Nadia Kiwan

Professor Nadia Kiwan is a full Professor in the Department of French at the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen. She holds a Personal Chair and is currently Programme Coordinator for French and Francophone Studies. Her academic leadership includes serving as Head of the Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting Cluster (2021–2024) and Director of the Centre for Modern Languages Research.

• BA Hons, University of Bristol
• PhD, University of Bristol
• Doctorat, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Her research focuses on contemporary French and Francophone cultures, particularly postcolonial migration, secularism (laïcité), Islam, decolonial theory, and intersectional social movements. She explores how public discourses shape identity, citizenship, and political belonging in postcolonial contexts.

The most recent publications reflect a strong interdisciplinary trend across political science, sociology, cultural studies, and religious studies. Her work critically examines secularism, Islamophobia, public intellectuals, memory institutions like the Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration, and the role of art and music in transcultural identity formation. Themes of resistance, hybridity, and transnationalism recur across her scholarship.

• Invited Researcher, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (2021–2022)
• Co-applicant, EU Marie Curie COFUND grant (2018–2022)
• Principal Investigator, AHRC-funded project 'Diaspora as Social and Cultural Practice' (2006–2010)

She actively supervises PhD students on topics such as secularism and Christian privilege, utopia and intersectional feminisms, and Orientalist photography. Her external roles include membership in the AHRC Peer Review College and external examining at Heriot-Watt, Bristol, Sheffield, and Southampton universities. She co-chairs the Head of Languages Special Interest Group at the University Council for Languages.

Professor Kiwan leads the Centre for Modern Languages Research and contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations such as the POLITICO PhD programme, emphasizing global citizenship and political concepts. Her work bridges academia and public discourse through engagements with social movements and media debates on identity and inclusion.