Amanda Batarseh

Amanda Batarseh is an Assistant Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Her work focuses on Palestinian literature, Arabic literature, Arab American studies, Indigenous studies, Mediterranean studies, and comparative literature. She holds affiliations with Middle East Studies, Ethnic Studies, Black Diaspora and African American Studies, Italian Studies, and the Study of Religion programs. Her research has been supported by the UC Humanities Research Institute, Hellman Fellowship, and the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

Dr. Batarseh earned her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Davis and completed a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Riverside. Her scholarship examines cultural resistance, embodied attachments to place, and the interplay between literature and geopolitical struggles. Recent publications analyze Palestinian cartographic narratives and the transnational dimensions of resistance literature.

Her academic contributions extend to public-facing work, including translating Ghassan Kanafani’s analysis of Palestinian resistance literature. She emphasizes the role of language and cultural production in challenging colonial structures, as exemplified by her discussions of Palestinian poets like Refaat Alareer whose works transcend military sieges.

Awards and grants highlight her impactful research on Palestinian studies and transnational literatures. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges literary analysis with critical studies of colonialism, displacement, and cultural preservation.