Dr Ashjan Ajour
Dr Ashjan Ajour is an award-winning interdisciplinary scholar whose research explores decolonial sociology, feminist theories, incarceration, embodied protests, political subjectivity and forced displacement. She is the author of Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes: Political Subjectivity and Decolonizing the Body (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) which received the Palestine Book Award in 2022. Since 2023 she has served as a judge for the Palestine Book Award, contributing to the recognition of leading international scholarship on Palestinian studies.
Her research has also been recognised through the Emma Goldman Award for Research Excellence (2025) presented by the FLAX Foundation, supporting innovative research on feminist and inequality issues. In 2024 she received a research grant from the Council for British Research in the Levant to investigate the gendered experiences of forced displacement. She develops decolonial feminist ethnography as both a methodological and theoretical framework to examine resistance, agency, and lived experience in contexts shaped by settler colonialism and structural inequality.
Alongside her research Dr Ajour leads research projects to transform curricula and advance decolonising pedagogy at Birmingham City University embedding student voices, participatory methods, and global justice perspectives. Her work informs national and international debates on inclusive and decolonial higher education and demonstrates sustained leadership in research, teaching, and curriculum innovation with impact beyond the institution.
Areas of Expertise
- Gender studies and feminist theories and movements
- Race and racism
- Global sociology
- Embodied protest and social movement
- Incarceration
- Political subjectivity
- Forced displacement
- Settler colonialism and resistance
- Decolonization and indigenous global politics
- Decolonising curriculum
Qualifications
- PhD in Sociology (Goldsmiths College – University of London, 2019).
- MA in Gender studies (Birzeit University, 2013)
- BA in English language and Literature (Birzeit University, 1998)
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCertHE, University of Wolverhampton 2023)
Memberships
- The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
- The British International Studies Association (BISA)
- The American Anthropological Association (AAA)
- The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES)
Teaching
Courses
- BA Sociology
- BA Sociology & Criminology
Modules
- Race, Racism and Inequality
- Postcoloniality
- Becoming a Researcher
Research
Dr Ashjan Ajour’s research focuses on decolonial global sociology, feminist theory, forced displacement, embodied protest and political subjectivity, examining how struggles for justice emerge through embodied resistance, incarceration, and displacement. She investigates gendered experiences of forced displacement, particularly refugee women, integrating feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspectives. Her work develops decolonial feminist ethnography as both a methodological and theoretical framework that centres lived experiences, participatory approaches, and intersectional analysis.
She also leads initiatives in curriculum transformation and decolonising pedagogy, co-creating evidence-based sociology curricula that embed student voices, Global South perspectives, and inclusive learning practices. Her research is interdisciplinary, bridging sociology, anthropology, politics, and gender studies, and is strongly focused on translating scholarship into impact, including curriculum innovation, national and international dissemination, and sector-wide debates on decolonial and inclusive pedagogy.
Postgraduate Supervision
Dr Ashjan Ajour welcome PhD proposals related to the research areas mentioned on her profile page. She serves an external examiner for PhDs at UK and international universities.
Publications
2025 Peer-Reviewed Publications, and 2026 Forthcoming -In Press.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026, forthcoming). “The Bridge of Return: Palestinian Hunger Strikes as Embodied Anti-Colonial Resistance”. South Atlantic, Special Issue: Hunger Strikes in Comparative Perspective.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026, forthcoming). “Emotions as Feminist Resistance: Collective Healing and the Power of Vulnerability: Reflections from the Emma Goldman Award in Vienna”. Feminist Review. SAGE Publishing.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026, forthcoming). “Feminist Foreign Policy and Feminist Solidarity: An Intersectional Critique of Support for Women in the Gaza Genocide.” In Feminist Foreign Policy: Energy & Resistance, edited by Columba Achilleos-Sarll, Toni Haastrup, and Jennifer Thomson. Bristol University Press.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026, forthcoming). “Spatial Displacement and the Loss of Home in the Genocide of Gaza” In Spaces and Infrastructures of Terror and Resistance in Palestine. In Palgrave Macmillan.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026, forthcoming). “Erasing Place, Resisting Memory in the Ongoing Nakba in Gaza Genocide” – in Critical Indigenous Memory Studies, part of Bloomsbury Academic’s Critical Memory Studies series.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2025). “Grief as Feminist Praxis: Love, Loss, and Memory in Resistance.” Feminist Theories. SAGE Publishing. Grief as feminist praxis: Love, loss and memory in resistance - Ashjan Ajour, 2025
- Ajour, Ashjan (2025). “Storytelling from the Heart: A Feminist Decolonizing Humanism”. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Duke University Press. Special issue: Indigenous Feminisms Across the World. Storytelling from the Heart | The Weekly Read | Duke University Press News.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2025). “Unveiling the Colonial Violence of Space in the Gaza Genocide”. European Journal of Cultural Studies. SAGE Publishing. Unveiling the colonial violence of space in the Gaza genocide - Ashjan Ajour, 2025.
- Ababneh, S., Ajour, A., Aldossari, M., Jabiri, A., Nusa, I., Pratt, N., & Shoman, H. (2025). “Why Palestine is a Feminist Issue: A Reckoning with Western Feminism in a Time of Genocide.” International Feminist Journal of Politics. Taylor & Francis Group. Why Palestine is a feminist issue: a reckoning with Western feminism in a time of genocide.
- Shoman, H., Ajour, A., Ababneh, S., Jabiri, A., Pratt, N., Repo, J., & Aldossari, M. (2025). Feminist silences in the face of Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people: A call for decolonial praxis against complicity. Gender, Work & Organization, 32(3), 1–17. Feminist Silences in the Face of Israel's Genocide Against the Palestinian People: A Call for Decolonial Praxis Against Complicity - Shoman - 2025 - Gender, Work & Organization - Wiley Online Library
Books
Since 2021 she has published a range of scholarly outputs, including books, journal articles, and collaborative policy reports reflecting both theoretical and applied research on decolonial methodologies, feminist ethnographic approaches, and ethnographies of embodied protest and political subjectivity in colonized contexts.
- Ajour, A. 2021 Reclaiming Humanity: The Formation of Political Subjectivity in the Experience of Palestinian Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons. Palgrave Macmillan. Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes | SpringerLink
- Ajour, A. (2014). The Representations of Power and Knowledge in the Discourse of Liberal Women’s Organizations in the Post Oslo period. Muwatin (The Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy), Ramallah, Palestine.
Articles, chapters and policy reports
- Ajour, A. 2021 ‘The Spiritualisation of Politics and Instrumentalisation of Body in Resistance: Conceptualising Hunger Striking Subjectivity’. Cultural Politics 17 (2). Duke University Press. https://read.dukeupress.edu/cultural-politics/article-abstract/17/2/193/174058/The-Spiritualization-of-Politics-and-the
- Ajour, A. and et al, 2022 ‘Empirically Measuring the Efficacy and Impact of Making Curriculum-content Racially Inclusive in the Educative Experiences of Students of Colour on the UK. The University of Leicester Institute for Inclusivity in Higher Education (ULIIHE). Evaluating the Racially Inclusive Curricula Toolkit in HE v2 (2).pdf
- Ajour, A. 2021 ‘Techniques of Resistance through Weaponization of the Body During Palestinian Hunger Strikes’. Journal of Resistance Studies 7 (1). Irene Publishing. With the support of University of Massachusetts Amherst. Techniques of Resistance through Weaponization of the Body During Palestinian Hunger Strikes – Journal of Resistance Studies (resistance-journal.org)
- Ajour, Ashjan (2023). “Captivity, Resistance and Political Consciousness in Walid Daqqa’s Prison Literature.” Comparative Literature and Culture. Purdue University Press. Special Issue: Comparative Approaches to the Prison Literatures of the Middle East, North Africa, and their Diasporas. "Captivity, Resistance and Political Consciousness in Walid Daqqa’s Pri" by Ashjan Ajour.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2024). “Resistance, Captivity, and Colonial Repression: The Struggles of Palestinian Political Prisoners During the Gaza Genocide.” Fieldsights, Cultural Anthropology. Resistance, Captivity, and Colonial Repression: The Struggles of Palestinian Political Prisoners During the Gaza Genocide | Society for Cultural Anthropology.Resistance, Captivity, and Colonial Repression: The Struggles of Palestinian Political Prisoners During the Gaza Genocide | Society for Cultural Anthropology.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2022). “Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes: Revolutionary Subjectivity and Decolonizing the Body.” Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44452.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2023). “In Honor of Khader Adnan: The Hungry Revolutionary.” Journal of Palestine Studies 52(3): 65–69. Full article: In Honor of Khader Adnan: The Hungry Revolutionary.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2017). The Transgressive practices of Revolutionary Subjectivity: The Hunger Strike in Occupied Palestine. Tropos 4(1). The Transgressive practices of Revolutionary Subjectivity: The Hunger Strike in Occupied Palestine (2012-2016) | Tropos.
Media Work
Media / Public Articles
- “New accolade for gender inequalities researcher” Birmingham City University News (2025) University news feature highlighting Dr Ashjan Ajour receiving the Emma Goldman Award from the FLAX Foundation for innovative research on feminist and inequality issues. https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/new-accolade-for-gender-inequalities-researcher
- Contributed an interviewstyle feature titled “Ashjan Ajour, Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes: Revolutionary Subjectivity and Decolonizing the Body” to Jadaliyya, where she discussed the themes, and scholarly context of my book as well as its implications for understanding resistance, embodied subjectivity, and decolonising politics. Jadaliyya - Ashjan Ajour, Reclaiming Humanity in Palestinian Hunger Strikes: Revolutionary Subjectivity and Decolonizing the Body (New Texts Out Now) .
- Ajour, Ashjan (2023). “An Account from the Genocide in Gaza: What My Family is Going Through is Impossible.” Journal of Palestine Studies. https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654743
- Ajour, Ashjan (2021). “A View from Gaza: My Family Under the Trauma of War in Gaza.” Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/43249
- Ajour, Ashjan. “From Arrests to Invasions, Israel Targets West Bank Universities.” Truthout, 2025.
- Ajour, Ashjan. “My Father in Gaza Was Yearning for Our Reunion. When That Hope Died, So Did He.” Truthout, 2025.
- Ajour, Ashjan. “Held in Isolation, Palestinian Leader Khalida Jarrar Faces Torturous Conditions.” Truthout, 2024.
- Ajour, Ashjan. “As a Palestinian With Family in Gaza, I Don’t Want Sympathy. I Want Solidarity.” Truthout, 2024.
- Ajour, Ashjan. “My Uncle in Gaza Had a Lung Condition. Israel Turned It into a Death Sentence.” Truthout, 2024
Work With Industry
Before joining academia, I gained over 10 years’ experience working with international development agencies in Middle East, managing programs for organisations such as the German Development Organisation (GIZ), the Swedish Organisation for Individual Relief (SOIR), and other local and international organisations in Palestine. This hands-on experience in complex political and conflict-affected environments informs my teaching, allowing me to ground political theory in real-world contexts through case studies and examples from international development practice.