Norah El Gammal

By appointment. Registration via email required (ElGammal@europa-uni.de).
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- Postcolonial theory
- Poststructuralism (esp. deconstruction)
- Life-writing and auto-/biography
- Caribbean literatures and philosophies of the 20th and 21st century
- Memory studies

Edited books

El Gammal, Norah / Gremels, Andrea (eds.): Transversalität und Versklavungsgeschichte. Denkfiguren der Kulturwissenschaft im Kontext der Karibik und des South Atlantic. Bielefeld: transcript, 2026 [in press].

Chapters in edited volumes

"Metaphorische und institutionelle Archive im Spiegel des Life Writing. Tessa McWatts Shame on Me". In: Norah El Gammal / Andrea Gremels (eds.): Transversalität und Versklavungsgeschichte. Denkfiguren der Kulturwissenschaft im Kontext der Karibik und des South Atlantic. Bielefeld: transcript, 2026 [in press].

"Einleitung. Für eine transversale Kulturwissenschaft im Kontext der Versklavungsgeschichte" (with Andrea Gremels). In: Norah El Gammal / Andrea Gremels (eds.): Transversalität und Versklavungsgeschichte. Denkfiguren der Kulturwissenschaft im Kontext der Karibik und des South Atlantic. Bielefeld: transcript, 2026 [in press].

"Traces, or the Ocean as the Site of Disaster. Reading Glissant with Derrida and Levinas". In: Anne Kraume / Miriam Lay Brander (eds.): (Trans-)Oceanic Imaginations. Navigating the Entangled Histories and Futures of the Sea. Baden-Baden: Rombach, 2026, pp. 211-232, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/9783988581310-211.

Interviews

Norah El Gammal / Tessa McWatt: "'The rupture is meaningful'. An Interview with Tessa McWatt". In: Norah El Gammal / Andrea Gremels (eds.): Transversalität und Versklavungsgeschichte. Denkfiguren der Kulturwissenschaft im Kontext der Karibik und des South Atlantic. Bielefeld: transcript, 2026 [in press].

Research activities

08/2026–09/2026

Visiting Scholar
Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Department of History, Philosophy and Psychology, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados

06/2026
Research trip to Martinique

09/2024–present
Research assistant at the Chair of Western European Literatures, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

09/2024–present
PhD Project: Archival Poetics: Following Traces in Caribbean Life Writing

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Andrea Allerkamp (European University Viadrina) and Prof. Dr. Jenny Haase (University of Potsdam)

04/2023–08/2023
Teaching assistant "Introduction to Literary Studies", European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

11/2021–09/2022
Student assistant for the project 'Pensées Françaises Contemporaines', European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

11/2016 - 09/2020
Student assistant at the Chair of Comparative Literature, Saarland University, Saarbrücken

Scientific education

07/2024
M.A. in Sociocultural Studies, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

11/2020–07/2024
Master's programme (Sociocultural Studies, with emphasis on: Literary Studies and Philosophy), European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

09/2017–01/2018
Erasmus stay at the Sorbonne University (Paris IV), Department Lettres modernes

10/2020
B.A. in Comparative Literature and Linguistics (major subject), French Cultural Studies, English Studies (minor subjects)

10/2015–10/2020
Bachelor's programme (Comparative Literature and Linguistics, French Cultural Studies, English Studies) at Saarland University, Saarbrücken

Other activities

10/2022–present
Trainer at the Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism (KIgA e.V.)

Winter term 2026/27

The Making of the Neoliberal Self: Perspectives from Literary Studies and Sociology

Academic Skills: Literature Research, Writing, and Referencing (offered in English and German)

Summer term 2026

Archives, Power, Remembrance: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

Poetics of the Void: Speculative Narration in the Context of the Colonial History of Violence

Winter term 2025/26
How to Exhibit an Opera in a Museum. A Practical Seminar on Bachmann, Henze, and Kleist

Summer term 2025
Caribbean Life Writing

Winter term 2024/25
Deconstruction and Postcolonial Theory in Literary Studies 

Talks

06/2026: „Remembrance, Resistance, Repair. Constructions of Selfhood in Sonja Boon’s What the Oceans Remember" lecture at the international conference „Écritures du moi en contexte caribéen : regards croisés / Self-Writing in the Caribbean Context: Contrasting Perspectives“, Faculté Jean Bernabé, Université des Antilles, Martinique

04/2026: "Was bleibt, wenn nichts bleibt. Zur Materialität der Leerstelle"
Talk at the PhD workshop at the international conference "Materialismus/Materialität. Kulturtheoretische und sozialphilosophische Ansätze", Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin

03/2026: „Zersplitterte Geschichte(n). Verhandlungen von Kolonialismus und Versklavung in karibischen Literaturen“
Talk at the Berliner Akademie für weiterbildende Studien, Freie Universität Berlin

12/2025: "Zwischen Fabulation und Rekonstruktion: Life-Writing aus der Karibik"
Guest lecture in the seminar „Biographie als Methode im Bereich Internationale Beziehungen und Außenpolitik“, Dr. habil. Elsa Tulmets, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)

11/2025: "Faint Tracks. Engaging with Archival Silences in Tessa McWatt's Shame on me"
Talk at the international conference "Temporalities and Power. Oppression | Resistance | Justice ", DFG Research Training Group Contemporary/Literature, University of Bonn

09/2025: "Life Writing und/als Archiv: Rekonfigurationen des (un-)eigentlichen Archivs im Kontext der transatlantischen Gewaltgeschichte"
Talk at the conference "Transversales Denken und Handeln. Kulturwissenschaftliche Paradigmen im Kontext der transatlantischen Versklavungsgeschichte", European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)

10/2024: "Hiatus and Haunting - The Ocean as the Site of Disaster"
Talk at the international conference "Transoceanic Imaginations", University of Konstanz

Conference Organisation

18–19/06/2026: "Fractured Connections in the Caribbean“, International Early Career Symposium of the Society for Caribbean Research (Socare e.V.), University of Bonn. Organisation: Micely Díaz Espaillat, Dr. Caterina Mantilla Oliveros, Norah El Gammal

16–17/04/2026: "Materialismus/Materialität. Kulturtheoretische und sozialphilosophische Ansätze", Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin. Organisation of the PhD workshop: Friederike Schneider and Norah El Gammal

11–12/09/2025: "Transversales Denken und Handeln. Kulturwissenschaftliche Paradigmen im Kontext der transatlantischen Versklavungsgeschichte", European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Organisation: Andrea Gremels and Norah El Gammal

Academic Memberships and Activities

Member of the Society for Caribbean Research (Socare e.V.)

Member of the Memory Studies Association

Member of the Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZEM)

Elected Member of the Staff Council for Academic Staff, European University Viadrina