Her work focuses on the intersection of modernity, postcoloniality, and transnationalism in the Maghreb and the Mediterranean contact zone. Her first book, The Transcontinental Maghreb: Francophone Literature across the Mediterranean, will be published by Fordham University Press in spring 2017. Talbayev is Editor of the international peer-reviewed journal Expressions maghrébines. She also serves on the editorial boards of several other journals, including Yale French Studies (2009-2013), Culture and Dialogue, and American Journal of Mediterranean Studies.