Nadine Barakat

Thesis title: The Black Woman in American ‘Geographies’: Narrating Movement from Enslavement to Civil Rights

PhD English Literature

Year of study: 3

  • English Literature
  • School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

Contact details

PhD supervisor:

Address

Street
City
Edinburgh
Post code

Biography

Background

Nadine graduated the American University of Beirut in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, a Minor in American Studies, and a Teaching Diploma in Secondary Education (TEFL-focus). Maintaining high ranking on the Dean’s Honor List, Nadine graduated with high distinction and top of her class, and was awarded the ‘Practice Teaching Excellence Award’ as part of her TD. 

Nadine was highly involved in student activism while living in Beirut, and was elected President of the then largest independent student organisation in Lebanon, the AUB Secular Club; the organisation promotes secularism, feminism, environmentalism, and social justice on and off campus - It has since then grown to inspire similar movements in universities across the country. 

She then moved to the UK to further her studies, and was awarded an MSc with distinction at the University of Edinburgh in American Literature (2021).  Her MSc Dissertation engaged with Toni Morrison's 'Sula', 'The Bluest Eye', 'Beloved', and 'Paradise', in conversation with W.E.B Du Bois's Veil.

A speaker of four languages, Nadine is a Lebanese-German dual national who places community-building, social justice, inclusivity, and accessibility, at the center of her work. She believes that public engagement both informs, and can be inspired from academic research, and is especially interested in unveiling the ways academic study can reach beyond institutions, and intersect with political activism. 

Qualifications

The University of Edinburgh: MSc in English Literature: US Literature - Cultural Values from Revolution to Empire (Distinction)

The American University of Beirut: BA in English Literature with a Minor in American Studies (High Distinction)

The American University of Beirut: Teaching Diploma in Secondary Education (High Distinction) 

 

Responsibilities & affiliations

PGR School Representative for LLC (2023-2024)

Undergraduate teaching

  • Literary Studies 1A (2025): Critical Close Reading: Poetry & Drama.
  • Literary Studies 1B (2025, 2026): Critical Close Reading: Prose. 
  • Literary Studies 2A (2025): English Literature in the World, 1380-1788.

Research summary

Studying the narration of movement - physical to political - in Black American women's literature; my methodology is rooted in Black Geographies as I attempt to trace the ways a set of texts speak to the ever present (in)visible hand of white supremacy on U.S. maps and spaces, but most importantly, the ever moving resistances against its oppression, and the unwavering recreation of 'movement' and cartographies against its geographic domination. I focus on specific socio-political milestones: transatlantic enslavement, the Great Migrations, and the Civil Rights Movement.   

Current research interests

Black Studies; Black Feminist U.S. Literature; Black Geographies; American Studies

Knowledge exchange

Participant:

  • SGSAH/SGSSS Black History Month 2025 (online, free, and open to the public presentation series)

Invited Speaker:

  • Student Encampment for Palestine, Edinburgh (2024): "Let's talk dissent: lessons from the untold stories of Black women during U.S. enslavement"

Organiser

  • The American Studies Association (ASA) 2025: "The ‘Periphery’ as Ground Zero: Roundtable on Lessons of Despair and Resistance from ‘Localised Apocalypses’." (forthcoming)
    • Awarded the Annette K. Baxter Travel Grant 

Participant

  • The Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW) BAAS, Oxford University (2024).      
  • The Scottish Association for the Study of America (SASA), Edinburgh University (2025).    
  • The American Studies Association (ASA) San Juan, Puerto Rico (2025).  (forthcoming)
  • The British Association of Nineteenth Century Americanists (BrANCA) Université Paris Cité (2025). (forthcoming)

Papers delivered

  • “Dissent in the ‘Middle Passage’: Untold Stories from the Margin that Re-Mapped the Trade” - (SHAW 2024, SASA 2025). 
  • “Reconfiguring the Map: Black Women’s Narratives and the Geography of Freedom-Seeking” - (BrANCA 2025)

  • Outstanding Representation (EUSA Awards 2024)
  • Teaching Practice Excellence Award (AUB Teaching Awards 2019)
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