A. (Arththi) Sathananthar, PhD

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.

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.