Sameera Abbas is Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University at Buffalo–SUNY as a Fulbright Scholar in 2023.
Research Interests:
Her research brings together feminist and Marxist theory in postcolonial studies, with a focus on gendered labor, social reproduction, and nationalism. She works across South Asian literature in English, Urdu, and Pashto, while also engaging broader questions of medievalism, mythic historiography, and world literature. Her scholarship further examines memory, trauma, and migration in comparative literary traditions, tracing how these forces shape narratives of identity, belonging, and resistance.
Research Publications:
- “Navigating the Phantasmic: Medievalism and Mythic Historiography in Salman Rushdie’s Shame.” Studies in Medievalism (forthcoming, 2025)
- “Pashtun Women and Folk Literature: Intersections of Labor, Affect, and Oppression.” Special Issue on Women’s Urdu Writings, Pakistan Critical Studies (forthcoming, 2025).
Conference Activity:
- “Metaphors of Trauma: Art, Trauma, and Recovery in Sorayya Khan’s Noor.” Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention, Toronto, 2026.
- “Narratives of Pain: Visual Culture and Post-Traumatic Subjectivity in Noor.” 53rd Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, 2025.
- “Salman Rushdie’s Medievalism: Navigating the Phantasmic in Shame.” International Society for the Study of Medievalism Annual Conference, 2024.
- “Fluid Homes, Fluid Identities: Migration and Statelessness in Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows.” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, 2022.
Any other achievements / recognitions:
- Fulbright PhD Fellowship (2018–2023), University at Buffalo–SUNY.
- Social Impact Fellowship (2022), University at Buffalo–SUNY.
- Verified Peer Reviewer, Journal of Postcolonial Writing (2025).
- Keynote Speaker, “Learning as a Revolution: Traversing Possibilities of Freedom and Resistance in the Classroom,” JMC Conference on Interdisciplinary Insights, 2024.
Rahman, Rubina, and Sameera Abbas. "Antic Disposition: Hamlet in the Light of Cooperative Principle." The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Volume XXI, No. 1, April 2013, pp. 51-60.
Abbas, Sameera. "Unsettling the Settler: Disillusionment and Narrative Fragmentation in Karen Blixen s Out of Africa." University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature. Vol. 7 No. II, 2023, pp. 301-307
Abbas, Sameera, and Rahman, Rubina. "Schema Disruption and Identity in Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in the Wonderland." The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol. XXI, No.3, 2013, pp. 1-10
Sameera Abbas. "Navigating the Phantasmic: Medievalism and Mythic Historiography in Salman Rushdie s Shame." Studies in Medievalism (Accepted, Publication in Progress)
Sameera Abbas. "Pashtun Women and Folk Literature: Intersections of Labor, Affect, and Oppression." Proposed special issue, "Ek Dost Kay Naam: Women s Urdu Writings and Popular Literary Cultures." Pakistan Critical Studies. (Accepted with minor revisions, Publication in Progress)
Abbas, Sameera. "The Predicament of a Human Rights Worker: Witnessing Trauma in Sarah Stone s The True Sources of the Nile." Journal of Arts and Linguistics Studies. Vol. 3 No. 3, 2025, pp. 4301-4312
Abbas, Sameera, and Rubina Rahman. "The Pragmatic Force of Negation in A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucies Day." The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. XXI, No. 2, August 2013, pp.1-8
"Martyrdom and the Baroque Sovereignty: General Zia in Mohammad Hanif s A Case of Exploding Mangoes" (Work in progress)
"A Text World Exploration of George Bernard Shaw s Pygmalion" (Work in progress)
"Fluid Homes, Fluid Identities: Migration and Statelessness in Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows." (Work in progress)
"Allegory and Ruin as tools of De-mythification in Mohammad Hanif s A Case of Exploding Mangoes. 49th Annual Conference on South Asia, October 21-23, 2021. (Virtual Seminar).
"The Predicament of a Human Rights Worker in Sarah Stone s The True Sources of the Nile." 51st North East Modern Language Association, Boston, MA, March 5, 2020
"The Labor of South Asian Women at the Crossroads of Patriarchy and Capitalism: An Analysis of Nazir Ahmad s Mirat-ul- Arus." Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, January 2023
"Labor and the Picture of a Perfect Woman in Ashraf Thanwi s Bihishti Zewar." 50th Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, 2022.
"Fluid Homes, Fluid Identities: Migration and Statelessness in Kamila Shamsie s Burnt Shadows." The American Comparative Literature Association s 2022 Annual Meeting, June 2022 (Virtual)
"Saadat Hassan Manto on the Fragmented Nation and the Maimed Female bodies" 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association, March 10-13, 2022, Baltimore, Maryland
"Martyrdom and the Baroque Sovereignty: General Zia in Mohammad Hanif s A Case of Exploding Mangoes. 52nd North East Modern Languages Association, Virtual Annual Convention, March 13, 2021 (Virtual Seminar)
"Salman Rushdie s Medievalism: Navigating the Phantasmic in Shame." The Games of Medievalism: International Society for the Study of Medievalism Annual Conference, Montclair State and Seton Hall Universities, July 9-11, 2024
"The Female Subaltern Speaks Back! Intersections of Labor, Affect, and Oppression in Pashto Folk Poetry." Erasure, Resistance, and Innovation, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, June 22, 2024.
"Metaphors of Trauma: Art, Trauma, and Recovery in Sorayya Khan s Noor." Modern Languages Association Annual Convention. Toronto, 8 to 11 January, 2026. (Forthcoming)
"Shamsie s Broken Verses: The Interplay of Homogeneity and Erasure through (Dis)Embodiment." 52th Annual Conference on South Asia, November 1st, 2024 (virtual).
Gendered Racism in Hari Ziyad s Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir, MELUS 36th Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans, March 2022.
"Narratives of Pain: Visual Culture and Post-Traumatic Subjectivity in Noor." 53rd Annual Conference on South Asia. October 22-25, 2025.