedsunilibrary.wordpress.com/2021/06/16/towards-a-national-collection-illuminated-manuscripts-and-community-engagement/> (June 2021)

‘Cooking The Way to My Heritage’, Out of the Blox, Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Enquiry <https://sanglap-journal.in/index.php/sanglap/announcement/view/1 > (May 2021)

‘Book review: Flora Annie Steel: A Critical Study of an Unconventional Memsahib’, Journal of Women’s Writing, 28.3 (2020), 432–434