Henar Perales

Areas of Interest

• Postcolonial studies
• Gift theory
• Whiteness critique
• Aesthetics
• Philosophy 

Biography

Henar is a PhD Candidate in Women and Gender Studies. Her research focuses on the study and critique of goodness, gift-giving and benevolence from a postcolonial perspective. She is primarily interested in the power and value of aesthetic experience in disturbing colonial ontologies. Henar holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies from the University of Westminster, and a Masters in Comparative Literature from the University College, London (UCL). She also completed a Masters in Spanish-English Translation and International Studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Aside from her academic endeavors, Henar writes fiction and creative non-fiction, and occasionally translates from Spanish.  

Program: PhD 2014

Education

MA, University of New South Wales, UNSW 

MA, University College, London (UCL) 

BA, University of Westminster 

Dissertation

Title: Beyond the Gift, disrupting debt: subjectivity, goodness, and aesthetic interruptions

Supervisor: Rinaldo Walcott

My thesis offers an exploration of theories of the gift and modes of giving, by placing postcolonial and diaspora studies in conversation with gift theory. I argue with gift theory to seek how different artistic mediums present us with counter-gifts, or actual gifts that counter the persisting colonial state. I propose that aesthetics offers a way for the gift to occur without the cyclical indebtedness embedded in the intentionality of the gift.