Yasmine Shamma

My work focuses on contemporary poetry, migration, ecocriticism, feminism, and genre, and is interdisciplinary and transnational wherever possible. Through various mediums, my academic and creative projects all share an interest in relating aesthetic constructions and modes of discourse to enviornments-- ecological and otherwise.

Since 2019, I have been Principal investigator on the British Academy funded project "Lost and Found?: Testimonies of Migration, Resettlement, and Displacement." This project's grant supports the creation of a digital archive showcasing the ways in which refugees make themselves at home, away, and the ways in which "home" often incorporates the garden. Makinghomeaway.com will be live on August 10, 2020.

My two most recent book projects incoprorate interview materials into their texts, while also contextualizing the role of place and the environment in conversations around aesthetic constructions and narrative. They are, We are The New York School (under contract with Edinburgh University Press), and When We Talk About Home: Testimony, Oral History, and Poetry of Migration (in progress). In 2021 I will be on a Leverhulme Research Fellowship awarded in support of the latter.

I am currently Lecturer of Modern and Contemporary English at the University of Reading, and Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the School of Languages and Literature.