Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Myriem El Maizi

Deputy Head of School, Senior Lecturer in French & Francophone Studies

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7512
  • Address: School of Modern Languages
    Room 6.24, Old Library Building
    University of Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

BACKGROUND

After completing an MA in American Literature and Translation at the Sorbonne University, I graduated from Newcastle University with an AHRB-funded PhD on the writings of Marguerite Duras. My more recent academic and engagement activities - for which I secured institutional and external funding - lie in the field of comics cultural production from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.


CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Deputy Head of School
  • Head of Section - Translation & Interpreting

Previous responsibilities include: Director of Postgraduate Taught Studies; Chair of PG Board of Studies; Degree Programme Director for the MA Professional Translation for European Languages; Director of the Year Abroad; Chair of PG Board of Examiners (Film); Chair of PG PEC Committee


EDUCATION

MA in American Literature and Translation (La Sorbonne Paris III, France)

PhD in French Studies (Newcastle University)

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Newcastle University)


Research

The context of my research is defined by a surge of interest in literary and cinematographic representations of the 1975-90 Lebanese Civil War, combined with a wider – predominantly western-centric – scholarly interest in contemporary non-fiction graphic work as invested in the ethics of testimony. My work bridges and extends these two areas of enquiry through a study of the underexplored field of Francophone Lebanese comics cultural production. Lebanon has in the last two decades seen an explosion of creative practice in this field, showcasing innovative and experimental textual practice in an attempt to address the country’s violent history, including the controversial topic of the 1975-90 Civil War. My interdisciplinary research on this crucial public memory work draws on trauma studies, memory studies, and comics studies. I investigate how the memory of this conflict is shaped and how socio-political issues raised by the Civil War (such as cross-sectarian nationalism vs. sectarian affiliation and violence) are negotiated against the need for the creation of a collective remembrance. I examine the complexity of comics as a cross-discursive and multimodal narrative instrument and analyse how the duality of its form provides a compelling space for the inscription of trauma.

After running a Study Day on ‘Women and Comics in the Arab World’ in partnership with the Arab British Centre (London) and the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (London) (online, March 2022; funded by IMLR Cassal Trust Fund), I co-organised with US-based researcher Dr Sandra Rousseau an innovative concert dessiné (Newcastle, June 2023; funded by Society for French Studies and HASS Global Fund) which saw a cross-artistic and cross-cultural dialogue between Algerian graphic artist Nawel Louerrad and Northern Irish composer Matthew Rowan. This event, which feeds into my practice-based research on comics, memory work, and social justice in the MENA region, sought to trace the ways in which the traumatic residues of a violent past could permeate a multi-layered and multimodal creative process.

In September 2024, I co-curated with Dr Sandra Rousseau the exhibition 'Graphic Cities – a MENA Comics Exhibition’, which took place in the Ex-Libris Gallery (Newcastle). The urban dimension explored in this exhibition is integral to the lived experience of the generation of graphic artists driving the rapid development of the Arab contemporary comic art scene. The non-exhaustive selection of works presented foregrounds diverse imaginaries of the city at the nexus of affective engagements and socio-political aspirations and contestations. The authors featured re-sketch/re-write the city in ways that reflect on the role of the urban built heritage in memory work and identity formation, in detours that interrogate and resist urban politics to reclaim a right to the city, to ultimately foreground how comics can help envision more socially just urban futures. The exhibition, which was funded by the Catherine Cookson Foundation, is underpinned by my study of the mobilisation of urban space in the expression of civilian war trauma through an interdisciplinary reading of comics across geographical and psychoanalytical studies.

My current research and engagement activities aim to foster collaboration with creative practitioners and cultural institutions in the UK and the MENA region and extends my exploration of the role and impact of comics creative practice in apprehending urban life and envisioning more socially and environmentally just urban futures. My current 'Urban Resonances' ISPF ODA-funded project aims to capture the emotional geographies and lived experience of the inhabitants of the Médina of Marrakech after the September 2023 6.8 magnitude earthquake. This community-based artistic participatory project is based on a collaboration with Moroccan cultural centre Dar Bellarj, Moroccan graphic artist Zineb Benjelloun, and UK composer Matthew Rowan. This project contributes to Dar Bellarj's mission to preserve and promote tangible and intangible Moroccan culture by feeding into its programme of ‘Ateliers Collectifs’ (collective workshops) which are designed as a space of transmission and experimentation, an alternative school drawing inspiration from traditional forms of transmission while experimenting with ways of translating them into new languages, including those specific to the contemporary arts. The primary audience for the creative outputs of this project is the immediate local inhabitants of the Médina and the city of Marrakech more widely; the artwork will serve as a platform to open up conversations on the role of the urban built heritage in memory work and create a collective healing space where sustainable futures can be envisioned. This project also aims to support the development of the emerging Moroccan comic art scene and promote social inclusion in the arts in Morocco.


Teaching

I have developed a wide-ranging teaching portfolio which spans across both the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught provision and includes research-led literature and cultural studies modules, and specialised Translation & Interpreting modules. My 2022 Education Award (TEA Award) nomination highlights the impact of my teaching on student engagement and intellectual development. I also received a TEA Award nomination in the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Personal Support’ category in 2020.

As Degree Programme Director for the MA Professional Translation for European Languages (2016-23), I successfully led the application to the European Commission EMT (European Master’s in Translation) accreditation (2019-24). This accreditation has helped facilitate knowledge, competence and resource sharing through cooperation links with EMT partner institutions as well as technical and commercial organisations.

My commitment to promoting the digital literacy of our students as well as supporting colleagues in their professional development is encapsuled in my forward-looking project on ‘Continuing Trainer Development and the Integration of CAT Tools in Professional Translation Training’ (2019-20) funded by the HASS Teaching Development Fund. This project attended to the need to increase staff expertise in the use of neural machine translation and computer-aided translation (CAT) tools in line with technological developments in the industry.


Undergraduate Teaching

FRE2045 The French Caribbean: Literature, Language and Society (Module Leader)

FRE2061 Grammar Lectures Level C

FRE4087 Level D French Translation & Interpreting


Postgraduate Teaching

SML8022 Translation Principles & Practice (Module Leader)

SML8013 Translation Workshop (Module Leader)

SML8014 Liaison Interpreting (Module Leader)

SML8017 Translation Practice from a Second Foreign Language (Module Leader)

Supervision of Master's Dissertations and Translation Projects

Publications