Leila Abdelrazaq
Email:
labdelrazaq@ucsd.edu
Website:
https://lalaleila.com/
Pronouns:
she/her/هي
Biography:
Leila Abdelrazaq (b. 1992, Chicago) is a Palestinian artist, author, and cultural organizer. Her scholarly work explores Palestinian visual culture and futurity, especially the role of art in producing new collective political imaginaries, and the importance of DIY practices and low(er) tech solutions in subverting technologies of occupation, surveillance, and state violence. She is a Ph.D. student in Art History, Theory, and Criticism + Art Practice at UC San Diego.
Leila’s debut graphic novel Baddawi (PM Press, 2015) was shortlised for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards, and has been translated into three languages. Her research, creative writing, and comics have appeared in outlets including Mophradat, The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Funambulist, The Believer, Mizna, Kohl: A Journal For Gender and Body Research, and she contributed a chapter on Palestinian futurist art and post-national imaginaries to the book Palestine, Visions and Imprints: Approaches to Histories of the Future (Sharjah Art Foundation/The Palestinian Museum, 2025). Leila's posters, prints, and zines are housed in permanent collections including the Arab American National Museum, The Center for Book Arts, and the Special Collections at the Met Museum Watson Library. She has exhibited, spoken, and given workshops around the world. Her work has been supported with grants from the A.M. Qattan Foundation, the Knight Foundation, Art Matters Foundation, CultureSource, and The Palestinian Museum.
As a cultural organizer, Leila facilitates collective arts spaces and projects meant to disrupt dominant narratives and generate critical conversations. She co-founded Maamoul Press, an award-winning independent publishing initiative uplifting by-us-for-us visual storytelling from SWANA communities and beyond. She also co-founded the Book Arts Solidarity Network, which works to foster creative community around self-publishing as a tool for political action.
Leila holds an MA in Modern Middle Eastern & North African Studies from the University of Michigan (2020) where she was a two-time FLAS Fellow and a recipient of the Mahfoud Bennoune Memorial Award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis. She also holds a BFA in Theatre Arts + BA in Arabic Studies from DePaul University (2014).
