Research
Ali's doctoral research focuses on the reading and writing the romance as feminist, including it within an oeuvre of ecriture feminine, and works in dialogue with the writing of a paranormal romance novel.
Her academic research interests include: intersectional feminisms; Helene Cixous; ecriture feminine; category romance; paranormal romance; series romance; fictional representations of introversion; binary oppositions; agency; gendered agency; the activity/passivity binary; the introverted romance heroine; adaptation and appropriation theory; Shakespeare and the romance novel; cultural expectations of romance; and perceptions of romance.
She is also a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) and the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA).
Conferences
2021
“Popular Romance Studies and Academic Responsibility” at the From Feminism to Orientalism: a Panel of Current Romance Research, Online, February 2021.
2019
Diversity in Romance Publishing Panel at the 100 Years of The Sheik: A Public Research Symposium, Birmingham, UK, September 2019.
The Sheikh Q&A Panel at the 100 Years of The Sheik: A Public Research Symposium, Birmingham, UK, September 2019.
2018
“The Dutch-Aneela Effect: Doppelgangers and Binary Opposition in SyFy’s Killjoys” at the Screening the Unreal Symposium, Brighton, UK, July 2018.
2017
“By Day and By Night: Finding Space for Creativity Part-Time” at Wildfire Women –Wildfire Women 2017, Brighton, UK, September 2017.
2016
“Busting the Mills & Boon Myth: Category Romance as an Instrument for Change” at The Postgraduate Contemporary Women’s Writing Network –Representations of Romantic Relationships and the Romance Genre in Contemporary Women’s Writing, Sheffield, UK, June 2016.
2014
“Relocating Weddings Online” at The Fifth International Conference on Popular Romance Studies – Rethinking Love, Rereading the Romance, Thessaloniki, Greece, June 2014
2011
“Romeo and Juliet and the Cybertextual: Artistic Crowdsourcing as Audience Appropriation” at Cambridge Shakespeare Conference – Shakespeare: Sources and Adaptation, Cambridge, UK, September 2011
Papers
Popular Romance Studies
Busting the Mills & Boon Myth: Category Romance as an Instrument for Change
Shakespeare and Popular Culture
Romeo and Juliet and the Cybertextual: Artistic Crowdsourcing as Audience Appropriation
The Dramatic Unities in Fantastical Appropriations of The Tempest
Self-Reflexivity and the Score in Trevor Nunn’s Twelfth Night and Kenneth Branagh’s Love’s Labour’s Lost