I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and a Research Associate at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, Germany.
My research is as interdisciplinary as my academic background. I come from the cultural theory in theatrical studies, and political sciences and gender studies. I have been investigating gender performativity and social movements in Iraq. I examined Iraqi women's diverse contribution in the latest social movement of Tishreen. I looked at how Iraqi traditional gender performance of mothers and other forms of women's care-giving were integrated in the political discourse of the protest. I also examine the National Theatre in Baghdad and women- based theatre and performance in Iraq. My research focuses on how Iraqi women theatre practitioners contributed in modernising the Iraqi theatre.
Coming from a refugee background helped me to construct my positionality as an academic. I am a brown woman of a refugee experience who is researching a white-male dominant discipline; 'political sciences' of the Middle East. It made me think of other women academics from the global south who face racial or gender discrimination. As such, I found IWAN; Iraqi Women Academics Network, which brings Iraqi women academics from Iraq and diaspora, from various disciplines and research interests, and from multi Iraqi cultural, religious, and linguistic backgrounds under the umbrella of academia.
WHO IS HADEEL ABDELHAMEED?
2021 Founder and Organiser of Iraqi Women Academics Network
The IWAN Iraq network aims to build the academic and research capacities of Iraqi women academics in Humanities and Social Sciences.
​2023 Creator of Tishreen Artivism Website
The Tishreen Project was launched in collaboration with Lancaster University to archive photos, and short videos produced by Iraqi women artivists during the Tishreen protest movement. The database is still active as many artivists are still submitting their works through the website.
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
FUNDED PROJECTS
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation (KAS), Foundation Office, Syria and Iraq
Project: Iraqi Women’s Roles in the Elections: Candidates, Voters and Boycotters
Successfully funded grant fellowship from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation (KAS) Foundation Office in Syria and Iraq, worth $20,000 USD. The research aimed to identify gender gaps and opportunities for promoting Iraqi women’s political inclusion, and to design achievable and realistic solutions to their marginalisation in the electoral and political processes.
Managing two in-country research assistants in Iraq.
Deliverable: A policy report was successfully published in English and Arabic.
