Lara El Mekaui
Lara El Mekaui is a Research Fellow with the FUTUREMIG 鈥� Futures of Migration and Mobility project. A Lebanese immigrant and Ukrainian refugee in Canada, her lived experience of displacement shapes her research on migration, identity, and belonging. Her doctoral work at the University of Waterloo introduced the concept of 鈥渉esitant belonging鈥� to examine belonging, generational trauma, and forced migration. She specializes in qualitative and arts-based method and critical digital pedagogy, having designed and taught courses on digital lives.
Publications
El Mekaui, L. (2026). Future studies and the study of migration: Analytical frameworks and methodological possibilities (Working Paper No. 2026鈥�05). Global Migration Institute, 成人大片. (PDF file) /content/dam/global-migration-institute/publications/working-papers/WP-2026-05-El-Mekaui.pdf
El Mekaui, L.(2025). 鈥淐aribana and Carnival: Belonging as Resistance and Remembrance.鈥� Journal of Black Studies. .
El Mekaui, L. (2024). Hesitant belonging: Understanding generational traumas of forced migration in Black and Palestinian diaspora contemporary transnational fiction. UWSpace.
El Mekaui, L. (2024). "Lands of solidarity: Understanding contemporary North American and Palestinian Indigenous realities through interactive documentary". In F. Mussi (Ed.), Stories from the Margins (pp. 260-275). Palgrave Macmillan.
El Mekaui, L., Mothersill, S., & Ricketts, J. (2024). "Explorations of Camille Turner鈥檚 Unmapped". Canadian Theater Review, 198, pp.55-58.
El Mekkawi, L. (2020). "The hesitant local: The global citizens of Open City and Americanah". In J. Hodapp (Ed.), Afropolitan literature as World Literature (pp. 199-213). Bloomsbury Publishing.