Laila comes to Berkeley with a BA in Comparative Literature and French and Francophone Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she graduated summa cum laude. For her translation of Etel Adnan’s short story, l’Oeil Noir, she received the Emerging Translator Award from the Los Angeles Review of Books (2022). Her research and writing have been supported by FLAS, the Critical Theory Program, the Psychosocial Foundation, Breadloaf, Yefe Nof, and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. She is a recipient of the UC Dissertation Fellowship (2025-2026). From 2026-2028, Laila will join the University of Amsterdam as a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Visual and Cultural Analysis, as part of a research team focused on Visual Art and Third World Solidarity in 20th Century Liberation Movements.
Laila previously served as an editor for Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Sciences, manager of the Berkeley Psychoanalytic Society, and coordinator and founder of the Psychoanalysis Working Group at the Townsend Center.
