Natalie Khazaal
Associate Professor
- School of Modern Languages
- ADVANCE IAC
Overview
Dr. Natalie Khazaal is Associate Professor in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech, where she directs the Arabic and Middle East & North Africa programs. She is a Dabney Adams Hart Distinguished Visiting Professor at Agnes Scott College and an ACLS fellow for her work on Arab atheists. She received her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA. She is the co-creator of the MARS test (Media Analysis of Racism and Speciesism), an evaluative framework—similar to the Bechdel and DuVernay tests—that measures racism and speciesism in media; her recent work applies it to Oscar-nominated animated films to assess shifts in representation over a decade.
Khazaal studies how disenfranchisement, media, and language intersect, focusing on Lebanon, atheists in Arabic-speaking communities, refugees, and non-human animals. She is the author of Pretty Liar: Television, Language, and Gender in Wartime Lebanon (Syracuse UP, 2018) and co-editor of Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World (Routledge, 2024), ‘Like an Animal’: Critical Animal Studies Perspectives on Borders, Displacement, and Othering (Brill, 2020), and the special issue Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene (FiC, 2025). Her scholarship on media, atheism, and speciesism has received international recognition.
She has taught courses on Arab culture, media, and globalization at Georgia Tech and several other institutions, and has served in leadership roles with No Lost Generation–Texas, the Cannon River STEM School, and Ideas Beyond Borders. A public-facing scholar, she has appeared on Court TV and consulted on film projects including Munich (2005).
- Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Distinctions:
- 2019 Fellow of the ACLS/Luce Program in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs
- 2020 Faces of Exclusive Excellence Award recipient, Georgia Tech
- 2021 Silver Star Award, Ivan Allen College, Georgia Tech
- 2022 Faculty Excellence Award for research, Ivan Allen College, Georgia Tech
- 2022 Teaching Excellence Award, Georgia Tech
- 2023, 2024, 2025 Million Dollar Club, Ivan Allen College
- 2024 TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award, Georgia Tech
- 2025 Faculty Excellence in Research Award, School of Modern Languages
Interests
- Arabic
- Climate Change Mitigation
- Literary and Cultural Studies
- Media Studies
Focuses:
- Africa (North)
- Middle East
- Journalism
- Language and Popular Culture
- Media
- Middle-Eastern Studies
- Migration
Courses
- ARBC-1501: Understand Arab Culture
- ARBC-2001: Intermediate Arabic I
- ARBC-2002: Intermediate Arabic II
- ARBC-3005: Contemp Arab Culture: Business Arabic: Advertising
- ARBC-3501: Men-Women In Islam
- ARBC-3813: Special Topics: Arab history on film
- ARBC-4699: Undergraduate Research
- ARBC-8803: Special Topics
- ML-2500: Intro Cross-Cult Studies
- ML-2500: Intro Cross-Cult Studies: Arab history on film
Publications
Recent Publications
Books
- Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World
In: Routledge [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
Journal Articles
- Media Analysis of Racism and Speciesism (MARS) test finds Oscars so AnthropoScenic in contemporary animated films
In: Frontiers of Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2026
Journal - Editors
- Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene
In: Frontiers of Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2025
Chapters
- Impoliteness and Religionormativity: Arab Atheists on Talk Shows
In: Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
Internet Publications
- Bias hiding in plain sight: Decades of analyses suggest US media skews anti-Palestinian
In: The Conversation
Date: 2024
All Publications
Books
- Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World
In: Routledge [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
- "Like an Animal": Critical Animal Studies Approaches on Borders, Displacement, and Othering
In: Brill [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- Pretty Liar: Television, Language, and Gender in Wartime Lebanon
In: Syracuse UP [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2018
Journal Articles
- Media Analysis of Racism and Speciesism (MARS) test finds Oscars so AnthropoScenic in contemporary animated films
In: Frontiers of Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2026
- Political Bias Against Atheists: Talk Shows Targeting Arabic Speaking Audiences
In: “Religious Beliefs, Journalism, and International Affairs section [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2023
- The Cultural Politics of Religious Defiance in Islam: How Pseudonyms and Media Can Destigmatize
In: Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 14, no. 3 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2017
- Lobbying against Compassion
In: American Behavioral Scientist (ABS) 60, no. 3 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2016
- “An Angry Cow Is Not a Good Eating Experience”
In: Journalism Studies 15, no. 3 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2016
- Re-evaluating Mohamed Choukri's Autobiography Al-Khubz al-Ḥāfi: The Oppression of Morocco's Amazigh Population, the Ṣaʿālīk, and Backlash
In: Middle Eastern Literatures 16, no. 2 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2013
- Arab Studies and the Mi‘raj of Post-ACTFL Technologies
In: Al-Arabiyya Journal [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2012
Journal - Editors
- Media, Racism, Speciesism: Issues and Solutions for Creaturely Racism in the Anthropocene
In: Frontiers of Communication [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2025
- Religious beliefs, journalism, and international affairs
In: Religions 13, no.7 [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2022
Chapters
- Impoliteness and Religionormativity: Arab Atheists on Talk Shows
In: Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
- Nonreligion And Atheism In Islam: Directions for Future Research
In: Nonbelievers, Apostates, and Atheists in the Muslim World [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
- Redesigning a Foreign Language Course with the Help of AI: Benefits and Challenges
In: AI in Language Teaching, Learning, and Assessment [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
- The Poetics of Atheism: How Mohamed Choukri Resists Ideological Appropriation
In: Reading Mohamed Choukri’s Narratives: Hunger in Eden [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2024
- Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn’s Cowspiracy: Animal Agriculture and the ‘Sustainability Secret
In: A Global Humanities Approach to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2023
- Gender, Affect and Atheism on Arabic Media
In: Global Sceptical Publics From Non-religious Print Media to ‘Digital Atheism [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2022
- Introduction
In: “Like an Animal”: Critical Animal Studies Approaches to Borders, Displacement, and Othering [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- The Press Outside the West: Displacement, Refugees, and Nonhuman Animals in Bulgaria and Lebanon
In: “Like an Animal”: Critical Animal Studies Approaches to Borders, Displacement, and Othering [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2021
- Broadcasting in Lebanon
In: Mellor, N. Routledge Handbook of Arab Media [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2020
- Arab Views of the US Election: Culturally-Positive and Politically-Negative Depictions of US Democracy
In: Hinck, R., Cooley, S., & Kluver, R., Global Media and Strategic Narratives of Contested Democracy [Peer Reviewed]
Date: 2019
Internet Publications
- Bias hiding in plain sight: Decades of analyses suggest US media skews anti-Palestinian
In: The Conversation
Date: 2024
- Tahaddi al-Islam: Kayfa Harrarat al-Asma’ al-Musta‘ara al-Mulhidin al-‘Arab
In: Majallat al-Mulhidin al-‘Arab
Date: 2017
Other Publications
- He Is a Poet, Kill Him! In His Face the Civil Society is Persecuted
In: To Vima, Greece
Date: 2016
Updated: Feb 16th, 2026 at 4:15 PM