Born and raised in Iran, Leila is a PhD student in Global Studies. She has received her MFA in Creative Writing at Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA. Her dissertation project is comparative diasporic studies between Iran, Egypt, and Turkey, tracing nationalism, de-secularization, and the flight of the elite in the three countries. Her broader interests are Global Culture, Global Diasporas, Immigration, Diasporic Literature, Iran and the Middle East.