Dr Irene Fernandez-Ramos

Profile

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Assistant of the ERC-Starting Grant project ‘Digital Al-Andalus: Radical  Perspectives Of and Through Al-Andalus’ (2023-2024), funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The project examines the intersection of historical events, politicized narratives, nostalgia for lost empires, cultural diversity, and violent actions in the realm of digital media. My research focuses on online/offline representations of Al-Andalus as emotional/gendered/spatial practices.

With a background in Cultural and Middle Eastern Studies, I have a keen interest in exploring the intersection between aesthetics, politics and digital cultures. I am particularly interested in the intersection between digital affective spaces and gendered performances, looking into cultural production and aesthetic narratives.

My doctoral research at SOAS delved into the impact of movement restrictions on the representation of individual and collective identity in contemporary Palestinian theatre.

Throughout my career, I have been a member of the Research Network “Memory Studies Association” and the Centre for Palestinian Studies (SOAS), an Associated researcher at MediaLab Prado Madrid and a member of the AHRC-funded research project “Imagining Jerusalem”. I worked for five years as the Head of Arts for the independent literary publication “La Gran Belleza”. I have evaluated and managed projects for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as the European Research Executive Agency and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency.

Irene Fernandez-Ramos (0000-0001-7943-4124) - ORCID

Research

Research Interests:

• Cultural Studies
• Digital Media and Cultures
• Performance Studies
• Gender and Masculinities
• Memory Studies
• Spatial practices
• Nostalgia
• Affect and Digital Emotions
• Palestinian Studies

Publications

JavaException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character in query at index 93: http://researchpublications.qmul.ac.uk/publications/GetAllStaffOutputXML.action?staffids=Book Chapters\n\n(with Karima Laachir) “The Maghrebi Multilingual Novel” In George Joffe (eds.), Routledge Handbook on the Modern Maghrib, Oxon: Routledge.\n\"Women\'s Bodies as Spaces of Otherness in Contemporary Palestinian Theatre\". In Najib Mohtari (eds.), Decentering Patterns of Otherness: Towards an Asymmetrical Transcendence of Identity in Postcolonial MENA’, Rabat: Université International de Rabat.\n\n \nJournal Articles\n\n(under review) “Resilience Discourse and Cultural Production: Responses from Palestinian theatre practitioners.” Jerusalem Quarterly. \n(forthcoming). (with Karima Laachir) \"How Did You Get Here? The Aestheticization of the Refugee Journey towards Europe.\" In Journal of Intercultural Studies, volume 46\n(with Rayya El Zein, George Potter and Gabriel Varghese) \"BDS and Palestinian theatre making: a call for debate within the discipline of theatre and performance studies.\" Theatre Survey 59:3\n\"The Limits of Authenticity and the \"Burden of Representation: Palestinian Theatre on the British Stage\". Commonwealth Essays and Studies Journal, Vol 39 nº2\n\"Performing Immobility in Contemporary Palestinian Theatre\". Middle East – Topic & Arguments Vol 5 (2015): Periphery.\n\"Storytelling, Agency and Community-building through Playback Theatre in Palestine\". SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, Vol 7 (Autumn 2014).\n\n \nEditor\n\n(with Alexandria Milton) SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, issue on “From the Speech to the Act: Performativity on the Margins”, Vol 7\n\n \nOnline publications\n\n“Engaging with Resistance – What Else? A Conversation between Kristin Flade and Irene Fernández Ramos” The Aesthetics of Applied Theatre (Freie Universität Berlin)\n&flatXML=Y