Contact Information
M/C 142
Urbana IL 61801
Biography
Lila Sharif is assistant professor of Asian AmericanStudies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She teaches courses on race, empire, militarization, settler colonialism, food and culture. Sharif earned a dual Ph.D. in Sociology and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego in 2014. She is currently completing a book manuscript that analyzes the intersections between the politics of consumption, indigenous survival, neoliberalism, gender and race. She traces the circulation of olive commodities from Palestine to the United States in order to ask: How is Palestine made palatable to Western consumers and what is masked/revealed in this process? She is the first Palestinian American to earn a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies to date.
Research Interests
- Indigenous and settler colonial studies
- Environmental justice
- Food and culture
- Global theories of race
- Critical refugee studies
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Asian American Studies
Assistant Professor, Women & Gender in Global Perspectives
Recent Publications
Sharif, L. (2021). Afterwards and Other Non-Endings: Palestine, Afghanistan, and the Afterlives of War. Amerasia Journal, 47(1), 164-171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00447471.2021.1994281
Sharif, L. A. (2016). Vanishing Palestine. Critical Ethnic Studies, 2(1), 17-39. https://doi.org/10.5749/jcritethnstud.2.1.0017
Sharif, L. A. (2015). Review: J. Cognard-Black and M. A. Goldthwaite's (eds.) Books That Cook: The Making of a Modern Literary Meal. American Studies, 54(2), 109-110. https://doi.org/10.1353/ams.2015.0068
Sharif, L. (2015). Savory Colonialism: Land, Memory, and the Eco-occupation of Palestine. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-2886703