She studies the literary and cultural formations of identity in the modern Arab Middle East (19thC – present), with a focus on Lebanon. Her research is situated at the intersection of literary and cultural studies, critical geography and urban studies, history, and gender studies. Her first book was Beirut, Imagining the City: Space and Place in Lebanese Literature, and her current research explores the transnational spaces of the Lebanese diaspora and the particular problem that emigration poses to the national imaginary and self-fashioning in Lebanon. Hayek is also a literary translator.