Bayoumy, H. M., Viewing Disabled Children Through the Lens of Critical Disability Studies in Christabel and the Amazing Pedal Power Challenge, The Challenge, and Ian, , 2025. AbstractWebsite

Disabled children often feel excluded and marginalized. Despite all the inclusive efforts of parents, teachers, and activists, disabilities are sometimes insurmountable hurdles that prevent children from having a normal life and from interacting with their peers. Hence, a corpus of literary works dealing with the disabled or disabilities has increased in the last two decades seeking to expose stereotyping of disability so as to offer an all-inclusive call that alerts all members of the society, especially young children, to the importance of accepting differences, thus people with disabilities. In this paper, three works for children featuring children with mobility disabilities are selected: the American play Christabel and the Amazing Pedal Power Challenge (2011), the Egyptian short story The Challenge (2015), and the Argentinian animated film Ian (2018). The three different works from different genres and cultures delve into the world of the physically disabled children around the world who often see themselves as estranged from society, exposing their emotional dilemma, pain, and struggle. These works reflect the core tenets of critical disability studies as they revisit disability, critique the social causes of disability, and offer a model for inclusion. By drawing upon critical disability studies, the paper will examine the three works focusing on the portrayal of disabled children as struggling against negative social attitudes of exclusion and stereotyping in order to finally achieve inclusion and attain a just position in their communities and societies.

Bayoumy, H. M., Seeing disasters through the eyes of children: a critical reading of One Snowy Night and The Storm in the Barn through the lens of critical disaster studies, , vol. 11, issue 1, pp. 726, 2024. AbstractWebsite

Disasters are life-changing events that children find frightening and unfathomable. Seen through the eyes of children, disasters are always enigmatic, thus stirring questions, such as what are they? What causes them? And how can they be confronted? Environmental works for children often feature disasters to help children understand the threats that their world is subjected to. Disasters are thus used as symbols through which writers can deliver moral and ecological lessons to the young audience/reader. In this comparative study, the representation of disasters will be examined in two environmental plays for children in which natural and environmental disasters impact the lives of the young protagonists: One Snowy Night (2007) and The Storm in the Barn (2012). The plays have been selected because, firstly, they have not been critically dealt with, to the best of my knowledge, and, secondly, they shed light on the immense impact of disasters on children. Through the element of fantasy, the disasters are personified to help children understand the symbiotic relation between humans and nature. By giving voice to the personified representations of disasters, children understand the environmental role humans can play: either mitigating or increasing the effects of disasters. Both works thus highlight how disasters are viewed in the eyes of children and how they impact their outlook of life and the environment (whether their hometowns or the natural world). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the portrayal of natural and environmental disasters through the lens of critical disaster studies shedding light on its key concepts and terms that are reflected in the plays.

Bayoumy, H. M., Crossing the Threshold by/around Water: A Critical Reading of the Liminal Experiences of Adolescents and Young Adults in Feeding the Moonfish and Our Place, , vol. 56, issue 1, pp. 165 - 181, 2025. AbstractWebsite

This study seeks to examine water as a liminal symbol that reflects and symbolizes the liminal identities of adolescents and young adults in two selected plays for young adults: Feeding the Moonfish (2011) by Barbara Wiechmann and Our Place (2015) by Terry Gabbard. Feeding the Moonfish deals with the young adults Martin and Eden who suffer from traumatic experiences. They go to the dock by the lake to rediscover themselves, and, eventually, heal by the water. In a similar setting, Our Place comprises five stories that revolve around adolescents and young adults’ feelings of loss, fragmentation, frustration, love, and death. In both plays, the characters go through the three stages of liminality defined by Arnold van Gennep: the pre-liminal, the liminal, and the post-liminal and, finally, emerge as reborn/healed. Water is a complex liminal symbol that reflects the experiences of adolescence and young adults, and combines contradictory meanings which are essential, expressive, and, most importantly, complementary for the development of the characters and for their eventual recovery. Using the concept of liminality and adolescent psychology to read scenes in which liminal experiences (confusion, indecisiveness, and disorientation) are present, this study argues that the depiction of liminal experiences near water in these plays for young adults offers complex symbols for the study of young adulthood and for encountering and responding to traumas experienced in adolescence.

Bayoumy, H., A Study of the Role of Creatures in Plays and Films for Children, , Saarbrucken, Noor Publishing, 2017.
Bayoumy, H. M., Monsters revisited: a comparative study of the use of humor in dramatizing benevolent monsters in The Monsters under the Bed and The Boy Who Loved Monsters and the Girl Who Loved Peas, , vol. 10, issue 1, pp. 839, 2023. AbstractWebsite

Works for children are filled with a myriad of creatures that are often used by writers to convey certain messages to the young readers/audiences. From tamed to wild, real and imaginary beings, such creatures emerge either as benevolent or evil forces. This study seeks to highlight the role of humorous, benevolent monsters in works for children showing how their presence is laden with meanings. For this purpose, two plays for children are selected: The Monsters under the Bed (2007) by Fr. Dominic Garramone and Osb and the St.Bede Theater Troupe, and The Boy Who Loved Monsters and the Girl Who Loved Peas (2013) by Jonathan Graham. Drawing upon humor studies, monster studies, and child psychology, the paper attempts to analyze the use of humor in portraying friendly monsters in the selected works reflecting how it is through them that the children protagonists revisit their views of monsters and understand that they are a reflection of themselves (their needs/fears). The analysis of these benevolent monsters and their effect on the protagonists will be carried out in relation to the different theatrical elements and the verbal and visual signs which clarify and affirm the benevolence of such creatures and the humorous touch added to their roles.

Bayoume, H. M., A. A. Mazhar, and H. H. E. - Abbadi, "The Dragon Stole the Sun: An Ecocritical Reading of the Role of the Dragon in Sandy Asher's Thunder Mountain", Hermes, vol. 4, issue 2, 2015.
Bayoumy, H. M., Trapped in the past: trauma in The Sins of the Mother and Outside Time, , vol. 10, issue 1, pp. 88, 2023. AbstractWebsite

This study examines the dramatization of trauma and post traumatic effects in two selected plays: The Sins of the Mother (2008) and Out of Time (2009). The Sins of the Mother is an American play written by Tony Devaney Morinelli that revolves around the plight of an Irish American family struggling because of the repeated pattern of the violent alcoholic mother who suppresses her daughters. In this respect, the play shows the effect of domestic violence. More importantly, the play emphasizes the cyclic nature of traumatic experiences: the daughters eventually inherit the mothers’ sins and repeat their oppressive behavior, as clear in Marie, the mother, and her daughters Ellen and Rose. Out of Time is an Iraqi play that deals with the inability of an Iraqi woman to escape her traumatic memories. Based on The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas LIosa and adapted by The Actor Studio, the play is focused on Zahra, the protagonist, who recounts her painful memories that underscore the misery of Iraqis during Saddam Hussein’s regime and even after its fall. Both plays show the effect of the traumatic past on the characters who are unable to forget, escape, or even cope with painful memories. The aim of this paper is thus to explore these traumatic experiences in the two plays and their dramatization on stage in flashbacks and in scenes in which there is simultaneous existence of the past and present through the lens of Literary Trauma Studies.

Bayoumy, H. M., ""Crossing the Borders to Be/Meet Superman: Exploring the Symbolism of Superman in The Boy Who Could Fly and Bekas"", The International Journal of Literary Humanities, vol. 17, issue 2, pp. 81-94, 2019.