Yafa Shanneik

Yafa Shanneik is Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies. Her research focuses on the intersections between Islam, gender, and migration in two regional contexts: Europe and the Middle East. She has a particular interest in transnational Muslim female resistance movements and has conducted extensive ethnographic research in Britain, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Iran and the Arab Gulf states. Currently, she is working on a project, funded by the British Academy, which examines transnational migration of Syrians and Iraqis particularly focusing on gendered power dynamics due to conflict-induced displacement. Shanneik uses unconventional research approaches in studying migration and displacement experiences including the use of expressionist art through body-mapping as well as new technology including augmented and virtual reality. The aim of her research is to offer new understandings of Muslim female mobilization and political participation by examining the various strategies Muslim women employ to express resistance to existing orders of power.

She published in numerous journals including Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Religion; Journal of Material Religion; Religion and Gender; Journal ofMuslims in Europe; Journal of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations; Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. Her monograph: The Art of Resistance in Islam. The Performance of Politics among Shi‘i Women in the Middle East and Beyond was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.