Nahla Abdo

Nahla Abdo is an academic activist and Chancellor's Professor Emeritus who taught in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University. She has been living in Canada since the 1980s and is recognized for her scholarship on anti-colonial feminism, settler colonialism, and Indigenous resistance. Abdo's work spans Palestine, Turtle Island, and the broader Middle East, exploring the intersections of race, gender, class, and nationalism.

In 2025, Abdo was awarded the National Medal for Excellence in Feminist Scholarship in Canada. It is awarded annually by the Centre for Feminist Research and honours the outstanding contributions of York University faculty Ena Dua, Bonita Lawrence, and Meg Luxton.

Education and career Abdo earned her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Hebrew Literature from Haifa University in 1975, followed by a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the same university in 1979. She later pursued graduate studies in Canada, obtaining a Master of Arts in Sociology in 1982 and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1989, both from the University of Toronto. and as an assistant professor at Queen's University (1990–1991). She joined Carleton University in 1991 as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She was promoted to associate professor in 1995 and to full professor in 2003. In 2022, she was appointed Chancellor's Professor at Carleton University, the highest academic designation at the university. In 2025, Professor Abdo retired from her position at Carleton University.

In addition to her time at Carleton, Abdo has held adjunct professorships at the University of Ottawa since 2010 and at York University since 2016.

Since 2023, Abdo has served as a member of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights's Palestinian Content Advisory Network, which advises the museum on content related to its exhibition Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present. Her methods of qualitative research include a focus on oral history, which is history repeated by mouth, and narratives of different people, with a focus on women. Nahl Abdo also tends to draw from social media to highlight the experiences of marginalized people, especially women. and Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship. Her scholarship has been published in multiple languages and cited in studies on feminism, nationalism, and Middle Eastern politics. Her books and articles have also been academically reviewed.

Her publications include numerous articles and book chapters appearing in periodicals such as Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies, Studies in Political Economy, Critical Sociology, Relations, Postcolonial Directions in Education, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Women's Studies International Forum, Canadian Woman Studies, Race & Class, Journal of Palestine Studies, Feminist Studies, and Economic and Political Weekly. Abdo writes primarily in English, and her work has been translated into Arabic, French, German, and other languages. Her recent articles include "Racial Capitalism: From British Colonialism to the Settler Colonial Apartheid State ," "Israel's Settler Colonialism and the Genocide in Gaza ," and "The Palestine Exception, Racialization and Invisibilization: From Israel (Palestine) to North America (Turtle Island) ."

Abdo has co-edited several volumes that explore issues of colonialism, gender, and violence. She is co-editor, with Nur Masalha, of An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba, which compiles testimonies and historical analysis of the 1948 displacement of Palestinians. With Ronit Lentin, she co-edited Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation, which examines women's experiences and activism in zones of military conflict. Abdo also co-edited Violence in the Name of Honour with Shahrzad Mojab, a collection that investigates the socio-political contexts and impacts of so-called honour-based violence across different societies.

Abdo has served on the editorial boards and advisory committees of numerous academic journals. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Studies in Social Justice. She has also contributed as a member of the advisory or review boards for journals such as Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies, Postcolonial Directions in Education, Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, and Alternative Routes. In addition, Abdo has served as associate editor for the Journal of Comparative Family Studies and as an editorial board member for Canadian Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies International Forum.

Abdo has led and collaborated on numerous research projects supported by organizations such as the International Development Research Centre and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, including a SSHRC funded project with Dorit Naaman titled Media Images and Palestinian and Israeli Women Fighters. Under the IDRC, she established Gender Research Unit at Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Her consultancy work has focused on gendered impacts of conflict, women's legal rights, violence against women, and gender assessments in Middle Eastern countries.