Dr. Sameera Abbas
Assistant Professor
Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences
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.