Sophia Mo

Sophia Mo is a scholar of comparative literature, gender studies, (post-)colonialism, and translation theory. Twentieth-century periodical print culture in North Africa is the current focus of her writing. Her work is shaped by her lifelong interest in language learning as well as her experiences living and working in France, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and the U.S. Her research has been funded by grants from various institutions such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the U.S. Department of Education, and the American Institute for Maghrib Studies.

Rescripting Liberation from the Margins, Professor Mo's current book project, traces the growing intersection between the fight for women’s emancipation and the global anticolonial struggle during the 1950s and 60s. In her analysis of transnational Arabic and French-language periodicals based in Algeria, Mo documents women's role in constructing the postcolonial nation and the broader 'Third World.' She focuses in particular on how female writers and performers inscribed themselves and other women into historical narratives, both with and against the grain of patriarchal nationalist discourse.