about
dr. banah el ghadbanah is a tenure-track professor of Comparative Women’s Studies at Spelman College. Zhe is the author of the award-winning poetry book La Syrena: Visions of a Syrian Mermaid from Space (Dzanc Books, 2022). dr. el ghadbanah holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies and a Masters in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego where they wrote a dissertation entitled “Ululating from the Underground: Syrian Women’s Protests, Poetics, Performances, and Pedagogies under Siege.” You can view a film version of zir dissertation here.
they created the Black-Palestinian feminist solidarity timeline, an interactive timeline that archives solidarity among and between African American and Arab communities.
dr. el ghadbanah received their Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College in Comparative Women’s Studies and Sociology where they graduated as Valedictorian. At Spelman, they founded the Students for Justice in Palestine and were part of the Toni Cade Bambara Scholar-Writers-Activists Collective.
dr. el ghadbanah helped found Arab Youth Collective, a weekly arts space for Palestinian and Syrian youth in San Diego that later became the Majdal Center. dr. el ghadbanah taught English at the Syrian Women’s Association in Amman, Jordan, a refugee social services center, and has translated in refugee camps in Greece with Palestinian Youth Movement. dr. el ghadbanah is the recipient of the Women of Excellence Award from the Faculty Women of Color Association. Zhe is a member of Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Syrian Women’s Political Movement, and is published in Mizna, Afghan Punk Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and more.