Dr Reyam Rammahi

Reyam Rammahi
Post-Award Member
Somerville College

Dr Reyam Rammahi is a literary scholar specialising in Romantic and nineteenth-century literature, Orientalism, onomastics, global literary cultures, and encounters between Britain and the Arab and Islamic worlds. Her research examines the literary construction of cultural, religious, and political identities through representations of the Middle East in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British writing. She completed her DPhil in English Literature at the University of Oxford in 2025.

Her work addresses Orientalism, travel writing, empire, gender, religion, race, health humanities, and the transmission of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman literary traditions into English literature. Drawing on her knowledge of Arabic as well as reading knowledge of Persian and Turkish, she is particularly interested in the circulation of texts, ideas, and cultural forms between Britain and the Middle East. She is the author of the forthcoming monograph Muslim Female Figures in Romantic Texts (Anthem Press) and is currently developing a second book project, Mosaic Worlds: Byron's Orientalism.

Alongside her research, she has taught and supervised students across the University of Oxford and remains committed to widening participation, educational access, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

 

Research Interests

  • Romanticism
  • Victorian Literature
  • Enlightenment Literature
  • Orientalism
  • Onomastics
  • Global Literary Cultures
  • East–West Encounters
  • Travel Writing
  • Empire and Colonialism
  • Representations of Islam in British Literature
  • Gender and Sexuality
  • Religion and Secularism
  • Race and Cultural Identity
  • Health Humanities
  • Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Literary Traditions in English Literature

 

Publications and Current Research

Muslim Female Figures in Romantic Texts (Forthcoming monograph, Anthem Press).

Mosaic Worlds: Byron's Orientalism (Forthcoming monograph).

Death, Sickness, and Plagues in Nineteenth-Century British Literature, edited collection (forthcoming with Vernon Press). 

Mary Shelley's The Last Man and Global Issues, edited collection (forthcoming with Vernon Press).

"Can Safie Speak? Language and Representation of the Oriental Woman in Frankenstein." Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies (2022).

 

Teaching

  • British Romanticism
  • Orientalism
  • Empire and Global Literary Cultures
  • Research Skills and Academic Writing
  • Undergraduate Dissertation Supervision
  • Outreach and Access Teaching

Academic Service and Leadership

  • Editor, Oxford Middle East Review
  • Reviewer, Year's Work in English Studies (Romantic Poetry)
  • Commissioned Editor, Vernon Press
  • Founder and Project Lead, Educational Access and Innovation Initiative
  • Chair of conference panels for the British Association for Romantic Studies
  • Workshop Leader, Faculty of English, University of Oxford
  • Dissertation Supervisor, St John's College, Oxford

Awards and Professional Recognition

  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
  • Oxford–Qatar Thatcher Graduate Scholarship
  • Fulbright Foreign Student Program
  • Dean's Award for Research and Scholarship
  • Hansell Fund, Somerville College

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reyam-rammahi-0203173a7/