Discussants and Chairs

Abdelkarim Amengay

Abdelkarim Amengay

Assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar. He holds a conjoint PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Ottawa. His research interests include political behaviour, political trust, youth representation, and populism in Western countries and the MENA region. He published peer-reviewed articles in Journal of Common Market Studies, Political Studies Review, Revue Française de science politique, and Siyasat Arabiya. He collaborates with Team Populism, an international research network that brings together scholars from several universities to study the causes and consequences of populism; the Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies, and has recently joined the editorial board of La Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée.


Omar Ashour

Omar Ashour

Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Critical Security Studies Programme (MCSS) at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Critical Security Studies Programme (MCSS) at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and the Strategic Studies Unit in the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He previously taught at the University of Exeter (UK) and McGill University, Canada, and served as a senior consultant for the United Nations on security sector reform, counter-terrorism, and violent radicalisation. He was a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London. He is the author of The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements (Routledge, 2009), How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), and editor of Bullets to Ballots: Collective De-Radicalisation of Armed Movements (Edinburgh University Press, 2021).


Hani Awad

Hani Awad

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and Editorial Manager of Omran Journal for Social Sciences. He received a PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford, UK. He is the author of Transformation of the Concept of Arab Nationalism (the Arab Network for Research and Publishing, 2013) and The Dilemma of Authoritarian Local Governance in Egypt (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).


Aicha Elbasri

Aicha Elbasri

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. She is a former UN official and has held various media and communications positions in the Department of Public Information in New York, the United Nations Development Programme in Sudan, and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. She was the spokesperson for the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur and a regional advisor in the UN Population Fund in Cairo. She received her PhD in French Literature from Savoy Mont Blanc University in France. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in addition to a book titled L'Imaginaire Carcéral de Jean Genet  (Editions L'Harmattan, 1999).


Tomas Dumbrovsky

Tomas Dumbrovsky

Assistant Professor in the Human Rights Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor in the Human Rights Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He earned his PhD in constitutional theory from Yale Law School, US. He worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the European University Institute and Amsterdam University and was a visiting researcher at the University of Michigan Law School and at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. His research focuses on comparative constitutionalism, constitutional and democratic theory, and European integration. His upcoming book, The European Republic: The Revolutionary Foundations of European Constitutionalism, reinterprets the origins of European integration.


Marwa Farag

Marwa Farag

Associate Professor in the School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor in the School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She held the position of Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She previously worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Global Institute for Health and Development, at Brandeis University. Her international field experience includes working in Iraq on health financing and resource allocation issues and on health sector reform in Egypt. She received her PhD in Health Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, US. Her primary research areas are health policy, health financing, health economics, and health program planning and evaluation.


Moataz El Fegiry

Moataz El Fegiry

Assistant Professor and Head of the Human Rights Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor and Head of the Human Rights Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He obtained his MA and PhD in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. Previously he was a senior teaching fellow of law at SOAS and the Executive Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. He has represented key international human rights NGOs, including the International Centre for Transitional Justice and the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and was elected as Treasurer and as member of the Executive Committee of the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network since 2006. His research interests focus on the interaction between Islamic law and human rights in the Arab and Muslim states, evolving dynamics of international and regional protection of human rights, and the roles of transnational advocacy networks. He is the author of Islamic Law and Human Rights: The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (2016).


Marwa Fikri

Marwa Fikri

Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University

Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. She received her PhD from Northeastern University, US. She is a former fellow of the Forum of Transregional Studies in Berlin, Germany. She has a number of publications in Arabic and English on the topics of international relations and democratic transition. Among her publications: Introduction to International Relations: from the Crisis of Globalization to the Horizons of Universality (2020); The Arab Intellectual and the Tiananmen Square Syndrome (2016); and a study titled "Authoritarian Regional Powers and Containing Democratic Transition: Saudi Arabia and Russia" (Siyasat Arabiya, 2019).


Amal Ghazal

Amal Ghazal

Professor of History, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Professor of History, Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Almuntaqa. She was formerly a professor of history and director of the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She is the author of Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism: Expanding the Crescent from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, 1880s-1930s (2010), and a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African History (2016).


Raoudha Elguédri

Raoudha Elguédri

Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Sociology and Anthropology Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Sociology and Anthropology Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She obtained her PhD in sociology from the University of Tunis, where she has served as assistant professor. She has worked as a consultant for research and activities at the "Knowledge Transfer" project at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and as a researcher on gender equality at the Centre for Research, Studies, Documentation, and Information on Women in Tunisia (CREDIF) in Tunis. Her research interests concern identity, youth, current societal changes, sexuality, and gender-based violence. Her latest publications include a study entitled "Emergence of the Individual in Tunisia: Specificities and Difficulties" (Omran for Social Sciences, April 2022) and a book titled The Sociology of the Body, Religion, and Power in Tunisia (Presses du Centre d'Études et de Recherches Économiques et Sociales [CERES], Tunis, 2022).


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 Editor-in-Chief of the historical studies journal Ostour. She received her PhD from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter where she worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Science and was also awarded a Visiting Researcher fellowship at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, UK.


Mohammed Hemchi

Mohammed Hemchi

Researcher at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies

Researcher at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies and Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He is a former lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria. He holds a PhD in International Relations from University of Batna 1, Algeria. His publications include Introduction to Complexity Theory of International Relations (2021), a translation of Emmanuel Wallerstein's After Liberalism (2022), and a translation of Populism and Global Politics (2022), in addition to other articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.


Nizar Jouini

Nizar Jouini

Head of the Public Policy Program at the School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Head of the Public Policy Program at the School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. From 2007-2015, he worked as a consultant at the African Development Bank and also served as a consultant to the Conseil des Analyses Economiques (Tunisian government). He has taught at several universities in Tunisia since 2004. The most recent of his articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals are "Fiscal Policy, Income Redistribution, and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Tunisia" (Review of Income and Wealth, 2018), with Nora Lustig, Ahmed Moummi, and Abebe Shimeles; and "North African Countries' Production and Export Structure: Towards a Diversification and Export Sophistication Strategy" (Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 2016), with Nassim Oulmane and Nicolas Péridy.


Marwan Kabalan

Marwan Kabalan

Director of the Political Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Director of the Political Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, President of the Gulf Studies Forum, and Director of the Diplomatic Studies and International Cooperation Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has published several books and extensive research in Arabic and English on Foreign Policy and International Relations, including Qatar's Foreign Policy: Strategy versus Geography (ACRPS, 2021).


Mehran Kamrava

Mehran Kamrava

Professor of Government at Georgetown University Qatar and director of the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Professor of Government at Georgetown University Qatar. He also directs the Iranian Studies Unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He is the author of a number of journal articles and books, including, most recently, A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis (Cambridge University Press, 2022); Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran's Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press, 2022); A Concise History of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020); Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (Cornell University Press, 2018); Inside the Arab State (Oxford University Press, 2018); The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (Yale University Press, 2016); Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015); The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd ed. (University of California Press, 2013); and Iran's Intellectual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008).


Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab

Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab

Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She is the author of Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (Columbia University Press, 2010) and Enlightenment on the Eve of Revolution: The Egyptian and Syrian Debates (Columbia University Press, 2019). Both have been translated into Arabic.


Mounir Kchaou

Mounir Kchaou

Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has published two books in French on the American philosopher John Rawls, Etudes rawlsiennes: contrat et justice (2006) and Le juste et ses normes: John Rawls et le concept du politique (2007). He is also the author of many articles and chapters in books published in Arabic, English and French.


Elias Khalil

Elias Khalil

Professor of Economics at the School of Public Administration and Development Economics, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Professor of Economics at the School of Public Administration and Development Economics, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He received his PhD (1990) from the New School for Social Research (New York, USA). He has held teaching positions at Monash University (Victoria, Australia), Vassar College (New York, USA), and Ohio State University at Mansfield (Ohio, USA). He was a Humboldt Fellow, a visiting researcher at Cambridge University's Judge Institute, the University of Chicago's Department of Economics, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Economic Systems (Jena, Germany), and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (Klosterneuburg, Austria). His research areas are behavioural economics and political economy. His papers have appeared in journals such as Economic Inquiry, Biology and Philosophy, Biological Theory, Theory and Decision, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, International Negotiation, Theoria, Philosophy, Economic Modelling, Economics Letters, Critical Horizons, and Economics and Philosophy.


Abdelfattah Mady

Abdelfattah Mady

Chair of the Unit of State and Political Systems Studies at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Chair of the Unit of State and Political Systems Studies at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Hikama (Governance): a Journal of Public Administration and Public Policy. He is also the author of five books. His research focuses on regime transitions and democratisation in the Middle East, civil-military relations, Islamist movements, civil education, human rights, and academic freedoms.


Imad Mansour

Imad Mansour

Assistant Professor at the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor at the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Canada. His research interests focus on foreign policy analysis, non-state actors, the social roots of international politics especially regional orders and rivalries, critical development approaches and state building in post-colonial contexts, and MENA relationships with major powers, particularly China. He is the author of Statecraft in the Middle East: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics and Security (2016), and co-editor of Shocks and Rivalries in the Middle East and North Africa (2020).


Mohammad Almasri

Mohammad Almasri

Executive Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

Executive Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He is the Coordinator of the Arab Opinion Index. He holds a PhD from Durham University, UK.


Mohamad Hamas Elmasry

Mohamad Hamas Elmasry

Associate Professor and Chair of the Media Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor and Chair of the Media Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. His research on Arab media systems, news coverage of race, and the media and terrorism has appeared in reputable refereed publications, including Journalism, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, International Communication Gazette, and the International Journal of Communication. He has written political and media analyses for Al-Jazeera English, the Middle East Eye, The New Arab, Open Democracy, Muftah, and Jadaliyya, and appeared on Al-Jazeera, CNN, BBC World News, BBC World Service Radio, TRT World, Huff Post Live, and other networks.


Ismail Nashef

Ismail Nashef

Associate Professor at the Anthropology and Sociology Programme, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Professor at the Anthropology and Sociology Programme, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has held academic positions in different universities in the Arab World and beyond. In addition to his academic career, he is a literary and art critic and a curator. He has initiated and participated in different cultural and academic projects in and out of the academy. His research focus is on materiality, language, and ideology. He explores these topics as they are manifested and expressed in literature and visual arts. His current research is on visual arts and literature in the colonial contexts, with special attention to Arab Islamic societies overall and especially Palestinian society. His publications include: A Language of Ones' Own: Literary Arabic, the Palestinians, and Israel (Forthcoming 2023); Ruins: Expressing al Nakbah (2019); Arabic: A Story of a Colonial Mask (2018); June's Childhood: Dar al Fata al Arabi and the Genres of Tragedy (2016); Images of the Palestinian Death (2015); On Palestinian Abstraction: Zohdy Qadry and the Geometrical Melody of Late Modernism (2014).


Ayhab Saad

Ayhab Saad

Assistant Professor at the Development Economics Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor at the Development Economics Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. In 2014 and 2015, he was an assistant professor at Birzeit University. He received his doctorate in economics and political science from the University of Michigan in 2014. His recent research focuses on trade liberalisation and local institutions, the impact of economic liberalisation on corporate innovation and productivity, and the impact of intra-firm trade and the productivity of multinational corporations, as well as economic integration in the Middle East and North Africa.


Bassel F. Salloukh

Bassel F. Salloukh

Associate Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Associate Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Associate Professor of Political Science and Head of the Politics and International Relations Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He obtained his MA and PhD in Political Science from McGill University, Canada. His main fields of specialisation include comparative politics (Global South and Middle East), political theory (philosophy of reconciliation and interculturalism, and international relations (Middle East IR). He is a member of the Arab Political Science Network's (APSN) Advisory Committee, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) Steering Committee, the American Political Science Association (APSA) MENA Politics Section's Workshops Planning Committee, and Editor at Middle East Law and Governance. His current research focuses on a critique of power-sharing arrangements in post-colonial and post-war states, and the political economy of Lebanon's post-war collapse. His most recent publications include the co-authored The Politics of Sectarianism in Postwar Lebanon (Pluto Press, 2015).


Muhanad Seloom

Muhanad Seloom

Assistant Professor at the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor at the Critical Security Studies Programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. He obtained his PhD in Ethno-Political Studies from the University of Exeter. He was the director of the Iraqi Centre for Strategic Studies, London (2016-2018). He has published numerous articles, research, and policy analyses. His upcoming book is titled The Label Terrorist: Designation in Ethno-Nationalist Conflicts (PKK case study).


Ammar Shamaileh

Ammar Shamaileh

Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. Prior to joining the DI, he held positions at the University of Louisville and Franklin & Marshall College. His research interests primarily reside at the intersection of comparative political behaviour and political economy. The research agenda he is currently pursuing focuses primarily on the effects of autocratic instability on economic policy. He is the author of Trust and Terror: Social Capital and the Use of Terrorism as a Tool of Resistance (Routledge, 2017), and the co-author of Beyond Piety and Politics: Religion, Social Relations, and Public Preferences in the Middle East and North Africa (Indiana University Press, 2022). His academic work has appeared in Comparative Politics, International Interactions, and Political Research Quarterly, as well as other venues.


Natalie Tayim

Natalie Tayim

Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies

Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) and a Lebanese-licensed clinical psychologist. She holds a master's degree in Clinical Neuroscience and a PhD in Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Neuropsychology from University College London. After obtaining her PhD, she went on to pursue a postdoctoral certificate and training in Sexual Therapy and Education from the University of Michigan. Besides DI, she taught for several years at the American University of Beirut and Beirut Arab University. She also clinically practiced at Clemenceau Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon, for two years and has since garnered experience in the assessment and treatment of individuals who have sexual and/or relational issues. Her research interests mainly pertain to interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.