Shaimaa Abulebda

About Shaimaa’s Research:

This PhD investigates the emergence of speculative fiction as a significant mode in contemporary Palestinian literature, primarily in English and Arabic. It examines how Palestinian authors employ speculative and futurist forms to challenge dominant narratives of Palestinian history and identity, reimagining political possibilities and reaching new reading publics. The project asks what this shift reveals about contemporary Palestinian writing in the Anglophone literary marketplace, the changing climate of Palestine solidarity, and the state of contemporary speculative fiction. It situates Palestinian speculative writing within the broader trajectories of decolonial science fiction and post-Arab Spring dystopian narratives.

Through close literary and contextual analysis, I interrogate how speculative fiction enables Palestinian writers to move beyond the documentary realism long associated with commitment and national liberation, towards imaginative forms that envision new futures. I will trace this shift to illuminate the evolving relationship between art, politics, and world-building in Palestinian cultural production, contributing to wider debates on decolonisation, representation, and the transformative potential of literature. This project offers a new theorisation of Palestinian writing at an urgent moment, providing a catalogue of this under-examined phenomenon and generating new knowledge of transformations in Palestinian culture and politics, and metropolitan attitudes towards Palestine.