Abderrezzaq Ghafsi

Abderrezzaq is a doctoral researcher interested in the reception and influence of Charles Dickens on Algerian literature and culture.

Background

Abderrezzaq Ghafsi is a postgraduate research student based in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. He is a member of the 19^th Century Studies Group and Dickens Fellowship at Cambridge University. He has an MA in English literature from Biskra University with specialisation in Anglo-African literature and culture. Recently, he has been awarded as he majored in his discipline. His research practice spans the publication history of Dickens, Dickens’s Reception, Influence of Dickens, Dickens in the Algerian Syllabus of English, the Cinematic and Theatrical expressions of Dickens in the Arab world and Algeria.

Spoken Languages

• English
• Arabic
• French

Research interests

Abderrezzaq’s research explores selected interests which relate to Dickens in Algeria and the Arab world. To date these include:

• The Publication and Cinematic History of Dickens in Algeria
• Algerian Culture and History in Dickens’s Journalism
• Dickens and the Kingdom of God (Islam)
• The Canonisation of Dickens in Algeria
• The Reception and Influence of Dickens on Algeria and the Arab World

Through this research project, Abderrezzaq aims at finding Dickens’s history in colonial Algeria, exploring the colonial nature and its impacts on Dickens’s literature. He will be also interested in Dickens’s canonisation in Algerian academe and will try to gauge this in explaining the social aspects in Dickens along with the cultural and Islamic appeal on Algerian and Arab readers. He will end up by finding the various stories of Dickens’s influence on Algerian writers.

Qualifications

• BA in English Language, literature and Civilization, M’sila University
• MA in Anglo-African literature and culture, Biskra University
• EFL Teaching Training Certificate , Algerian Ministry of Education
• Pre-PhD programme, Canterbury Christ Church University
• Currently doing a PhD , Anglia Ruskin University

Memberships, editorial boards

• 19^th Century Studies Group at Anglia Ruskin University (Member)
• Dickens Fellowship at Cambridge University (Member)
• Dickens Society in the US (Member)

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Scholarship grant from the Algerian government to do a PhD in 2014

Selected recent publications

Review: 'Dickens Day 2016: Dickens’s Days: Heritage, Celebrations and Anniversaries', posted in Anglia Ruskin 19th Century Studies Group blog.

Recent presentations and conferences

'Charles Dickens in Algeria: from Cultural Encounter to an Identity Construction' (Anglia Ruskin Research Students Conference June 2016).

'Dickens’s Algerian References in his Journals' (21^st Postgraduate Students Symposium June 2016).

'Dickens Connectedness and Canonisation in Algeria' (Dickens Day Birkbeck University of London October 2016).

'Innovation in Data Collection: A Transition from Classical Data Gathering into Language Richness, Relations and Social Research' (Cambridge ESRC DTC Student Conference: New Forms of Data: innovation in the social sciences at Cambridge University December 2016).