Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program Announces '25-'26 Research Award Winners

The Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies (CLCS) program is excited to announce winners of the 2025-2026 faculty and student research awards. The awards aim to support general research, travel to collections, field research, and are granted based on academic merit. This year's faculty winners are English professors Padma Viswanathan and Lora Walsh. The year's student award winners are Mayssa Hashaad, Julián Sanabria-Rangel, Federico Tiberini and Muneer Al Alawneh.

Professor Viswanathan will be going to Madurai to do Tamil-language study and conduct research for two novels, one contemporary and one historical. The contemporary novel centers on twins born in Madurai, one of whom is adopted into Canada, and offers a buoyant take on experiences of immigration and self-estrangement, while the historical novel will examine what was happening in India when the transatlantic slave trade and attendant colonial projects were in their heyday. 

Professor Walsh will be examining the expanded roles of female biblical characters in a collection of Latin plays published by a Protestant printer in 1547. All of these plays are based on stories from the Hebrew Bible or apocrypha and were used for the scholarly training of male students. While later generations critiqued and even forbid male performers from playing female characters, Walsh's project reveals a brief era in which identifying with biblical women and exploring their psychology was integral to the intellectual development and moral formation of university men.

Student winner Hashaad's project examines representations of trauma, resistance and agency in modern Egyptian women's prison narratives, focusing on texts by Salwa Bakr, Nawal El Sa'adawi, Fathia al-Assal and Mariam Naoum. By drawing on trauma theory, intersectionality and postcolonial feminist approaches, it explores how these narratives challenge dominant structures of power and reframe victimhood as a site of resistance. Hashaad's research amplifies marginalized voices and contributes to broader conversations about carceral studies, gender-based violence, justice and literary activism in global contexts.

Sanabria-Rangel was awarded funds to attend Cornell University's Summer School of Theory and Criticism. Al Alawneh's project centers on Arab cultural representation, censorship and video game bans in the Middle East. Tiberini will be attending the "Made in Italy - Sicilian Style" class during May Intersession 2026 in Taormina, Sicily, taught by Prof. Claudia Devich and Dr. Ryan Calabretta Sajder. The class revolves around the concept of Made in Italy, its importance in the global economy, and explores theoretical concepts as well offering a hands-on approach.

This year's recipients and the variety of their research projects exemplifies the interdisciplinary approach and international reach of the U of A's CLCS program. The CLCS community of scholars provides students a space for innovative and critical approaches to the literatures and cultures of the world. Congratulations to all of the recipients.