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.
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.
2026 and 2025 Peer-Reviewed Publications, and Forthcoming -In Press.
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026). “The Bridge of Return: Palestinian Hunger Strikes as Embodied Anti-Colonial Resistance”. South Atlantic, Special Issue: Hunger Strikes in Comparative Perspective.
The Bridge of Return: Palestinian Hunger Strikes as Embodied Anti-Colonial Resistance | South Atlantic Quarterly | Duke University Press
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026). “Emotions as Feminist Resistance: Collective Healing and the Power of Vulnerability: Reflections from the Emma Goldman Award in Vienna”. Feminist Review. SAGE Publishing.
Feminist resistance through emotion: Humanist approaches to vulnerability and healing - Ashjan Ajour, 2026
- Ajour, Ashjan (2026) “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.
Feminist Foreign Policy – Energy and Resistance | Bristol University Press
- 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
- 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.
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.
Books
- Ajour, A. (2021). Reclaiming Humanity: The Formation of Political Subjectivity in the Experience of Palestinian Hunger Strikers in Israeli Prisons. Palgrave Macmillan. Winner of the 2022 Palestine Academic Book Award. 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
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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., et al. (2022). “Empirically Measuring the Efficacy and Impact of Making Curriculum-content Racially Inclusive in the Educative Experiences of Students of Colour in the UK.” 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. Supported by the 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
- 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
Before joining academia, Ashjan 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 Ashjan's teaching, allowing her to ground political theory in real-world contexts through case studies and examples from international development practice.
