Small Grants Program

Ali Mohamed Rahouma was born in Tripoli, Libya. He is a specialist in information technology and a researcher in informatics and virtual communities. He is also a poet and writer with a strong interest in Arab and Islamic history and heritage. He holds advanced degrees in information technology from Scotland (1983) and Ireland (1990), a Master’s degree in Development and Social Planning (1999), and a PhD in Sociology with a focus on Informatics from the University of Tripoli (2004). He has presented around 40 scholarly papers at Arab and international scientific conferences and symposia, and has published in peer-reviewed journals. He holds the research rank of “Senior Researcher,” which is academically equivalent to “Professor.” Dr. Rahouma has over 40 years of professional experience, having worked in Libyan institutions and ministries since 1984. He has held several administrative and technical positions and has chaired and participated in numerous scientific, administrative, and cultural committees. He has also taught at several Libyan universities and supervised a number of master’s theses. He is a member of the Libyan Writers and Authors Association and a founding member of several civil society institutions. He has published 14 books, including The Internet and the Techno-Social System (Center for Arab Unity Studies, Beirut, 2005), Automated Sociology (Kuwait’s World of Knowledge Series, January 2008), and The Knowledge Society and the Maghreb Countries (The Maghreb University, 2007).

Maha Bali is Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo. She has a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield, UK. She is co-founder of virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound (an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities Continuity with Care, Socially Just Academia, a collaboration with OneHE: Community-building Resources and MYFest, an innovative 3-month professional learning journey. She writes and speaks frequently about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education. She blogs regularly at https://blog.mahabali.me and tweets @bali_maha.

• LSE (London School of Economics) Higher Education blog fellow, 2024
• Recipient of the Educator Award, 2023 Open Education Awards for Excellence from Open Education Global 

One of 30 Higher Ed IT Influencers to Follow in 2023 by EdTech Magazine: Focus on Higher Education

With over 20 years of experience in academia and industry, Mohamed Watfa has held various leadership roles including Executive Dean, Associate Dean, Program Director, Head of IT and Innovation, Head of Smart Cities, AI and IoT, and Professor in various academic institutions including the American University of Beirut (AUB), University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), and the British University in the UAE. Dr. Watfa’s leadership extends beyond academia as he has also served as the CEO of several companies, including The International School of Innovation, a pioneering IoT smart school that has garnered widespread acclaim for its innovative approach to education, and Tutoritto, a USPTO patent pending mobile app poised to revolutionize remote service provision and business operations.

Prior to his academic experience, he earned his PhD in Computer Engineering at the age of 24 from the University of Oklahoma, USA. He received his BS from AUB and MS from the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Watfa has been recognized for his exceptional contributions, receiving prestigious awards such as the Research Excellence Award four times and the Teaching Excellence Award twice. In 2021, he was honored with the Best Professor in the Middle East Award (MEPRA) for his achievements. Dr. Watfa is a prolific author/editor with three published books and an extensive body of research comprising over 20 research grants, five book chapters, and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications. His research endeavors have attracted substantial funding from agencies, such as the Emirates Foundation and the National Research Foundation (NRF), totaling over 1.5 million USD as a principal investigator (PI). Dr. Watfa’s innovation was further showcased with multiple patented inventions to his credit when he emerged as a runner-up in the MBC TV show “Stars of Science” among thousands of inventors.

https://soas.lau.edu.lb/about/people/mohamed-k-watfa.php 

Nationality: Yemen

Project Title: From Banking Education to Critical Education: Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of Education in Yemeni Universities

Bio: Abdulghani Al-Hawari is an Associate Professor of Foundations of Education at Sana’a University. He previously served as Deputy Director of the Center for Academic Development and Quality Assurance, and he is currently Head of the Department of Gifted and Creative Students at the university. He earned his PhD in Education (Foundations of Education) from Cairo University in 2013.

He is an active member of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (Beirut) and has published more than 30 scholarly articles in peer-reviewed international, Arab, and local journals. He has also authored four books in diverse fields, including Islamic Civilization in the Course of Human Civilization. He has participated in numerous local, regional, and international conferences, including events in China, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, and Qatar, and he won the King Abdulaziz Award for Childhood and Development.

Dr. Al-Hawari has received several European and American fellowships, including a fellowship from the German Institute for Oriental Studies and two fellowships from the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. He is a member of the International Union of Arab Academics and serves as a peer reviewer for a number of academic journals and scientific conferences. He is also a lecturer at several Yemeni universities and has supervised many master’s and doctoral theses.

Dr. Al-Hawari has extensive experience in scientific research, statistical analysis, and the use of computers and the internet, in addition to strong English proficiency and communication and teamwork skills. His research interests focus on governance and digital transformation, and on how technology and artificial intelligence can be leveraged to develop education and institutions and advance sustainable development.

Nationality: Egypt

Project Title: Artificial Intelligence and Media Literacy: Empowering Arab Youth to Navigate Gendered Disinformation Online

Bio: Dr. Donia Tarek Abd-Elwahab Mohamed is an Assistant Professor of Mass Communication at the Canadian International College (CIC) in Egypt and a part-time faculty member at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport. She holds a PhD in Mass Communication, with her research focusing on women’s empowerment and documentary media. Her interdisciplinary work lies at the intersection of gender, technology, and media systems.

In addition to her academic career, Dr. Mohamed serves as a Gender Research and Evaluation Consultant for civil society organizations, where she examines media representation, gender equity, and digital inclusion. She is also a part-time researcher at the Belt and Road International Communication Research Center, exploring China-Arab media relations.

Dr. Mohamed is an active member of the Media Monitoring Committee at Egypt’s National Council for Women and serves as Head of Research at the Union of Media Women. Her published work addresses issues such as gendered disinformation, inclusive artificial intelligence, media literacy, and the social implications of digital technologies.

She has participated in several international programs, including the Shiraka Program (Netherlands), the Anna Lindh Foundation Dialogues, and the ACSS Gendering the Archive Academy. Her professional and academic journey is driven by a strong commitment to advancing inclusive knowledge production and promoting socially responsible applications of emerging technologies in the Arab region.

Nationality: Egypt

Project Title: Towards Spatio-Technical Justice: Investigating Geo-Cultural Biases in Large Language Models in the Arab Region

Bio: Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy is an interdisciplinary urban planner working at the intersections of cities, media, and technology toward equity and sustainability. She is an Assistant Professor in Egypt and is currently affiliated with the Technical University of Munich, Impact Circles e.V., and the Center for Advanced Internet Studies in Germany, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the United States. Hendawy received her Ph.D. in 2021 from the Faculty of Planning, Building, and Environment at TU Berlin in Germany, where she graduated summa cum laude. In her dissertation, she explored the mediatization (and visualization) of urban development in Cairo as a local yet global case.

In 2015, Hendawy  obtained an MSc in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design from the University of Stuttgart, focusing on urban policies. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Department of Urban Planning and Design, class of 2012. Hendawy is one of the founding members of Cairo Urban AI, a project exploring the potential of artificial intelligence in developing just and sustainable cities. She was the principal investigator of the Urban AI MOOC, part of the African Cities Lab initiative funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Nationality: Lebanon

Project Title: Smart Farming, Smart Politics? A Critical Examination of AI-Driven Agriculture in the Arab Region

Bio: Dr. Cynthia Gharios is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of Münster in Germany. Her research examines the intersection between the environment and agricultural technology in the United Arab Emirates. She is also currently working on a research project with Cornell University on AgTech intermediaries in Memphis, USA, which investigates how entrepreneurs, investors, and innovation intermediaries anticipate, negotiate, and address social impact goals. Her previous research explored the transformations of agrarian landscapes in South Lebanon, focusing on the relationship between secure and long-term access to farmland and the social, physical, and environmental implications of such transformations. She has also contributed to research projects on agricultural war damage in Yemen and on agricultural investments in Morocco. Dr. Gharios holds an MSc in Landscape Architecture from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a BSc in Landscape Design and Ecological Management (with a Diplôme d’ingénieur agricole) from the American University of Beirut.

Dr. Bilal Younis is an Associate Professor of Educational Design and Technology at Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie, where he has also served as Director of the Al-Arrub Branch and Director of Youth Programs. He holds a PhD in Educational Design and Technology from Southern Illinois University in the United States and has more than twenty years of experience in education, technology integration, and civic engagement.

Dr. Younis specializes in designing innovative learning environments, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence in education, digital citizenship, and youth empowerment. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and the Online Learning Journal.

He has led and participated in numerous capacity-building and curriculum development projects in Palestine, including initiatives in media literacy, teacher training, and the integration of educational technology in technical and vocational education and training. He has also served as a consultant for several institutions, including AMIDEAST, UNICEF, Hebron University, and the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

Dr. Younis believes strongly in participatory education, critical thinking, and digital inclusion. He is a fellow of the Middle East Professional Learning Initiative at Harvard University and a recipient of several academic and research awards. His work bridges academic research and community engagement, particularly in contexts of conflict, surveillance, and restricted civic space.

Ilham Khuri-Makdisi is Associate Professor of history. She teaches courses in Middle Eastern history, World history and urban history at Northeastern University and is particularly interested in Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean cities in the late 19th, early 20th centuries and the movements of people and ideas. She focuses in her research on global and intra-imperial links connecting the Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean to various parts of the empire and the world. Her first book, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914 (University of California Press, 2010; paperback 2013), focused on socialism, anarchism, and their various interpretations, as they were expressed by different segments of Beirut, Cairo, and Alexandria’s populations –intellectuals, dramatists, and workers. She is currently working on a cultural and intellectual history of translations between Arabic and Ottoman Turkish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as other research projects situating the Nahda (Arab Renaissance) within a larger Ottoman and global frame.

Hana Sleiman is Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Edinburgh. She researches the history of historiography in the Levant, with a focus on archive building and record keeping in the twentieth century. She earned a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge (2021).

Randa Tawil is assistant professor of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University. She received her doctorate in the Department of American Studies at Yale University and specializes in Migration and Mobility, Ethnic Studies, and Arab Middle Eastern Studies. Her manuscript, Race in Transit: Mobilities Between Greater Syria and North America, examines knowledge production around the “good” and “bad” migrant from Syria through the lens of mobility. She has articles published in academic journals, The Washington Post, and Open Democracy, and is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Framing Dissent Through Art: The Role of Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam in Shaping Political Consciousness in Egypt and Beyond

Bio: Dr. Ahmed Selim completed his PhD in political sociology at the University of Kent. His research focuses on social and political movements, particularly Islamist movements in Egypt, examining their impact on political culture and democratic values. During his doctoral research, he was a visiting researcher at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. Prior to that, Selim earned a Master’s degree in Political Sociology and a Postgraduate Certificate in Methods of Social Research at the University of Kent (Distinction). Selim’s contributions to the field were recognized with a Merit Award in the ISA Worldwide Competition for Junior Sociologists. His work provides valuable insights into the intersection of ideology and political culture in contemporary Egypt. Prior to academia, Selim practiced law in Egypt, with interest in human rights.

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: The mute swan plummets again: a subjective and institutional ethnographic blend of a social work instructor at Al-Quds University ( طائر التم يهبط مجددا: مزيج إثنوغرافي ذاتي ومؤسسي لمدرس خدمة إجتماعية في جامعة القدس)

Bio: Tareq Hardan devoted his research and professional efforts, before and after completing his PhD, to exploring the dynamics, elements, and impact of Communities–Academic Partnerships (CAPs) in Social Work, with a view to address poverty, environmental inequities, and various forms of injustice. This approach aims to forge effective academic and community partnerships, and to build multiple and cross-sectoral alliances underpinning recovery, resilience, and emancipation policies, and contributing to rebuilding social ties in order to foster a more just and equitable society. In 14 years of working with universities and CSOs in Palestine, Quebec, Canada, and the US, Tareq has developed diverse academic and professional experience that contributed to deepening his understanding of intertwined and complex issues at stake in the field of Social Work. He also focused on developing effective social interventions rooted in the complementarity between research findings and professional wisdom, using such interventions as strategic intervention tools to build effective academic and community partnerships. As a committed integrated scholar, Tareq combines emancipatory learning, multidisciplinary participatory research in particular, fieldwork, and community service, as he is convinced that the starting point of human and land liberation is to build resilient, diverse and cohesive communities able to advance along the road to justice, emancipation, and recovery.

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Building Moroccan museum collections during the colonial period and the rhetoric about the Moroccan identity by the French Protectorate Administration (1912-1956) (La constitution des collections muséales marocaine à l’époque coloniale et le discours sur l’identité du Maroc par l’administration de Protectorat française (1912 – 1956))

Bio: Dr. Omar Idtnaine completed his Master’s degree in museography at the National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage, and his PhD in media and communications, with a thesis focused on communication in national museums in Morocco. He is currently the curator of the Agadir Museum of Art, and he teaches the culture and heritage course at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Ait Melloul University Campus of Ibn Zohr University in Agadir.

His scientific research covers issues around identity and heritage-related discourse, with a focus on Moroccan contexts and the Global South. He is also interested in topics related to heritage and archives conservation, particularly regarding cultural heritage documentation and protection.

Dr. Omar Idtnaine is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and is active in its International Committee for Collecting (COMCOL). He actively engaged in discussing present and future status of museum collections, thus contributing to formulating new insights to enhance the role of museums in heritage conservation. He combines research and teaching work, seeking to foster a deeper understanding of the relation between heritage and identity, while contributing to the development of museum studies in Morocco.

Islah Jad is an associate professor and lecturer on gender issues and politics at the Institute of Women’s Studies and the Institute of Cultural Studies at Birzeit University, which she directed from 2008 to 2013.  She is also a founding member of the Master’s Program in Women’s Studies and the first PhD program in social sciences at Birzeit University. She is the author of several books and academic articles that dealt with the role of women in politics, Palestinian women, and the relationship between women, Islam, and non-governmental organizations. Jad is also a gender advisor at the United Nations Development Program and has co-authored the United Nations Development Report on Women’s Empowerment, as well as three other books. She obtained her PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 2004.

Jamil Mouawad is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative in charge of the independent professional associations project in the Arab world. He is also a lecturer in politics at the American University of Beirut, where he teaches courses in Public Policy, Political Science and Lebanese politics. He holds a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is a former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Jamil is a founding member of the Beirut School for Critical Security Studies, and the coordinator of the Ethics in Social sciences project initiated by the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). His research interests in state-society relations span the subfields of comparative politics and political economy. He has several scientific publications and is a regular commentator on Lebanese politics.

Mai Abu Moghli is a senior researcher at the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) and a Co-PI on the British academy bilateral chair in education in conflict at the University of Cambridge and CLS. Mai works with teachers in Lebanon and her research focuses on teachers’ experiences in conflict and contexts of mass displacement, decolonizing higher education and teachers’ activism.

Luna Orikat (Principal Investigator)

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: تطوير بروتوكولات اخلاقيات البحث النسوي

Translation: Developing Ethical Protocols for Feminist Research

Yara Shaban (Principal Investigator)

Nationality: Jordanian

Project Title: The Road to Ethical Social Science Research: A Blueprint for Establishing an Institutional Review Board at the Royal Scientific Society

Omar Khabour (Principal Investigator)

Nationality: Jordanian

Project Title: Development of an Online Training Module Entitled “Publishing Using Open-Access Journals: How to Avoid Predatory Ones”

Munir Nusaibah (Principal Investigator) & Ahmad Amara (Co-Investigator)

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: أخلاقيات البحث العلمي- الأبحاث القانونية ومتعددة المناهج

Ethics of Scientific Research: Legal and Multi-Method Research

Laura Adwan (Principal Investigator) & Dina Zbeidy (Co-Investigator)

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: Insaniyyat’s Code of Ethics for Ethnographic Research

Samah Saleh (Principal Investigator) &Fayez Mahamid (Co-Investigator)

Nationality: Palestinian & Dutch

Project Title: تعزيز ثقافة اخلاقيات البحث العلمي في جامعة النجاح

Enhancing  the Culture of Research Ethics at Al Najah University

Jamil Mouawad is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative in charge of the independent professional associations project in the Arab world. He is also a lecturer in politics at the American University of Beirut, where he teaches courses in Public Policy, Political Science and Lebanese politics. He holds a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is a former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Jamil is a founding member of the Beirut School for Critical Security Studies, and the coordinator of the Ethics in Social sciences project initiated by the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). His research interests in state-society relations span the subfields of comparative politics and political economy. He has several scientific publications and is a regular commentator on Lebanese politics.

Lamia Moghnieh is a EUME fellow of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and a former ACSS postdoctoral fellow. Her book project “Psychiatry in Lebanon from the 19th to the 21th century: Madness, Violence and Society” traces the cultural authority of modern psychiatry in Lebanon, through primary analysis of archival documents from the Lebanon Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders (popularly known as Asfuriyeh hospital) and ethnographic research on contemporary psychiatric practices.

Samer Ghamroun earned his PhD in legal sociology from the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, Paris, on the subject of judicial competition between juvenile and Sharia judges in Lebanon, around the protection of children’s and women’s rights. He is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the  Saint Joseph University of Beirut, where he teaches legal sociology, legal history, and constitutional law, among other courses. He also works with the Legal Agenda team in Beirut as  senior researcher and editor. 

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: رد الجميل: من المسؤلية العلمية للباحثين إلى المسؤولية الاجتماعية

Giving Back: From Scientific to Social Responsibility of Researchers

Jamil Mouawad is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative in charge of the independent professional associations project in the Arab world. He is also a lecturer in politics at the American University of Beirut, where he teaches courses in Public Policy, Political Science and Lebanese politics. He holds a PhD in politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He is a former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Jamil is a founding member of the Beirut School for Critical Security Studies, and the coordinator of the Ethics in Social sciences project initiated by the Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS). His research interests in state-society relations span the subfields of comparative politics and political economy. He has several scientific publications and is a regular commentator on Lebanese politics.

Jihad Makhoul is a professor at the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health at the American University of Beirut. Her professional career  has evolved from years of work with non-governmental agencies in community health and development in war-time Lebanon and some parts of the Arab region, as well as from graduate level teaching. This has led her to develop an interest and work closely on social and structural determinants of health, social exclusion, research ethics, and public health ethics and community engaging research. Makhoul has adopted and adapted multi-method research approaches and built cross-disciplinary and cross-country collaborations through membership in international professional networks. She has recently become interested in the commercial determinants of health and the influence of corporate funding on humanitarian assistance. Her publications are in these areas and include peer review articles as well as book chapters.

Rima Nakkash is a Professor in the Global and Community Health Department of the American University of Beirut. She is a leading international scholar in tobacco control research in prevention and policy evaluation. She has published on community based participatory research initiatives as well as process, and implementation research particularly with youth and disadvantaged populations with a focus on mental health promotion. She is interested in civic and citizen engagement in health policy making, translation of evidence-based public health to inform interventions and policy, and advocacy for health. Her most recent research interests include research on research ethics and exploring interactions and conflict of interest between corporations and public health.  She co-coordinates a global network on Governance on Ethics and Conflict and interest in Public Health (GECI-PH). She is a strong tobacco control advocate at national, regional, and international levels and believes in the power of partnerships and coalitions. In partnership with civil society and media, she had a major role in the passage of the most comprehensive tobacco control law while in Lebanon in 2011. In 2013, she was granted the international WHO World No Tobacco Day Award by Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director at that time.

Samer Ghamroun earned his PhD in legal sociology from the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, Paris, on the subject of judicial competition between juvenile and Sharia judges in Lebanon, around the protection of children’s and women’s rights. He is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Saint Joseph University of Beirut, where he teaches legal sociology, legal history, and constitutional law, among other courses. He also works with the Legal Agenda team in Beirut as senior researcher and editor.

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: البحث الميداني وموازين القو ة في المجتمع

Fieldwork and Balance of Power in Society

Nationality: Jordanian

Project Title: The Ethics of Conducting Research in Palestine: Between Institutionalization and the Power of Practice

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title:ما وراء احترام المشاركين  في  البحث الميداني: متطلبات بناء علاقات أخلاقية في ظروف النزاع

Beyond Respect of Participants in Fieldwork: Requirements for Building Ethical Relations in Conflict Situations 

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: التعامل الأخلاقي مع اشكاليات علاقات القوة بين الباحث والمشارك في المقابلات الُمعمقة مع المراهقين والشباب

Addressing the Ethics of Complex Power Relations between Researcher and Participants in In-depth Interviews with Adolescents and Youth.

Abdullah Al-Kafri is the Executive Director of Ettijahat – Independent Culture.  A playwright and cultural activist, Abdullah works as a trainer in various cultural fields with organizations including Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Since 2015, he has been a member of the artistic committee of Sundance Institute’s MENA Theatre Lab, and is a regular participant at conferences and forums on culture and art. He has also collaborated with art organizations such as Lift and The Royal Court in the UK and the Lark in the US.

Lahcen Ameziane received his PhD in Sociology in December 2005 from the University of Mohammed Bin Abdullah in Fez in Morocco. His dissertation focused on local communities and development. He co-founded and served as an associate researcher in the Laboratory for Sociological and Psychological Research and Studies (LAREPS) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Dhar El-Mehraz in Fez. He previously worked as a consultant on foreign interests at the Ministry of Housing and Construction, and as a senior consultant at Omrane-Meknes (formerly known as the Lodging and Construction Company). He has been teaching Sociology at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat since September 2009. He is currently an active member of the Sociological and Anthropological Research team (ERSA). In addition to a book on the political behavior of the local elite in Morocco, he published several articles in international and Moroccan journals. He also currently coordinates the Master’s Program in Sociological Transformations and Social Movements at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat, which are also related to his current research in the fields of urban sociology, the sociology of organizations and social change.

Lina Abou-Habib is the Executive Director of Women’s Learning Partnership, and Executive Director of the Collective for Research and Training on Development–Action (CRTD-A), which promotes women’s leadership, political participation, and citizenship and economic rights in Lebanon and the MENA region. Abou-Habib is a co-founder and coordinator of the Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking and Information Project. She has collaborated with a number of regional and international agencies, as well as public institutions, in mainstreaming gender in development policies and practices and in building capacities for gender mainstreaming. She is a former chair of the board of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), and she currently is a MENA advisor for the Global Fund for Women and on the editorial board of Oxfam’s journal, Gender and Development. Abou-Habib is a PhD candidate at the Auckland University of Technology. Her interest areas include action-oriented research on the impact of the denial of citizenship rights to women in MENA countries, active citizenship and gendered social entitlements in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, and topics related to women and their political participation, invisible care work, economic contribution in rural communities and access to markets, faith-based organizations, migrant women, and women in post-war Lebanon.

Abdullah Al-Kafri is the Executive Director of Ettijahat – Independent Culture.  A playwright and cultural activist, Abdullah works as a trainer in various cultural fields with organizations including Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Since 2015, he has been a member of the artistic committee of Sundance Institute’s MENA Theatre Lab, and is a regular participant at conferences and forums on culture and art. He has also collaborated with art organizations such as Lift and The Royal Court in the UK and the Lark in the US.

Imen Yacoubi is a Tunisian researcher, translator, and associate professor of English Studies at the University of Jendouba, Tunisia. Yacoubi was a member in a number of projects across the Arab region, like The Trans-Maghreb Creative Writing Project, and the Young Arab Analysts Network International. She became a fellow at Syracuse University in 2011 and 2013. Since then, she has organized and participated in several projects with civil society related to women’s rights and civic education in Tunisia. Her research interests revolve around gender, arts, and culture.

Mona Khechen is a Lebanese urban planning and development expert with extensive experience as a practitioner in developing and post-conflict country contexts, working mainly on cultural heritage, urban policy-oriented research, and strategic planning. She is a regular consultant on urban development to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the United Nations. She also serves as an occasional lecturer at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She received her Doctorate in Design from Harvard University, Masters in Planning from the Development Planning Unit at University College London, and a Bachelors of Architecture from AUB.

Imen Yacoubi is a Tunisian researcher, translator, and associate professor of English Studies at the University of Jendouba, Tunisia. Yacoubi was a member in a number of projects across the Arab region, like The Trans-Maghreb Creative Writing Project, and the Young Arab Analysts Network International. She became a fellow at Syracuse University in 2011 and 2013. Since then, she has organized and participated in several projects with civil society related to women’s rights and civic education in Tunisia. Her research interests revolve around gender, arts, and culture.

Yasser Elsheshtawy is an independent writer, researcher, and curator. He was a Professor of Architecture at the United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, where, in addition to teaching, he ran the Urban Research Lab. He was appointed as curator for the UAE Pavilion at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. He authored a series of books and publications including “Dubai: Behind an urban spectacle” (ranked no. 1 on Amazon under the ‘United Arab Emirates History’ category in September ’17). His blog dubaization has been hailed by The Guardian as one of the leading city blogs in the world. Elsheshtawy is currently working on a book about the Arab Gulf City titled: “Temporary Cities” and is currently serving as an Adjunct Professor of Architecture, Planning, and Conservation at Columbia University in the City of New York.