Sabyn Javeri
Senior Lecturer of Writing and Literature & Creative Writing
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: MSt Oxford University, PhD Leicester University
Research Areas: Postcolonial Feminism, South Asian Literature, Creative Writing

Sabyn Javeri is a Senior Lecturer of Writing, Literature, and Creative Writing. . She holds a Masters of Studies from Oxford University and a doctorate from the University of Leicester. She is an essayist, translator, short story writer, and novelist: ‘Nobody Killed Her’, (Harper Collins, 2017) and ‘Hijabistan’ (Harper Collins, 2019). Her texts on creative writing have been widely published, and she has edited two multilingual anthologies titled, ‘Arzu Anthology of Student Voices, Vol I & II'. Her research explores feminist literature of the subcontinent and decolonizing pedagogies. ..).
Courses Taught
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What does it mean to be a "woman writer"? This course will explore and examine that phrase, which has for centuries been used as cause for marginalization and silencing. Students will explore what women's writing from around the world might reveal about the relationships between gender, authority, creativity, power, mobility, and tradition. Do we assume, for instance, the existence of an essential "female" way of writing, shared by women across time and geography? Drawing on both literary and critical materials, students will also consider the complexities and challenges of reading across literary tradition(s) and the ways in which writing from multiple historical and cultural situations represents intersections of gender, race, class, nation, and sexuality. Writers to be considered in this course may include Virginia Woolf, Sor Juana, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lady Murasaki, Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldua, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, among others.
Previously taught: Fall 2017, Fall 2019, Spring 2022, Spring 2024
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Spring 1 2025;
7 Weeks
Denise deCaires Narain - TR 14:10 - 16:50 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > Cultural Exploration and Analysis
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
- Majors > Literature and Creative Writing > Introductory Literature Electives
- Majors > Literature and Creative Writing > Literature Topics
- Minors > Gender Studies > Critical Theories of Gender Courses
- Minors > Literature
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Spring 1 2025;
7 Weeks
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''I'm a feminist but…'' How many times have we heard that? Or its twin: ''I'm not a feminist but...''? What is it about this label (the ''F word'') that seems to complicate one's personal identification with gender equality? Do such statements betray a fear of group identification? A fear of universalist thinking? This FYWS explores a range of texts and media in which postcolonial writers, artists, and intellectuals negotiate issues of gender, class, identity, and culture in understanding the impact of feminism in decolonization. Students will explore cultural developments and political narratives in a range of genres and learn to analyze techniques and contexts of feminist and postcolonial thought and expression. Two interrelated concerns motivate the writing assignments: 1) What is the relationship between women's voices and their agency in the postcolonial context? 2) How do these writers mobilize the category of gender to negotiate understandings of individual and community in these regions? Consideration of various cultural, racial, class, and national perspectives will initiate a deeper understanding of postcolonial feminism and its contribution to ongoing political developments.
Previously taught: Fall 2019
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > First Year Writing Seminars
- Core Curriculum > Islamic Studies
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How do women writers across the world negotiate social and political questions about their place in society? How do they interpret expectations of the maternal ideal, of the primary caregiver, of the silenced and the marginalized? And how are these identities complicated by the privilege of class, race, citizenship, heterosexuality, and various definitions of "femininity"? Looking at contemporary creative nonfiction, memoir, and confessional writing by women from different parts of the world, this FYWS explores how women writers contest structures of power and articulate identities through self-representation. Drawing upon various genres of life-writing, the course falls into three parts: Between Cultures; Maternal Matrix; and Private Lives, Publicly. Materials reflect on women’s experience of migration, of subverting traditional gendered norms, and of crossing boundaries of self-censorship and voicing experiences publicly, while also considering critically the ethics of representing “true” material from life history or observation, and the responsibility writers have towards others.
Prerequisite: Must be a first-year Abu Dhabi student.
Previously taught: Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - F 14:20 - 17:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - TR 15:35 - 16:50 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - TR 12:45 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - MW 09:55 - 11:10 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - F 14:20 - 17:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi -
Fall 2025;
14 Weeks
Sabyn Javeri Jillani - MW 12:45 - 14:00 Taught in Abu Dhabi
This course appears in...
- Core Curriculum > First Year Writing Seminars
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Spring 2025;
14 Weeks