Katty Alhayek
Dr. Katty Alhayek is an Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Communication at The Creative School and a faculty member in the Yeates School of Graduate Studies. Alhayek’s research centers around themes of marginality, media, audiences, gender, intersectionality, and displacement in a transnational context. Professor Alhayek holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a graduate certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies, and Master's degrees in International Affairs and Media Studies from Ohio University.
Her publications include articles in the International Journal of Communication; Feminist Media Studies; Gender, Technology and Development; and Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies. Her scholarship and teaching are inspired by her lived experience as a scholar activist from Syria as well as her work with international organizations like the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
Dr. Alhayek's work has been awarded grants from major international organizations and universities, including the Open Society Foundations, the Social Science Research Council, and London School of Economics and Political Science.
Alhayek is committed to public engagement through initiatives such as Jadaliyya (external link) , Status (external link) , and Security in Context (external link) .
Research Interests
My scholarly projects have been innovative, interdisciplinary, and inspired by subfields such as audience research, fandom, feminist media studies, migration, technology and social change, food communication, and critical cultural studies.
A central theme in my scholarship is how marginalized groups use social media to wield power and cope with unjust life conditions. For example, my rarticle “Watching television while forcibly displaced: Syrian refugees as participant audiences,” published in Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies focuses on marginalized displaced audiences’ online engagement with TV texts that tackle the Syrian refugee crisis. I show the ways in which the entertainment intervention of drama creators provided displaced audiences with scripts to mitigate the traumatic effects of a highly polarizing conflict, and to find a healing space from violent and alienating dominant media discourses.
Through the lens of feminist and critical cultural studies, I also explore issues of gender, technology, and empowerment. For instance, I am interested in how displaced Syrian women journalists and activists use Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for empowerment in their personal and professional lives and to foster positive affects of solidarity, hope, and possibilities. I examine the ways in which they tackle issues such as reproductive rights, women’s and children’s health, technical literacy, security and harassment.
Peer-reviewed Articles
Alhayek, K., Zeno, Basileus. (2023). Decolonizing Displacement Research: Betweener Autoethnography as a Method of Resistance. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 55(3), 548-555. doi:10.1017/S0020743823001071 (Open Access (external link) )
Alhayek, K., Alexander, B. K., Foster, E., Hernandez, C. G., Mackie-Stephenson, A., Moreira, C., Pelias, J, R., Poulos, C., Sutton, T., and Twishime, P. I. (2023). “Collaborative Autoethnographic Writing as Communal Curative.” International Review of Qualitative Research, 15(4), 544-570.doi:10.1177/19408447211068193
Alexander, B. K., Hernandez, C. G., Pelias, R. J., Alhayek, K., Poulos, C., Moreira, C., Sutton, T., Stephenson, A., Foster, E., & Twishime, P. I. (2021). “Inter and Enter: An Invitation to Collaboration Thru Autoethnography.” International Review of Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447211049527
Alhayek, Katty. (2020). Watching television while forcibly displaced: Syrian refugees as participant audiences. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 17(1), 8-28. ( (PDF file) Open Access (external link) )
Bryant, A. Stephenson-Celadilla, A. Alhayek, K., et al (2019). "‘I'm sorry my hair is blocking your smile’: A Performative Assemblage and Intercultural Dialogue on the Politics of Hair and Place". International Review of Qualitative Research, 12(4), 339–362.
Alhayek, Katty. (2017). Emotional Realism, Affective Labor and Politics in the Arab Fandom of Game of Thrones. International Journal of Communication, 11, 3740–3763. (Open Access (external link) )
Alhayek, Katty. (2016). ICTs, Agency, and Gender in Syrian Activists’ Work among Syrian Refugees in Jordan. Gender, Technology and Development 20(3), 333-351.
Alhayek, Katty. (2015). “I must save my life and not risk my family’s safety!”: Untold Stories of Syrian Women Surviving War. Syria Studies. 7(1), 1-30. ( (PDF file) Open Access (external link) )
Alhayek, Katty. (2014). Double Marginalization: The Invisibility of Syrian Refugee Women's Perspectives in Mainstream Online Activism and Global Media. Feminist Media Studies, 14(4), 696-700.
Selected Conference Presentations, Invited Talks and Workshops
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) and Decolonization-- Dimension’s SRC Lunch and learn. Toronto Metropolitan University, October 25, 2023. (Co-organizer and presenter).
“AI, Metaverse and Communicative Changes.” 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference, May 2023. (Panel Chair)
Syrian online spaces of possibilities: alternative and activist media for dialogue and reconciliation. International Communication Association Pre-conference ‘Reimagining the field of Media, War and Conflict in the age of information disorder’, May 2023. (Paper presentation).
Digital media and displaced women’s pursuit of empowerment during the pandemic. American Political Science Association (APSA), September 2022. (Paper presentation).
Global Fandom Conversation: Patterns of Globalization and Localization of Fandom from Bollywood to Eastern Europe. The 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference, May 2022. (Roundtable).
Collaborative Autoethnographic Writing as Communal Curative. The 18th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, May 2022. (Paper presentation).
Arab Fandom and Creative Political Participation The Case of Game of Thrones. George Mason University, February 21, 2022. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/43888/MEIS-Presents-Arab-Fandom-and-Creative-Political-Participation-The-Case-of-Game-of-Thrones-Video-43888
Roundtable on What does it mean to decolonize research methodologies? RUBIX, The Creative School X University, January 27, 2022.
Talk on “Facebook, displaced women, and the pursuit of empowerment,” Wellesley College, United States on January 19, 2022.
A Reflection on Displacement and Related Methodological and Ethical Considerations. The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) 55th Annual Meeting, December 2021. (Online paper presentation).
Webinar on "Surviving and Thriving on the Margins: How Syrian Women and the Palestinian Minority in Israel Challenge Marginality," The Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies, Nov. 15, 2021.
Digital empowering positivity: gender, displacement, and networked counterpublics. Migrant Belongings: Digital Practices and the Everyday conference, April, 2021. (Online paper presentation).
Zoom workshop on “intersectional feminism in the Syrian context,” MUSAWA women's study center, February 27, 2021.
Zoom panel on “Syrian Feminism: Current Issues,” organized by the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies, Dec 7, 2020 (in Arabic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUWg2kB1OkU&t=3340s
Communicating to peace: Syrian online spaces of possibilities. The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) 54th Annual Meeting, October 2020.
Talk on “Syrian Asylees Speak Out,” Smith College, April 24, 2019.
Workshop on Bourdieu, Identity, and Violent Conflict at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York, November 5th, 2018.
Recognition and television drama: exploring the role of popular culture in time of war. The International Studies Association Annual Convention, April 2018.
Talk at the “Refugees, Media and ICTs” workshop at the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), February 21-22, 2018.
Lived Experiences of Syrian refugees in television drama. The International Communication Association's 67th Annual Conference, May 2017.