Renate Mattar is a Ph.D. candidate in French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her doctoral dissertation investigates the concept of postmemory in Lebanon, where traumatic memories are not only inherited but re-experienced.
Prior to joining Columbia, she completed an MA in Comparative Literature from Paris III – Sorbonne University and has been a Visiting Student at NYU’s Arthur Carter’s Institute of Journalism.
Her interests encompass memory studies, gender studies, performance studies and the public humanities.
Aside from her academic research, she writes fiction and non-fiction. Her essays or journalistic work are published in venues such as New Lines Magazine, Arab Stages and others.
She also has experience in theater directing and is currently assistant directing a NYC-based theater company for an Off-Broadway show focusing on colonial dynamics in 1850 Algeria.
She will be a Visiting Doctoral Student at the Oxford Centre for Life Writing (OCLW) in 2026-2027.
