Ghenwa Hayek

Ghenwa Hayek is an Associate Professor of Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on modern Arabic literature, cultural production, space and place, and identity formation in the Arab Middle East, with particular emphasis on Lebanon. She teaches courses such as Narrating Conflict in Modern Arabic Literature, The Literary Legacies of War in Lebanon, and The City in Modern Arabic Literature.

• Education: PhD from Brown University (2011)

Hayek's scholarship examines the intersections of literary studies, cultural studies, and critical geography. Her first book, Beirut, Imagining the City, explores how Lebanese fiction from the late 19th century to today uses metaphors of spatial dislocation to interrogate national identity. Her ongoing project investigates the affective impact of over a century of Lebanese emigration (c. 1860–present), emphasizing the racial, gender, and class dynamics of diaspora in national imaginaries.

She advises students on topics spanning modern Iraqi fiction, political issues in contemporary Lebanon, comics, and Palestinian literature. Hayek also co-created the web series Gaming Islam, analyzing representations of Islam and the Middle East in video games.