She received her B.A. and a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies at the University of York, UK, in 1988 and 1993, respectively. Her teaching and research focus on psychoanalytic, postcolonial, and feminist theory and literature. She has published on a variety of topics including feminism, Algerian film, new configurations of area studies in the post-Cold War era, torture and terrorism, and psychoanalysis. Her most recent works include Dark Continents: Psychoanalysis and Colonialism (Duke University Press, 2003) and Algeria Cuts: Women and Representation 1830 to the Present (Stanford University Press, 2006). Her current book in progress is “Asylum: The Concept and the Practice.”