Hawa is a PhD student in English at SUNY Buffalo. She earned her B.A. in English, creative writing, and history at Canisius University. Hawa studies affective components of literature, focusing on the often ridiculed genre melodrama. She is especially interested in how the emotional aspects of melodrama complicate (im)migrant and proletarian voices in twentieth century Anglophone literature. In her research, she hopes to establish how melodrama corresponds to its existing socioeconomic and political climate, thereby tethering the once disaffected audience to the character on the page, allowing them to experience a sense of resonance with those characters. Her ultimate goal is to legitimize melodramatic voices that are so often trivialized off the page. Hawa also loves writing a good email, so you can write to her at hjsaleh@buffalo.edu with any questions.