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HIYEM CHEURFA

HIYEM CHEURFA

Faculty of Language Studies
Faculty of Language Studies
Assistant Professor
Contact Information
hcheurfa@aou.edu.kw
Office FE506

Professional Biography

Hiyem Cheurfa is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Language Studies at Arab Open University, Kuwait. She holds a PhD in Literary Studies from Lancaster University, UK, and is an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Her first book, Contemporary Arab Women’s Life Writing and the Politics of Resistance (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), won the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies Monograph Prize in 2023. Between 2024–2025, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Washington, DC. Her research interests include autobiographical literature, postcolonial comedy, and comics studies.

Courses Taught

Introduction to Literature (E121)
Cultures I (A112A)
Cultures II (A112B)
Research Writing (EL122) 


Professional Experience

Associate Professor of English, Larbi Tebessi University, Algeria (July —Aug 2025)

Fulbright Visiting Scholar, American University, Washington DC, USA (Nov 2024 – May 2025)

Assistant Professor of English, Larbi Tebessi University, Algeria (Sep 2021 — June 2025)

Academic Writing Mentor, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK (Oct 2019 — Mar 2020)

Associate Lecturer in World Literature, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK (Sep 2018 — Jun 2019)

MA Mentor in Research Methodologies in Literature, Lancaster University, UK (Sep 2017 — Mar 2019)

Research Publications

 

Books

Contemporary Arab Women’s Life Writing and the Politics of Resistance, Edinburgh University Press (ISBN: 9781474489683), March 2023
 

 

Peer-Reviewed Journals (Scopus Indexed) 

“Genocide in the First-Person: Women’s Diary Writing from Gaza,” in Women: A Cultural Review, Sept 2026

"Arab Autographics: Cultural Memory, Historical Documentation, and Acts of Resistance in Contemporary Arab Autobiographical Comics," in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Aug 2026.
 
“Between Resurrection, Rejection, and Revision: Scheherazade after Mernissi,” in Expressions maghrébines, Vol. 24, no 1, summer 2025. 
 
“‘When I Accept All Changes’: Expanding, Crafting, and Exhausting the Auto/Biographical in Sayed Kashua’s Track Changes,” in Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4, Oct 2021
            
“Testifying Graphically: Bearing Witness to a Palestinian Childhood in Leila Abdelrazaq's Baddawi,” in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, special issue entitled Migration, Exile, and Diaspora in Graphic Life Narratives, vol. 35 no. 2, May 2020
            
“Comedic Resilience: Arab Women's Diaries of National Struggles and Dissident Humour,” in Comedy Studies Journal, vol.10 no 2, June 2019
 
 
Book Chapters
 
“Denmark: A Study in Media Experience”, in Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings. Edited by Louis Brehoni and Tahrir Hamdi, Pluto Press (ISBN: 9780745349374), Oct 2024.
 
“Daily Encounters: Diary Writing and the Politics of the Mundane in Occupied Palestine” in Literary Representations of the Palestine/Israel Conflict after the Second Intifada. Edited by Ned Curthoys and Isabelle Hesse. Edinburgh University Press (ISBN: 9781474499736), August 2022. 
 
Essays and Interviews
 
“Writing War, Writing Life: Examining Arab Women’s Autobiographical Narratives” in Fiker Institute 
https://www.fikerinstitute.org/publications/writing-war-writing-life-examining-arab-womens-autobiographical-narratives
 
“On Post-War Writing, Women’s Stories, and Translation: A Talk with Iman Humaydan” in ArabLit   https://arablit.org/2025/01/27/on-post-war-writing-womens-stories-and-translation-a-talk-with-iman-humaydan/
 
 “Controversial Humour in Algerian TV: Ramadan Comedies and the Limits of Laughter” in Jadaliyya  https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41099
 
“A Hirak Glossary: Terms from Algeria and Morocco” in Jadaliyya - Co-authored with Muriam Haleh Davis and Thomes Serres https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/38734
 
 “12 (Auto)biographical Narratives by Algerian Women” in ArabLit https://arablit.org/2019/05/20/12-autobiographical-narratives-by-algerian-women/
 
 “The Laughter of Dignity: Comedy and Dissent in the Algerian Popular Protests” in JadMag; Tadween Publishing vol. 7 no. 1, May 2019.