Prof. Shirin Zubair Ph.D.

Prof. Shirin Zubair Ph.D.

Prof. Shirin Zubair Ph.D.

Room R13 V01 H28
Tel.:0201/183-2133
E-mail: shirin.zubair@uni-due.de

 

Expertise Summary

 

Shirin Zubair has been a professor and chair at the department of English, Baha-ud-Din Zakriya University, Multan, Pakistan, where she taught English Literature and Linguistics. She is currently  based at the Department of Anglophone Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen as a visiting research fellow. Currently she is writing a book titled: Feminism, Gender and Education: A Study of Women’s Literacies, Lives and Representations in Pakistan (to be published with Berghahn Books).

 

CV

 

She earned her PhD from Cardiff University, UK and undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Texas, Austin, USA. She researched Pakistani women’s access to higher degrees in English and the subsequent shifts in identity-formation. She has held several prestigious fellowships, including two Fulbright fellowships to teach and research in the United States, an unavailed research fellowship at Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, UK as well as senior research positions in Germany and Norway. She has presented her research on Pakistani women’s uses of literacy in multiple languages and identity-related issues at several international conferences and published her work with leading international publishers including Sage, Routledge and John Hopkins, among others. Current research interests include transnationalism and identity, postcolonial studies, gender and feminisms, representations in popular culture and sociology of religion. Her recent publications are featured in Feminist Formations; Hawwa: Journal of Women in the Middle East and the Islamic World; Discourse Studies; South Asian Popular Culture and in an edited volume published by the American University of Beirut Press.

Select Publications
 

2016: "Theorising Institutional Feelings, Bodies and Spaces: The Case of Women's Studies and Feminism in Pakistan", Feminist Formations 28(3): 95-120.

2016: "Women Media and Development in Pakistan: Sites of Continuity and Change", South Asian Visual Cultures 14(1-2): 19-32.

2015: "Sexual/Textual Politics: Representations of Gender in Achebe's Things Fall Apart" (co-authored with Saba Shouq) Alam-e-Niswan: Pakistan Journal of Women Studies.

2014: "Co-constructing America and Pakistan: Hybridity and Transculturality in Pakistani English Fiction", in Alex Lubin (ed.) Shifting Borders: America in the Middle East. American University of Beirut Press.

2013: "(Under)Representing Women in Curricula: A Content Analysis of Urdu and English Textbooks at the Primary Level in Pakistan", Alam-e-Niswan: Pakistan Journal of Women Studies, 20(1): 57-71.

2012: "Class, Culture and Power: A Critique of Pakistan English Language Textbooks", Pakistan  Journal of Social Sciences, 32(2): 529-540.

 2012: "Gender and Time-out-talk: An Analysis of Construction of Femininities by Young Pakistani Women", Pakistan Journal of Women Studies: Alam-e-Niswan 19(1): 93-113.

2011: "Under Western Eyes: Deconstructing Colonial Representations in Shahraz’s The Holy Woman", In Kidwai & Siddiqui (eds.) The Holy and The Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz's Fiction, New Delhi: Sarup Publishers, (1-25).

2011: "You can Cook But you Can’t Take Part in Elections: Gendred Representations of Politics in Pakistan Newspaper Cartoons", Pakistan Journal of Women Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, 18(1): 31-46.

2010: "Semiotic Representations of Islam", in The Gaurdian Weekly: A Critique Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peshawar 18(2): 123-136.

2010: "Not Easily Put-Downable: Magazine Representations and Muslim Women's Identities in Southern Punjab, Pakistan", Feminist Formations, 22(3): 176-195.

2009: "Ideology in Textbooks: An Analytical Study of Gender Issues in ELT in Pakistan", Pakistan Perspectives, 14(2): 123-134.

2009: "Semiotics Ideology and Femininity in Popular Pakistani Women's Magazines", Hawwa Journal of Women in the Middle East and the Islamic World, 7(3): 229-248.

2008: "Language Ideology and the State: CDA of Religious Contents in Punjab English Language Textbooks", Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Peshawar Vol. XVI.I (160-177).

2008: "Critical Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of Pakistani Politician’s Rhetoric", Pakistan Perspectives, 13(1): 113-131.

2007: "Silent Birds: Metaphorical Constructions of Literacy and Identity in Women's Talk", Discourse Studies, 9(6): 766-783.

2006: "Women English Literature and Identity Construction in Southern Punjab, Pakistan", Journal of South Asian Development, Sage.1(1): 249-271.

2006: Review Article: "Beyond Access: Transforming Policy and Practice in Educational Research", International Journal Of Educational Development. EDEV 928 (1-3).

2005: "Just a Time-pass: Acknowledgement/Denial (?) of Sexual Harassment in Young Women's Discourse", Hawwa: Journal of Women in the Middle East and the Islamic World, 3(2): 195-215.

2004: "Female Images in Magazine Advertisements: A Feminist Perspective", Quarterly Journal of Gender and Social Issues, 3(3-4): (61-77) FJWU.

2004: "Qualitative Methods in Rsearching Women’s Literay: A Case Study", in Robinson Pant (ed.) Women, Literacy and Development: Alternative Perspectives, (85-99).

2003: "Literacies Across Generations: Women's Religious and Secular Identities in Seraiki Villages", South Asia Research, 23(2): 135-151.

2003: "Women's Critical Literacies in a Pakistani Classroom", Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, 10(2):163-173.

2001: "Literacies, Gender and Power in Rural Pakistan", in Brian Street (ed.) Literacy and Development: Ethnographic Perspectives, 188-204.

Conference Papers and Talks

Plenaries and Invited Talks

2016: "We Can’t Cross Our Limits: Gender and Sexuality in Urban Pakistani Youth’s Lives", Multiple Modernities: Multiple Gender Cultures: Multifaceted gender orders in the horizon of global and transnational processes of change, 15-17 September 2016, organized by Universitat Bielefeld and  Universitat Augsburg, Germany.

2016: "Higher Education in Fragile Situations", at Norhed International Conference on Knowledge for Development,  6-7 June,  Oslo and Akershus University, College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway.

2015: "Topical issues concerning Eastern and Western worldviews and cultures", the 8th Erasmus lecture jointly organized by Higher Education Authority and Universities Ireland, Christ Church, Dublin, Ireland.

2012: "Learning Transcultural Literacies: Transgressive Theories and Transcultural Flows in ELT Curriculum and Classrooms in Pakistan", 28th SPELT International Conference at OPF Girls College, F-8 Islamabad.

2008: "Language and Gender: Implications for ELT in Pakistan", 24th SPELT International Conference at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi.

2006: "Qualitative Methods in Researching Women's Literacy: A Case Study", Multidisciplinary International Conference on Qualitative Research in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges, University of Karachi.

2002: "Women’s Critical Literacies in a Pakistani Classroom", NCTE International Conference: Celebrating the Languages & Literacies in our Lives, Atlanta, USA.

 

Conference Papers and Talks

2016: "Shiela Ki Jawani: Celebrating Female Success in Hindi Cinema through Item Songs", Gender in Global Perspectives, 14-16 November 2016, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan.

2016: "Development Narratives, Media and Women in Pakistan: Sites of Continuity and Change", CIEG International Congress: Gender Studies in Debate: Pathways, Challenges and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 25-27 May, Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.

2015: "Can the Subaltern Speak? Transnational Feminism and Muslim Women's Lives in Pakistan", European Sociological Association International Conference at Prague Technical University (26-28 August 2015).

2015: "Opening Up New Spaces: Arrival Motif in Sidhwa’s An American Brat", NEMLA: North East Modern Language Association Annual Convention, April 30 - May 3, Toronto, Canada.

2015:"Learning to be Glocal: Transgressive Theories and Transcultural Flows in ELT Classroom and Curriculum in Pakistan", the 22nd International IFSSO General Conference, at Seijo University in Tokyo, May 29 - June 1.

2014: "Exploring Transnational Feminism and Postcolonial Identities through Teaching English Literature in Pakistan", Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender, Work and Organization, University of Keele, UK, 24-26 June.

2014: "You can't get a House on Campus, you are not Married: Gendered Codes Institutional and Customary Laws in Pakistan", International Conference on Gender and the Law: Limits, Contestations and Beyond, Izmir, Turkey, 4-6 June.

2013: "Willingly Trapped in Chains: Young, Urban Middle Class Pakistani Women in Higher Education", Gender & Education Biennial Conference 2013, London South Bank University, 22-26 March.

2012: "Negotiating Multiple Identities: Pakistani Women Speak on Media Representations as Sites of Continuity and Change", Religion, Science & Technology: Contexts of Change, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Trondhiem, Norway ,1-2 March.

2012: "Co-constructing America and Pakistan: Hybridity in Pakistani English Fiction", 4th International Conference: Shifting Borders: America and the Middle East, CASAR, American University Beirut, 11-14 January.

2011: "Learning Transcultural Literacies: Transgressive Theories and Transcultural Flows in ELT Classrooms in Pakistan", Golden Jubilee International Conference: Literature Literacy and Language, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa, 7-9 September.

2010: "Struggles of Identity in Pakistani Fiction", 13th Conference on American Fault lines and Footprints in the World Area Study Centre, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, 16-17 October.