Khalil's PhD research project is titled "Hydro-Literature: Transnational Narratives of Migration Across the Mediterranean" and it explores an emerging literary genre "Hydro-Literature" through an aestheticization of migrant sea crossings.

His research interests include Migrant Narratives, Refugee Literature, Maritime or Ocean Literature, Aesthetics, Border Studies, and De-colonial studies.

Author of: "Shadows of Modernity: Drowning Specters in Davide Enia's Notes on a Shipwreck: A Story of Refugees, Borders, and Hope, Josue Guebo's Think of Lampedusa, and Anders Lustgarten's Lampedusa" edited by Camilla Erichsen Skalle and Anje Muller Gjesdal, published at UniversitetsForlaget, Norwegian University Press: https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215042428-2021-08