Loaay Wattad

I am a sociologist of literature and a postdoctoral fellow in Berlin, working on Palestinian and Israeli children’s literature. My research explores how stories travel across cultures and how they reflect—and reshape—questions of power, memory, and identity. I also write and edit children’s books, and lead workshops that connect storytelling with social and political imagination.

Exploring how stories, especially children’s literature, carry memory, trauma, and hope, and how they can open spaces for new political and emotional possibilities.

Children’s stories are never just for children. They are among the most powerful ways societies teach fear, shape belonging, and imagine the limits of freedom. If we learn to read them seriously, we begin to understand how power works, quietly, and early.

Turning simple stories into complex conversations and helping others find their own voice through them.