My research spans multiple fields, including Translation Studies, Feminist Studies, Social Movements, Media and Communication Studies, with a particular focus on the Middle East.
My overarching research agenda is to produce a feminist non-western perspective of the Middle East in the research areas I am interested in studying, bridging the gap between scholarship and activism.
I am currently writing my second monograph titled: 'Cyberfeminism in the Arabic-Speaking World: Tensions, Dilemmas and Encounters, contracted with Edinburgh University Press.
My first manuscript, based on my PhD research, was published by Bloomsbury Academic and titled 'Islamic State in translation: Four atrocities, multiple narratives'.
I have also published on the linguistic, visual, and multimodal dynamics of protest movements, with a focus on the case of Iraq.
Beyond academia, I contribute to knowledge production and dissemination through various non-academic platforms and channels, writing in both Arabic and English and translating my work whenever possible.
·Mustafa, B. November, 2019- I spoke to the women risking their lives to join the Iraqi revolution- and this is what they want, The Independent, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iraq-revolution-women-protests-iran-lebanon-a9186141.html.
Mustafa, B. July 2016 – Ordinary Iraqis defy Sectarianism, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/ordinary-iraqis-defy-sectarianism-after-islamic-states-attacks-on-baghdad-62005
Mustafa, B. 2022. Conclusions. In: Islamic State in Translation: Four Atrocities, Multiple Narratives. Bloomsbury Collections, pp. 155-162., (10.5040/9781350152014.ch-00c)
Mustafa, B. 2022. Conclusions. In: Islamic State in Translation: Four Atrocities, Multiple Narratives. Bloomsbury Collections, pp. 155-162., (10.5040/9781350152014.ch-00c)
My research is interdisciplinary, linking translation, communication and media studies, as well as political and religious studies, with a focus on Iraq. My first book, published by Bloomsbury Academic and titled ‘Islamic State’ in Translation: Four Atrocities, Multiple Narratives, investigates the translation of Arabic and English-language narratives regarding the terrorist group Islamic State (Daesh) across national and international media boundaries. By advancing a socio-narrative approach and combining it with a social semiotic multimodal approach to communication studies, the book provides an in-depth analysis of narratives in both Arabic and English related to four atrocities committed by IS. It is based on a diverse corpus of visual, written, spoken, and multimodal texts produced by IS and their translations—broadly defined—into Western, Arabic, and Iranian media. This research engages with the discourses, genres, and modes through which narratives circulate and change, challenging our understanding of translation in the new media age, where both form and content significantly influence translation.
Partly motivated by my personal experiences in Iraq and partly by my academic interests in narratives about the terrorist group Islamic State and media responses, I write in the voice of a scholar-activist. My work on IS and media narratives has sparked my interest in studying local activism, adopting a bottom-up approach that links individual experiences with broader political, social, and religious contexts. This research has also inspired my exploration of the linguistic, cultural, and communication dimensions of social movements and civil society groups in Iraq and the wider Arab region. I have published three English-language articles and an Arabic book chapter analyzing the slogans and visuals of the 2019 Iraqi Tishreen [October] protest movement. Additionally, I have researched Iraqi activists’ resistance to IS through animated satire.
The monograph I am currently completing explores the paradoxes of Arabic cyberfeminism. Al-niswiya (feminism) as a self-identification, concept, and practice is now more prominent in the Arabic media landscape than ever. Feminists and women’s rights activists from the Arabic-speaking world have employed social media to mobilize for women’s legal, social, and political rights since before the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings, making al-niswiya salient online. Despite its visibility, al-niswiya remains highly contested, challenged, and sometimes stigmatized. This book examines this paradoxical cultural moment by offering a unique feminist digital ethnography of cyberfeminist practices and the online interactions among feminists and other social media users, primarily through Twitter (X), and, to a lesser extent, Instagram and Clubhouse in Iraq and other countries in the region. It argues that cyberfeminism in the Arab world is significant but fraught with tensions and contradictions. I approach cyberfeminism through the lens of constructive resistance and territoriality, examining the conflicts that arise from interactions between feminist activism and anti-feminist forces online, as well as among feminists and women’s rights activists with their diverse approaches and discourses. Numerous state and non-state actors, including anti-feminist and misogynistic networks, seek to control digital territories, disrupting cyberfeminist activism, feminist discourses, content, and messages. Furthermore, individuals engaged in cyberfeminist practices are diverse and do not share a unified vision or approach. Non-human actors, such as the medium itself and its underlying neoliberal logic, further influence feminist visibility by reshaping, ranking, and dictating it. Due to these tensions, the evolving emotions among cyberfeminists can bring them together while paradoxically holding them apart. This book will contribute to feminist scholarship in the Middle East while making a significant contribution to digital feminist ethnographies by highlighting the potentials, limitations, and ethical dilemmas of conducting research solely online and how to address these issues.
Teaching
I have contributed to convening and teaching the following undergraduate modules:
Introduction to Translation Methods (Year 1)
Principles of Translation (Year 2).
I have also contributed to (co)-authoring and teaching undergraduate and postgraduate sessions in the following modules:
Introduction to Translation Theory (Year 1)
Theory of Translation (MA)
Specialized Translation: Politics and Law (MA)
Translation as a Profession (Year 4).
Before joining Cardiff, I contributed to teaching and developing modules in translation studies and politics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Iraq and the UK. As a lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, Iraq, I designed and taught modules in scientific translation, translation from Arabic to English, and literary translation. In 2017, I played a role in designing and delivering two master's-level sessions for the Contemporary Translation Theories module in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham. These sessions were informed by my research into narrative theory and translation through a social multimodal lens, allowing me to incorporate current advancements in the new media environment into Translation Studies. Additionally, I authored and delivered two lectures on Iraqi politics and the perception of the West in Arabic film for two different undergraduate modules at the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham.
My teaching experience in different cultural settings in Iraq and the UK has helped me tailor my teaching style to address the needs of international students, making sure they can have a voice in my seminars regardless of the language boundaries. My teaching philosophy revolves around fostering a critical and inclusive learning environment where students co-construct knowledge and become equal participants in academic discussions. Emphasizing differences in experiences and the contexts surrounding them, this approach seeks to push students outside their comfort zone, encouraging them to learn and unlearn new concepts. This ensures that diverse perspectives and voices are integral to the learning process, promoting reflexivity and critical engagement.
I have also supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in the fields of translation studies and politics.
In addition to university teaching, I have contributed to designing and delivering English and Arabic-language lectures on Iraqi women and feminism for different online courses.
Biography
I joined Cardiff as a lecturer in translation studies in October 2024. In December 2023, I transferred my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, which I had started in 2021, from the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Before receiving the Leverhulme Research Fellowship award, I worked as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham between 2015 and 2020. In 2018, I completed my PhD project on the translation of narratives by the terrorist group 'Islamic State' into national and international media outlets at the University of Birmingham.
Between 2007 and 2013, I served as a lecturer in translation and interpreting studies at Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, Iraq, where I completed both my undergraduate and master's degrees.
Honours and awards
2021 Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship.
2021 Next Generation Gender, Peace and Security (GPS) Symposium Fellow.
·“Islamic State in translation”, February 2023, Book talk, Cardiff University.
·Translating Islamic State in the new media age: Narratives, fragmentation and challenges, January 2022, Guest seminar, Center for Translation and Interpreting, Queen’s Belfast.
·Cyberfeminism in Iraq, October 2021, online talk, LSE Seminar Series on Iraq.
·Cyberfeminism in the Arab world, October 2021, online panel presentation, WIIS.
·On the difficulty of researching Islamic State (IS) from the perspective of Iraqi female academic, June 2019, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), University of Leeds.
·TranslatingSabi, May 2018, Translation Forum, University of Birmingham.
·Iraq post-2003: Story untold, March 2018, Department of Political Sciences and International Studies, University of Birmingham (invited keynote).
·Re-narrating Islamic State through animated satire: The case of Bighdaddy Show, May 2017, Translation Forum, University of Birmingham.
·Narrating traumatic personal accounts: The case of Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad, January 2017, Transitional Justice in Tunisia: Writing the Unvoiced Conference, University of Birmingham (invited keynote).
·Sexual Slavery and Translation, November 2016, International Conference on Translation during War Time, University of Lille, France.
·Rethinking translation in the internet-enabled media age: The case study of ISIS, May 2016, Postgraduate conference, University of Nottingham.
·The language is the message, May 2016, joint presentation with Dr. Nataliya Rulyova, Translation Forum, University of Birmingham.
Supervisions
I am interested in supervising PhD stuents in the following areas:
![Balsam Mustafa](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/5406?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
