Shayma Al Harthi

Shayma Al Harthi is a writer and researcher tracing the private lives of language: its capacity to encrypt, translate, and reassemble at the seams. Working bilingually across poetry, policy, and archival practice, she explores how meaning survives, and what it costs, when a word leaves one tongue and enters another. Her writing has moved through literary residencies (Bayt Al Mamzar's Multilingualisms, 2026), publication (Wasafiri's UAE Issue, 2025), and the classroom (Purdue University, 2023). Shayma’s practice draws equally on cultural diplomacy and policy research, with grounded experience at the UAE National Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale to Expo 2025 Osaka, and the Prime Minister's Office in Dubai to the Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. She is pursuing an AM in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, holding a BA in Social Research and Public Policy, with a minor in Creative Writing, from NYU Abu Dhabi. She is fluent in Arabic, English, and Turkish, and is currently strengthening her Korean.