Project description
Arab women writers and the politics of travel and exchange
Historical accounts shaped by colonial and Eurocentric perspectives have overlooked women’s contributions to transnational cultural exchange, knowledge production and political thought. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the MENA project is examining travel writings and autobiographical texts by Arab and European women across Arabic, English and German contexts. It will analyse how these women moved ideas, political thought and feminist practices across borders through travel, writing and translation. It will also study how their narratives shaped perceptions of Europe and colonial encounters, and how translation influenced the transmission of memory and feminist discourse across cultures. The project’s goal is to reshape how transnational literary history and cultural memory are understood today.
Objective
During the late colonial period, Arab women made the journey to Europe for different reasons, including education, love and activism. These pioneering women left rich legacies and contributed to cultural, political and social life across national borders, telling stories that reflect their experiences and participating in forms of cultural mediation and exchange. The project will make visible the transformative role of Arab and Arab-African women writers and travellers and foreground their role as important actors in transnational processes of mediation shaped by colonial history, travel, and and collective memory. Focusing on travel experiences and autobiographical writings by Arab and European women in Arabic, English and German-language contexts, it will explore 1) the mediation
practices of women and how they contributed, through their travel, writing and translation activities, to transfers between Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 2) the cross-border travel and transmission of political ideas, feminist activism and practices and how this was shaped by transnational solidarities, 3) how these narratives represent cultural encounter with Europe and European colonization and produce gendered images and orientalist discourses, and 4) the impact of translation on these narratives and on the transmission and re-mediation of cultural memory and feminisms in different cultural and national contexts of reception. MENA will shed new light on travel writings by women and their interactions across linguistic and cultural boundaries, contributing to the decolonization of the transnational literary history of travel.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences sociology gender studies women’s studies
- social sciences other social sciences development studies development theories post-colonial theories
- humanities languages and literature literature studies history of literature
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1010 Wien
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.