Dr May Witwit is a literature studies expert specialising in Jane Austen, Chaucer and other aspects of English Literature.

Her research interests includes Victorian literature, Victorians' translation of ancient Arabian poetry, Victorian anti-suffrage and the policy of British Empire.

She is particularly interested in representation of Arab women in the British press 1850-1939.

After leaving Iraq, she completed her PhD on Anti-Feminist Attitudes in Selected Victorian Professional Women’, in 2012 at the University of Bedfordshire. May then spent 3 years on a Post-Doctorate Research Fellowship funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

She is the co- author, with Bee Rowlatt, of Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship (2010, Penguin) which recounts her escape from Iraq.

may_witwit@yahoo.com