Hanan Alawna

Hanan Alawna

Research Topic: How social media platforms shape narratives of identity, resistance, and empowerment

Country: Palestine

Columbia Global Center: Amman

Hanan Alawna, PhD, is a researcher and scholar specializing in literary and cultural studies, with a focus on women’s rights, feminism, and gender representation in Middle Eastern literature. Her current research at Columbia Global Center | Amman builds on her proposal Digital Resistance: Palestinian Women’s Activism in Online Spaces, which examines how social media platforms shape narratives of identity, resistance, and empowerment.

She earned her PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Szeged, Hungary, where her dissertation analyzed women’s writing in the Middle East and its challenge to dominant cultural stereotypes. Dr. Alawna has presented widely at international conferences and published on topics such as feminist readings of Palestinian literature, cinematic portrayals of terrorism, and the intersections of gender and cultural identity.

Selected Publications:

  • A Feminist Reading of Palestinian Literature in Light of Western Feminist Frameworks: Sahar Khalifeh’s Work as a Case Study (2023).
     
  • Cinematic Representations of Terrorism: Analyzing Hollywood’s Role in Shaping Public Perceptions Through True Lies (2025).
     
  • Between Performance and Performance and Performativity: Performing Female Identities in Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), British and American Studies Journal (2023).
     
  • Art as a Means for Women’s Voice: Marjane Satrapi’s Graphic Novel Persepolis as a Case Study on Oriental Feminist Discourse (2022).
     

Further publications are available on Google Scholar.