Centre for Global Media and Communications

Dr Dina Matar

BSc (Jordan); MSc, PhD (London)

Overview
Teaching
Research
Expertise
Publications

Overview

Centre for Global Media and Communications

Chair, Centre for Global Media and Communication

London Middle East Institute (LMEI)

Member

Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS)

Centre Chair

Executive Board

Head of Department, Interdisciplinary Studies

Academic Board

Head of Department, Interdisciplinary Studies

Name:: Dr Dina Matar
Email address:: dm27@soas.ac.uk
Telephone:: +44 (0)207 898 4696
Address:: SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Building:: Russell Square: College Buildings
Office No:: 575
Academic Support Hours:: Mondays 1-3pm

Biography

Dina Matar has an MSc in Comparative Politics (LSE) and a PhD in Media and Communications (LSE). She works on narrative politics, media and conflict, political communication, cultural politics, memory, oral history and Islamist movements in the Arab World and its diaspora. Before joining SOAS in 2005, she was a teaching fellow at the LSE Media and Communications Department and a visiting lecturer in international/diplomatic journalism at City University. She previously worked as a journalist and editor in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the US. Dina is keen on bringing a non-Western approach to the theorisation and study of communication, in its diverse forms, through focusing on the dynamics between media practices and socio-political contexts. Her more recent work has focused on narrative politics and cultural and media histories in Palestine. Dina is co-founder and co-editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, the first trans-cultural and cross-disciplinary space for critical engagement with communication, culture and politics of the contemporary Middle East.

Teaching

Programmes Convened

Modules Taught

PhD Students supervised

Aida Al Kaisy, A comparative study of the production practices of the mass media of a country in conflict, Iraq.
Alexander Humphries, The Christian formation of Iraq: A Study of the Chaldean Catholic Church’s role in the creation and development of the Iraqi nation
Azadeh Pourzand, "Activism Beyond Impact: The Case of Iranian Women’s Quest for Equality (working title)"
Gabriel Huland, The Syrian Conflict and American Foreign Policy in the News
Hebah Hasan O Albiti, Social Change through Power of Imagination in Arabic Theatre: How the Raḥbānī Brothers’ Works Empowered their Audiences
Jack Joy, The Spectacle of Resistance: Repertoires of Power in the Discourse of Hizbullah [working title]
Laura Beaney, Beyond Exile: Gender, Identity and Artistic Practices in Second-Generation Women Belonging to the Iranian Diaspora in the US.
Mohamed Taha, Political Communication of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Analysis of practices before and during Morsi’s presidency (2012 - 2013)

Previous PhD Students

Kajalie Islam, religious Ideology in the Bangaledeshi war of 1971: A discourse Analysis of East Pakistan’s anti-liberation newspapers
Feras Khatib, Palestinian Citizenship of Israel and the Arab nation in the satellite media era
Thembi Much, Women, the Media and Modernity in Zanzibar: ‘ninjas, Mamas and Good Girls’
Jenn Durret (PhD by practice), Another kind of opportunity: film-making education as Art Communication.
Rima Merhi, News Framing in Times of Crisis: The case of Nahr el-Bared battle in the Lebanese press
Thomas Allen, Towards a molecular method: subjectivity, media and health
Paolo D'Urbano, 'Ikhwan Web: Digital Activism and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood'
Ghazal Seif, 'Counter-Authoritarian Discourses in Egyptian Blogs'
Rounwah Adly Riyadh Bseiso, Revolutionary Art during and after the Egyptian Revolution: Liminality and Creativity
Ghazal Seif, 'Counter-Authoritarian Discourses in Egyptian Blogs'

I am interested in supervising students researching the relationship between communication, culture and politics in the Middle East, as well as elsewhere. I am particularly interested in research projects critically interrogating new and old media, digital narratives, artistic practices, activism, social movements, Islamist movements, women, identities, memory and nationalism in the Arab world.

Research

Middle East, especially the Arab world; international political communication; Arab cultural politics; Arab cultural studies; memory studies and oral history; Islamist movements; social movements and media; diasporas; ethnic minorities; transnational movements and communications.

Expertise

For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4135 or email press@soas.ac.uk

Available for

TV
Radio
Press
Briefings
Special Study Programmes
Short Term Consultancy
Long Term Consultancy

Regional Expertise

Near and Middle East

Country Expertise

Languages

Publications

Authored Books

Matar, Dina and Khatib, Lina and Alshaer, Atef (2014) The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication. London; New York, NY: Hurst and Oxford University Press.

Matar, Dina (2010) What it Means to be Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood. London: I B Taruris.

Articles

Matar, Dina (2019) 'The Syrian Regime’s Strategic Communication: Practices and Ideology'. International Journal of Communication, (13), pp 2398-2416.

Matar, Dina (2018) 'PLO Cultural Activism: Mediating Liberation aesthetics in revolutionary contexts'. Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East, (38) 2, pp 354-364.

Matar, Dina (2017) 'Introduction: Toward a Sociology of Communication and Conflict: Iraq and Syria'. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, (10) 2-3, pp 99-108.

Matar, Dina (2015) 'Hassan Nasrallah: The cultivation of image and language in the making of a charismatic leader'. Culture, Communication & Critique, (8) 3, pp 433-447.

Matar, Dina (2012) 'Contextualising the Media and the Uprisings: A return to History'. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, (5) 1, pp 75-79.

Matar, Dina (2008) 'The Power of Conviction: Nassrallah’s Rhetoric and Mediated Charisma in the context of the 2006 July War'. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, (1) 2, pp 122-137.

Matar, Dina (2008) 'Editorial: Communicating Politics in Culture'. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, (1) 2, pp 97-101.

Matar, Dina (2007) 'Heya Television: A feminist counterpublic for Arab women?'. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, (27) 3, pp 513-525.

Matar, Dina (2007) 'The Palestinians in Britain, News and the Politics of Recognition'. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, (2) 3, pp 317-330.

Matar, Dina (2006) 'Diverse Diasporas, One Meta-Narrative: Palestinians in the UK Talking about 11 September 2001'. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, (32) 6, pp 1027-1040.

Matar, Dina (2006) 'What It Means to be a Shiite in Lebanon: Al Manar and the Imagined Community of Resistance'. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, (3) 2, pp 22-40.

Matar, Dina (2006) 'Al-Manar and Lebanese Shiites'. Westminster Papers for Communication and Culture, (3) 2, pp 220-240.

Matar, Dina and Dakhlalah, Farah (2006) 'What It Means to Be Shiite in Lebanon: Al Manar and the Imagined Community of Resistance'. Westminster Papers for Communication and Culture, (3) 2, pp 22-40.

Edited Books or Journals

Matar, Dina, (ed.), (2017) Special Issue: Communication and Conflict: Iraq and Syria. Brill. (Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication; Vol. 10 (2)).

Tawil-Souri, Helga and Matar, Dina, (eds.), (2016) Gaza as Metaphor. London: Hurst.

Matar, Dina and Harb, Zahera, (eds.), (2013) Narrating Conflict in the Middle East: Discourse, Image and Communications Practices in Lebanon and Palestine. London: I B Tauris.

Book Chapters

Matar, Dina and Helmi, Khouloud (2020) 'Liminality; gendering and Syrian alternative media spaces'. In: Maltby, Sarah and O'Loughlin, Ben and Parry, Katy and Roselle, Laura, (eds.), Spaces of War, War of Spaces. London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp 143-158.

Matar, Dina (2019) 'The struggle over narratives: Palestine as metaphor for imagined spatialities'. In: Iqani, Mehita and Resende, Fernando, (eds.), Media and the Global South: Narrative Territorialities, Cross-Cultural Currents. London: Routledge, pp 170-185.

Matar, Dina (2017) 'First Framing and News: Lessons from Reporting Jordan in Crises'. In: Harb, Zahera, (ed.), Reporting the Middle East: The Practices of News in the Twenty-First Century. London: I. B. Tauris, pp 33-49.

Matar, Dina (2016) 'Narratives and the Syrian Uprising: The Role of Stories in Political Activism and Identity Struggles'. In: Zayani, Mohamed and Merghani, Suzi, (eds.), Bullets and Bulletins: Media and Politics in the Wake of the Arab uprisings. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, pp 89-107.

Matar, Dina (2016) 'Gaza: Image Normalization'. In: Tawil-Souri, Helga and Matar, Dina, (eds.), Gaza as Metaphor. London: Hurst, pp 173-187.

Alshaer, Atef (2016) 'In the Company of Frantz Fanon: The Israeli Wars and the National Culture of Gaza'. In: Souri, Helga Tawil and Matar, Dina, (eds.), Gaza as Metaphor. London: Hurst;, pp 141-157.

Matar, Dina (2014) 'A Critical Perspective on Aesthetics and Politics in the Digital Age.'. Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practice in the Middle East and North Africa. London:. London: I. B. Tauris.

Matar, Dina (2014) 'Hassan Nasrallah: the central actor in Hizbullah's Political Communication Strategies'. The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication. Oxford: Hurst & Co.; Oxford University Press, pp 153-180.

Matar, Dina (2012) 'Comparative Media Research in the Middle East'. In: Volkmer, Ingrid, (ed.), The Handbook of Global Media Research. London: Wiley Blackwell.

Matar, Dina (2012) 'Foreword'. In: Valassopoulos, Anastasia, (ed.), Arab Cultural Studies: History, Politics and the Popular. London: Routledge.

Matar, Dina (2011) 'Rethinking the Arab State and Culture'. In: Sabry, Tarik, (ed.), Towards an Arab Cultural Studies. London: I. B. Tauris.

Matar, Dina (2009) 'Performance, Language and Power: Nassrallah’s Mediated Charisma'. In: Bassiouney, Reem, (ed.), Arabic and the Media: Linguistic Analyses and Applications. Leiden: Brill, pp 141-159.

Matar, Dina (2007) 'News Stories and Disaporic Discourses of Identification: the Palestinians in Britain'. In: Asharzadeh, Alireza et al., (ed.), Diasporic ruptures: globality, migrancy and expressions of identity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, pp 155-170.

Matar, Dina (2007) 'Palestinians, News and the Diasporic Condition'. In: Sakr, Naomi, (ed.), Arab Media and Political Renewal: Community, Legitimacy and Public Life. London: I B Tauris, pp 118-135.

Matar, Dina (2007) 'What it Means to be Palestinian: News and the Diasporic Condition'. In: Sakr, Naomi, (ed.), Arab Media and Political Renewal. London: I B Tauris.