Skip to main content

Affective Nostalgia and Nation Branding in Kuwait

In collaboration with Kuwait University (KU)

LSE PI: Dr Polly Withers
KU PI: Dr Dalal Alfares
Duration: 1 September 2026 - 31 October 2027

This project examines nostalgia, gender and cultural memory in contemporary Kuwait, focusing particularly on the growing visibility of memories of Kuwait’s post-independence “Golden Era” across popular culture and digital media. Using nostalgia as a lens and gender as a frame, the research explores how representations of the past contribute to contemporary understandings of national identity, social change and imagined futures.

Focusing on memories associated with the decades from the 1950s to the 1980s, the project considers how ideas surrounding social development, education, public institutions, media, women’s empowerment and social life are remembered and culturally mediated today. By examining these processes within Kuwait’s distinctive historical and cultural context, the research aims to deepen understanding of the relationship between memory, gender, digital culture and nationhood, while contributing to wider scholarship on nostalgia and cultural memory in the Gulf.

This project forms part of Kuwait Programme, funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS).

(C) Image: "Heartbreak Television" by Dalal Al-Obaidi

Principal Investigators:

  • Polly Withers

    Polly Withers | Principal Investigator

    Dr Polly Withers is a feminist theorist whose research examines the cultural politics of neoliberal globalisation. She has led several competitively funded research grants and fellowships focused on synergies between neoliberal and nationalistic femininities in the contemporary Levant, where she has worked for over a decade. Her work has appeared in leading journals such as Feminist Theory and Feminist Media Studies. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has held several academic teaching and leadership roles at LSE, including Fellow in Media and Communications.

  • Dalal Alfares

    Dalal Alfares | Co-Principle Investigator

    Dr Dalal Alfares is an Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at Kuwait University and holds a PhD in Gender Studies from UCLA. Her research focuses on gender, affect, cultural memory, and representation in Arab cultural production, with particular interests in Arab women’s writing, embodiment, and life writing.