Zeina Halabi

Zeina Halabi is a writer, editor, and scholar of modern Arabic literature. Her research explores the contemporary legacy of 20th-century emancipatory traditions, texts, and figures, with a regional focus on Egypt and the Levant. She is the author of The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual: Prophecy, Exile, and the Nation (Edinburgh University Press, 2017) and the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arabic Literature. She was Assistant Professor of Arabic literature at the University of North Carolina and Associate Professor at the American University of Beirut. Her work has been supported by the EUME postdoctoral fellowship at the Forum Transregionale Studien (2012 - 2013), DAAD (2021), the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2018 - 2021), and Civitella Ranieri (2025). Her popular writing in Arabic and English includes essays and translations in alternative pan-Arab and international media platforms on topics ranging from literature to contemporary music and visual culture. She has served on boards of cultural institutions, as a juror for literary awards granted by pan-Arab cultural institutions, and currently serves as the Arabic editor of Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal.