I am a historian, specializing in the social and cultural history of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, and Egypt. My PhD dissertation “Identity Poetics: Society, Culture, Identity and Gender in Saudi Arabia through the Prism of the Saudi Novel, 1980-2000,” was written in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Prof. Elie Podeh, Prof. Fruma Zachs, and Prof. Muhammad Al-Atawneh. My MA thesis “The Other Shia: A Study of the Writings of Ahmad Al-Katib,” was written in the Hebrew University as well, under the supervision of Prof. Meir Bar-Asher and Prof. Meir Hatina.

 During my MA and PhD studies, I taught and served as TA in modern and pre-modern courses of the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University and worked in the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) as a researcher, translator from Arabic, and Arabic media analyst. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Haifa, working on research dedicated to representations of masculinity in the Saudi novel, and another research dedicated to the development of concepts concerning children and childhood in Saudi Arabia through the prism of the Saudi novel.

 In addition to social and cultural history of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, my research areas include gender; modern Arabic literature; Shia in the Arab world; Egypt – history, society, culture, and media; and popular culture in the Muslim and Arab world (especially cartoons, comics, and graphic novels).

 email: elad.giladi@mail.huji.ac.il