Dr. Anne-Marie McManus

Dr. Anne-Marie McManus is a cultural researcher and writer specialising in Arabic literature, politics, and critical theory, with a focus on Syria and the wider Middle East. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University and currently leads the European Research Council–funded project SYRASP (The Prison Narratives of Assad’s Syria) at the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin. Her research examines the political and public life of storytelling, exploring how narratives negotiate memory, belonging, justice, and accountability in contexts of violence and oppression. She is the author of Of Other Languages: Arabic Literature, Arab Nationalism, and the Poetics of Emancipation (Cambridge University Press) and has published widely in leading academic and cultural journals. Her work has been supported by institutions including the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Volkswagen Foundation, Fritz Thyssen Foundation, NYU Abu Dhabi, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.