Sara Yahya Hamed (PhD Candidate)

Background

Sara is an academic researcher interested in eighteenth and nineteenth-century literary studies. She's an MSc graduate in Literature and Society from the University of Edinburgh, where she is also working on her PhD  project focusing on Romantic orientalism. She has a background in teaching English language, literature, and academic writing, in addition to supporting library users with digital skills. She's also a creative writer and a self-published novelist: the author of Noble Creatures, Immortal Breeze, and Crimson Ruby

Qualifications

-Current PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh.

- MSc in Literature & Society: Enlightenment Romantic and Victorian, University of Edinburgh.

- Undergraduate in English Language and Literature (excellence with honours, first on batch).

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member: British Association of Romantic Studies.

Research summary

Sara's area of research focuses on the study of orientalism in Romantic poetry. She has particular interest in The Arabian Nights, as well as navigating intertextuality, aesthetics, and neo-medievalism.

Past research interests

Sara has previously worked with Victorian poetry and Victorian novels, biographical scholarship on Alfred Lord Tennyson, pastoral poetry, and Medieval Romances.

Knowledge exchange

Academic reviewer for the Journal of Aesthetic Education (University of Illinois Press). I am also a registered reviewer with The CEA Critic (Johns Hopkins University Press) and The BARS Review.

Conference details

6/2024 Speaker at the Medieval & Early Modern Conference- University of Kent:

I presented my paper entitled ‘Sir Orfeo’s Gentle Masculinity’ at the 10th annual MEMS Festival Conference organised the Centre of Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

 

5/2024 Speaker at 'Coding the Nineteenth Century' Conference- The University of Glasgow:

I presented my paper entitled ‘Figurations of Divinity in Prometheus Unbound and The Island of Doctor Moreau’. This conference was organised by BARS & BAVS (British Association of Romantic Studies and the British Association for Victorian Studies: Nineteenth-Century Matters Fellowship).

 

6/ 2023 Volunteer in BARS's Romantic Boundaries Conference- University of Edinburgh:

I volunteered to guide delegates and was engaged in the backstage preparations of this literary conference organised by the BARS.

  • The student orator of the MSc graduation ceremony in McEwan Hall.
  • Sara's novel, Noble Creatures, won the AmiChoice Award of 2021.