Hanan Natour
Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik
Fachrichtung Arabistik
Research Associate – ERC project PalREAD
ERC-Project PalREAD
Address
Fabeckstraße 23/25
Room -1.1012
14195 Berlin
Room -1.1012
14195 Berlin
Current Position
| Since 2019 | Research Associate (Praedoc) at the ERC-funded project “PalREAD – Country of Words: Reading and Reception of Palestinian Literature from 1948 to the Present”, Freie Universität Berlin |
Education
| 2019 | Visiting Researcher at the University of Tunis |
| Since 2018 | Doctoral Candidate in Arabic Studies, supervised by Prof. Beatrice Gründler, Freie Universität Berlin |
| Member of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies | |
| 2016 - 2018 | Master of Philosophy in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford |
| Master thesis “Transcending the Nation: Dimensions of Postcolonial Tunisian Identity in the Poetry of Munṣif al-Wahāybī” (distinction) | |
| 2012 - 2016 | Bachelor of Arts in Arabic and Islamic Studies and German Philology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (distinction) |
| Bachelor thesis “Identity and Alterity in Contemporary Arabic Poetry: An Analysis of the Engagement with the “West” in poems of Maḥmūd Darwīš, Adūnīs und Fuʾād Rifqa” (distinction) | |
| 2014 - 2015 | Visiting Student at Université Paris-Sorbonne |
Awards
| 2019 | PhD Scholarship of the German Economy Foundation (Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft) |
| 2018 - 2019 | Einstein Project Scholarship of the Dahlem Research School, Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, Freie Universität Berlin |
| 2013 - 2018 | Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) |
| 2016 - 2018 | Graduate Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) |
Professional Experience
| 2019 | Employee at the German Institute for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM): Processing data and translating and interviews with Syrian Refugees in Turkey |
| 2017 - 2018 | Graduate Training Assistant at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford: represented graduate students in the Joint Consultative Committee, organised doctoral seminars and methodology days |
| Founder and President of the Oxford University World Literature Society: organised termly literary readings and a multilingual literary salon | |
| 2016 | Tutor for the Islamic Studies Colloquium, University of Göttingen |
| 2015 - 2017 | Member of the Humanities Academy, German National Academic Foundation: Interdisciplinary Discussion of texts concerning “Transcendence and Community” |
| 2015 - 2016 | Student Assistant for Prof. Sebastian Günther, director of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Göttingen |
| Tutor for Arabic Grammar, University of Göttingen: teaching weekly training sessions for BA students | |
| 2013 - 2014 | Student Assistant for Akram Bishr, lecturer of Arabic, University of Göttingen |
| Tutor for Medieval German, University of Göttingen: teaching weekly training sessions for BA students | |
| 2013 |
Student Assistant for Prof. Tilmann Köppe at the Courant Research Center “Text Structures”, University of Göttingen |
| Summer Academy of the German National Academic Foundation “Outlaws in Law and Literature” |
In her doctoral thesis, Hanan Natour researches the themes of nation and narration in contemporary Tunisian Arabic prose, mainly between the Tunisian independence from France in 1956 and the present time. She focuses on retrospective references to postcolonial Tunisian history in narrative texts published within the past thirty years.
Research Interests
- contemporary Arabic and French literature in postcolonial North Africa
- literary dialogues between Arab countries and Europe
- identity and alterity
- history and historicity
Conference Papers
| 2019 | “Lesarten des Skandals in Hassouna Mosbahis Ḥikāya tūnisīya (“A Tunisian Tale”)”, Annual Conference of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies “Eskalation! Skandal in der Literatur und in den Künsten“ |
|
“Tunisian Arabic Poetry amidst the 2011 Uprisings: Munsif Al-Wahaybi and Awlad Ahmed”, Summer School of the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies “The Politics of Literature - Literature and Politics” |
|
| “Dimensions of Nation, Memory and Identity in Contemporary Tunisian Poetry”, Annual Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) | |
| 2017 | “Identity and Alterity in Contemporary Arabic Poetry: Perspectives towards the “West” in poems of Maḥmūd Darwīš, Adūnīs and Fuʾād Rifqa”, Annual Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) |
|
“Identity and Alterity in the Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish: Challenging Boundaries in the Context of Occupation”, Oxford Graduate Conference “Crossings: Negotiating Borders and Boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean”, University of Oxford |
Co-organised Events
| 2019 - 2020 | Reading Group “Epistemologies of the Global South” at the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies |
| 2019 | |
| 2017 | Graduate Methodology Seminar Day, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford |
Articles
- Natour, Hanan. “Language Contacts in Arabic Poetry: Patterns of Merging Languages in the Poetry of Adonis and Fuad Rifka.” In: META (Middle East – Topics & Arguments) 13 (2019).
- Natour, Hanan. “A Homeland in Language: Hanan Natour talks with Munsif al-Wahaybi.” In: ArabLit Quarterly 1,1 (2018), 53-8.
Translations
- Al-Wahaybi, Munsif. “Two Poems”, translated from Arabic by Hanan Natour. In: ArabLit Quarterly 1,1 (2018), 59-60.