Discussants

Ismail Nashif

Ismail Nashif

Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Sociology and Anthropology program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Ismail Nashif is associate professor of anthropology at the Sociology and Anthropology program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is also an art critic and curator and has published several collections of short stories. He has initiated different cultural projects and institutions that cater for art and literature in the Palestinian context, in order to build institutional infrastructures for advancing knowledge production, art, and literature.​


Eid Mohamed

Eid Mohamed

Assistant Professor of American Studies and Comparative Literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of American Studies and Comparative Literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Dr. Mohamed’s commitments to interdisciplinary and transnational approaches are reflected in his teaching record at a number of Canadian, U.S., and Arab institutions including: the University of Guelph, the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, State University of New York in Binghamton, Qatar University and now at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.


Elizabeth Kassab

Elizabeth Kassab

Associate Professor of Philosophy at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor of Philosophy at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Dr. Kassab studied philosophy at the American University of Beirut and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). She taught in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut and Balamand University, and has been a Visiting Professor at a number of universities in Europe and the US, including Bonn, Columbia, Yale, and Brown. She has been a Fulbright fellow at the New School University in NYC, a Research Fellow at the German Orient Institute in Beirut, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Universities of Bielefeld and Erfurt.


Rachid Boutayeb

Rachid Boutayeb

Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has worked as a lecturer at the universities of Frankfurt, Marburg, Bochum, Erlangen and Mainz in Germany, and as a visiting professor at the University of Padova in Italy, University of Granada in Spain, and the King Fahd Institute of Translation in Tangiers. He also has worked in the field of cultural journalism in Germany, for magazines such as: Lettre International, Fikrun wa Fann published by the Goethe-Institut; for Radio and Television: Deutsche Welle; and for Arabic newspapers: al-Arabi al-Jadid, al-Hayat, al-Quds al-Arabi.


Omar Ashour

Omar Ashour

Associate Professor of Security and Strategic Studies in the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor of Security and Strategic Studies in the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Director of the Critical Security Studies Graduate Program and the Director of the Strategic Studies Unit at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies. His research focuses on asymmetric warfare, insurgencies, state and non-state combat effectiveness, and democratization. He has served as a senior consultant for the United Nations on security sector reform, counterterrorism, and de-radicalization issues.


John R. Emery

John R. Emery

Lecturer of National Security at Chapman University, USA, and Theories of International Relations at Pepperdine University, USA

Lecturer of National Security at Chapman University, USA, and Theories of International Relations at Pepperdine University, USA. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Irvine. He is the recipient of the 2019-2020 Tobis Fellowship at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality at the University of California, Irvine. His area of study is at the intersection of international relations, critical security studies, ethics of war and peace, intellectual history, and technology, law & society.


Ayhab Saad

Ayhab Saad

Assistant Professor of Economics in the Development Economics program of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Economics in the Development Economics program of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He obtained his PhD in Political Science and Economics from the University of Michigan in 2014. Saad worked as an Assistant Professor of Economics in Bir Zeit University (2014-2015), as a researcher in the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), and as a lecturer in Bir Zeit University (2004-2007). His recent research projects focus on liberalization of trade and local institutions, the effects of economic openness on innovation and corporate productivity, the impact of intra-company trade, and multinational production.


Ali Mistarihi

Ali Mistarihi

Assistant Professor in Public Administration program, within the School of Public Administration and Development Economics

Assistant Professor in Public Administration program, within the School of Public Administration and Development Economics. He received his PhD in Management from Griffith University, Australia in 2011. He worked as Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Administration in Yarmouk University, Jordan (from 2011 to 2015). He also headed the department of Public Administration and Postgraduate Studies program (from 2012 to 2014). Prior to his joining Yarmouk University, he was a teaching assistant within the Department of Management Studies at Griffith University in Australia in 2010.


Mohammed Hemchi

Mohammed Hemchi

Researcher in the Political Studies Unit at the Arab Center

Researcher in the Political Studies Unit at the Arab Center. After obtaining his PhD in International Relations from Batna University in Algeria, he served as a research professor in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria. He has published many peer-reviewed journal articles in Arabic and English, as well as translations from English into Arabic. His research interests include Euro-Maghrebi relations and Arab relations with emerging powers.


Ayat Hamdan

Ayat Hamdan

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, and Editorial Director of the journal Ostour for Historical Studies. She obtained her PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University, working therein as a teaching assistant while additionally obtaining a visiting researcher grant from Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Center. She holds a Master's in Arab-Islamic History from Birzeit University.


Abdelhamid Henia

Abdelhamid Henia

Professor and Head of the History Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Professor and Head of the History Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. ​He taught in the History Department at the University of Tunis (1977), is an Emeritus professor (2012) and was the Director of the "Diraset Magharibiya" Research Laboratory (1999-2012) and is Chairman of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Tunisian Academic Society of Sciences, Letters and Arts "Beit al- Hikma"– Carthage (2013). He was a Visiting Professor at several Arabic and European Universities, including: the Higher School of Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris (1989, 2010) and Marseille (1998).


Dana El Kurd

Dana El Kurd

Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Researcher at the Arab Center

Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Researcher at the Arab Center. She obtained a doctorate in political science from the University of Texas in Austin, USA. Her research interests focus on comparative politics and international relations, specifically Palestine, and the relationship of authoritarianism in the Arab world to US intervention. Dr. El Kurd serves as a policy fellow for Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. Her book was recently published with Oxford University Press, on the topic of mobilization in the Palestinian territories.


Tariq Dana

Tariq Dana

Assistant Professor at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute of Graduate Studies. He served as the director of the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University (2015-2017), and was a senior research fellow at Ibrahim Abu-Logoud Institute of International Studies. Dr. Dana is also a Policy Advisor for the Palestinian Policy Network (Al-Shabaka) and a member of the Political Economy Project (based in George Mason University). He was a visiting research fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva (2013-2014).


Rabia Naguib

Rabia Naguib

Associate Professor in the Program of Public Policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor in the Program of Public Policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She holds a PhD in Strategic Management from HEC Montréal. She has established teaching and research experience in Canada, UK and GCC universities. Dr. Naguib was a faculty member at the University of Sharjah (UAE) where she held the position of Director of the Executive MBA.


Dana Olwan

Dana Olwan

Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Women's and Gender Studies in Syracuse University

Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Women's and Gender Studies in Syracuse University. She held the position of assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Dr. Olwan’s research is located at the nexus of feminist theorizations of gendered and sexual violence, and solidarities across geopolitical and racial differences. She has received the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Art/Research Grant, and a Palestinian American Research Council grant. Her writings have appeared in the Journal of Settler Colonial Studies, the Canadian Journal of Sociology, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture and Social Justice.


Abdel-Fattah Mady

Abdel-Fattah Mady

Coordinator of the Democratic Transition project at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Coordinator of the Democratic Transition project at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He specializes in governance, democratic transformation, political development, the Arab-Zionist conflict, and research methodologies and has worked as a visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC, the University of Denver, the UNDP, and the Cordoba Foundation in Geneva. Among his books are Violence and Democratization in Egypt, and Religion and Politics in Israel. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from Claremont University for Graduate Studies.


Walid Hamarneh

Walid Hamarneh

Associate Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Richmond, United States

Associate Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Richmond, United States. He has published over fifty scholarly articles and essays and has co-edited the book Fiction Updated: Theories of Fictionality, Narratology, and Poetics (1996). 


Alaa Elgibali

Alaa Elgibali

Professor of linguistics and Director of the Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Professor of linguistics and Director of the Language Center at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He received a doctorate in theoretical linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked as tenured full professor and founding chair of the Arabic department and founding director of the Arabic Flagship programs at the University of Maryland. He is also a senior advisor to a number of leading international educational organizations, including the American Councils for International Education, the World Languages Initiative, the National Foreign Language Center, and the American Council for Teaching Foreign Languages.


Raoudha Elguedri

Raoudha Elguedri

Assistant professor of sociology at Sociology and Anthropology Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant professor of sociology at Sociology and Anthropology Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Tunis and worked as assistant professor of Sociology in The Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of Tunis. From 2016-2018, she was a consultant/ advisor of research and activities for "Knowledge Transfer" project, at Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities in Manama. She held the position of researcher on Gender Equality at the Center of Research and Studies and Documentation and Information about Women in Tunisia (CREDIF).


Ayman A El-Desouky is an Associate Professor of Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature. He studied English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo and the University of Texas in Austin. El-Desouky has been lecturing in Arabic and Comparative Literature since 2002 and was the Founding Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies at CCLPS from 2009-2012 as well as being co-founder of a pioneering program in Global English Literary Studies (launched in 2014) at SOAS, the University of London. In 1993 to 1995, he lectured on World Literature and American Literature at the University of Texas in Austin and from 1995 to 1996, he lectured on Arabic Language and Literature at Johns Hopkins University, where he also founded a new program in Arabic Language and Literature there and at Harvard University (1996-2002). El-Desouky is a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), the Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America (MESA) and the British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) and has lectured widely on Hermeneutics, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Ayman A El-Desouky

Associate Professor of Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Ayman A El-Desouky is an Associate Professor of Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature. He studied English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo and the University of Texas in Austin. El-Desouky has been lecturing in Arabic and Comparative Literature since 2002 and was the Founding Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies at CCLPS from 2009-2012 as well as being co-founder of a pioneering program in Global English Literary Studies (launched in 2014) at SOAS, the University of London. In 1993 to 1995, he lectured on World Literature and American Literature at the University of Texas in Austin and from 1995 to 1996, he lectured on Arabic Language and Literature at Johns Hopkins University, where he also founded a new program in Arabic Language and Literature there and at Harvard University (1996-2002). El-Desouky is a member of the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), the Middle Eastern Studies Association of North America (MESA) and the British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) and has lectured widely on Hermeneutics, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. 


 Ammar Shamaileh

Ammar Shamaileh

Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations School of Social Sciences and Humanities Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations School of Social Sciences and Humanities Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He received my PhD from the Department of Political Science at Florida State University. He has taught courses on Middle Eastern politics, political violence, comparative politics, international relations and research methods at Franklin & Marshall College, the University of Louisville and Florida State University.


Atef Botros

Atef Botros

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leipzig in Comparative Literature, Arabic Studies and Cultural Studies on the Arabic reception of Kafka. From 2001 to 2005 he held a scholarship from the Heinrich Boell Foundation. After obtaining his PhD in 2006, he worked as a research associate at the Georg-Eckert Institute for international textbook research in Braunschweig.


Morten Valbjørn

Morten Valbjørn

Associate Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark

Associate Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University, Denmark. He holds a PhD in Science from Aarhus University. Dr. Valbjørn has published a number of research papers in established international journals and edited volumes, such as Studying identity politics in Middle East international relations before and after the Arab uprisings in Raymond Hinnebusch & Jasmine Gani (eds.) The Routledge Handbook to the Middle East and North African State and States System (Routledge, 2020).


Mahjoob Zweiri

Mahjoob Zweiri

Associate Professor in Contemporary History and Politics of the Middle East and Head of the Humanities Department at Qatar University

Associate Professor in Contemporary History and Politics of the Middle East and Head of the Humanities Department at Qatar University. He was a Senior Researcher in Middle East politics and Iran at the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. He was a Fellow of the School of Government and International Affairs, and served as the director of the Centre for Iranian Studies at Durham University, UK.


Azzam Amin

Azzam Amin

Assistant Professor in Psychology in the School of Psychology and Social Work at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor in Psychology in the School of Psychology and Social Work at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He received his PhD in Cross Cultural and Social Psychology from University of Lyon II. He began his professional career in 2003 as a lecturer and research assistant at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Lyon II. In 2010, Dr. Azzam was appointed as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Burgonia, Dijon, France where he was the Educational and Scientific Coordinator for the Diploma of University Studies and Technology, Department of Social Mediation.


Sultan Barakat

Sultan Barakat

Director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies

Director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies and a professor in politics and post-war recovery studies at the University of York. Previously he served as Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Centre. At the University of York he founded and led the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit between 1993 and 2014. Barakat has been published widely; his most recent book, Understanding Influence: The Use of Statebuilding Research in British Policy, was published by Ashgate in 2014.


Ghassan Elkahlout

Ghassan Elkahlout

Assistant Professor, Head of Program of the MA Program in Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action at the Doha Institute for Graduate Institute

Assistant Professor, Head of Program of the MA Program in Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action at the Doha Institute for Graduate Institute. He holds a PhD in post-war reconstruction and development studies from York University, UK. His experience includes the areas of humanitarian response, post-war early recovery and capacity building. He has worked in international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Federation of Red Crescent Societies, Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Humanitarian Forum in the United Kingdom. He led and was a member of emergency humanitarian response teams in Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Libya and Jordan.