I am Associate Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature and Co-Director of the Middle East and North Africa Centre at Sussex (MENACS). I obtained my BA in English Language and Literature from Damascus University and went on to pursue my postgraduate studies at the University of Sussex. I have an MA in English (Critical Theory) and a PhD in English (Comparative Literature).

My research interests include fin-de-siècle Orientalist literature, Sir Richard Burton, T.E. Lawrence, Arabic literary and translational scholarship in the Nahda, travel writing, comparative approaches to love and desire in European and Arabic literatures, postcolonial Arabic literature, sexuality and nationalism, Romanticism and Orientalism in the bilingual oeuvre of Kahlil Gibran, interfaith dialogue and spirtuality in Europe and the MENA region. 

My multilingual interdisciplinary research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies and Routledge Handbooks; my first monograph, Richard Burton, T.E. Lawrence and the Culture of Homoerotic Desire: Orientalist Depictions of Arab Sexuality, was recently published by Bloomsbury (on 17 October 2024). The publication was celebrated in a prestigious launch party in Central London on 6 November 2024 with prominent academics, public figures, diplomants, journalists, friends and colleagues; highlights of the event can be seen here: https://violetxanthebennett.pixieset.com/feras/

I have since given a number of book talks nationally and itnernationally, the latest of which was on 9 October 2025 at the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambrdige. Titled 'Burton and Lawrence: the Snake Charmers of Empire', the talk traced the intricate oeuvres of both Orientalists and linked their depictions of the sexualities of the Arab-Muslim East to more recent and contemporary tropes of Orientalism in popular culture, from Fry's Tukish Delight to Ab Fab and beyond. The talk went fantastically well and my book is now on a number of reading lists nationally and internationally. 

On 21 March 2025,I hosted ceramicist, Carole Bennett's Silk Road Talk and Exhibition at the Middle East and North Africa Centre at Sussex (MEANCS); the event has been a great success and wsas attended by distinguished guests, including public figures, diplomats, writers, artists and journalists. 

I have served as an academic reviewer at the Victorian Review (VR) Journal as well as the Journal of British Studies(JBR). I am on the Editorial Board of the Mashriq and Mahjar Journal: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies (North Carolina State University) and have recently been re-elected as Council Member (Trustee) of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). In June 2025, I was elected as Co-President of the Syrian Academics and Researchers' Network in the UK (SARN UK), which has recnetly been registered as a UK charity. 

In October 2023, I won an AHRC grant to fund the activities of the new Syrian Academics and Researchers' Network in the UK (SARN UK), which was launched in September 2023. The AHRC Research Networking Scheme bid was submitted on behalf of the Organising Committee of SARN UK in June 2023 with myself as PI and Dr Zeina Al Azmeh (Cambridge) as Co-I. The AHRC grant is funding 4 activities (2 workshops at Cambridge, an online symposium and SARN UK's first international conference here at Sussex on 18-19 September 2025) between 1 April 2024 and 30 September 2025.

Our first AHRC-funded SARN UK International Confernece, which took place on 18-19 September 2025 at the University of Sussex, was a huge success. Revolvoing around the theme of 'Rebuidling Syria: Reflections, Innovations and Collaborations', the conference encompassed a keynote lecutre by promient British-Syrian historian, Prof Aziz Al-Azmeh (Central European University, Vienna), 4 academic panels, 2 exhibtions (photography: Of Revolution & Hope; antique & rare books: Orientalist Travellers across Syria), 2 talks by external partners/NGOs (the Middle East Association and Action Syria), a roundtable discussion on the political future of Syria and concluding with a delightful live oud performance by international Syrian musicien, Rihab Azar. See the full programme here. You can also read our press release here as well as that of BRISMES (SARN UK's partner) here.

I have taught on a wide range of multidisciplinary modules in Literature, Creative Writing, History, Liberal Arts, Language, Cultural Studies, International Development and Anthropology at various universities and HE institutions in the UK and abroad, including the University of Sussex, King's College London, CAPA London and Damascus University.

I have contributed to a variety of award-winning films and TV documentaries in my capacity as an expert on Sir Rirchard Burton, T.E. Lawrence and Orientalist art and literature, including Lawrence of Arabia: Britain's Greatest Adventurer (2020), Who Killed Lawrence of Arabia? (2024) and The Orientalist Adventure: Art and Empire in the Middle East (2025).

Born into a Damascene family of expatriates in Dubai, I have lived, studied and worked in the UAE, Syria and the UK and now call Brighton home.