MENA Junior Fellowship (3 Ed. 2026)

Aleksandre Buzaladze is a Georgian researcher and master’s student in Politics and Governance in the Digital Age at the University of Tartu, Estonia, and an Erasmus+ exchange student at Charles University in Prague. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Georgia.

His research interests focus on MENA, Russia, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia, with particular emphasis on digital authoritarianism, security and geopolitics, technology and authoritarian resilience. 
Aleksandre has research and policy experience with the University of Georgia’s Security, Policy and Nationalism Research Center, the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, and UNDP Georgia. He has also contributed to research initiatives focused on regional security, digitalisation, cyber security and hybrid threats.

His work has been presented at international academic and policy conferences, including research on informational sovereignty and digital authoritarianism. He has also authored policy-oriented publications addressing developments in the MENA, South Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe. His broader professional interests lie at the intersection of academic research, foreign policy analysis and strategic affairs.
 

Sahar Othmani is a translation studies researcher, a literary translator, and a Visiting Fellow in Media and Translation at Loughborough University.  She holds a PhD in Translation from Queen's University Belfast after receiving a fully funded scholarship to conduct her doctoral research, which examined indirect translation as a form of soft power in the circulation of Han Kang’s works. Her work addresses the mediated circulation of world literature into Arabic and the asymmetries that govern exchange between peripheral literary systems. 

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Sahar works from French and Korean among other source languages. She is an Assistant Editor of The Translator (Taylor & Francis), an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), and a member of the advisory accreditation board at the Arabic and Translation Studies Department at Kırıkkale University in Türkiye. Her published work spans scholarship, translation, and poetry. She is a co-author of From Idea to Reader: The Future of Publishing in the MENA Region (2026) and has contributed chapters to the Anthology of Arabic Discourse on Translation (Routledge, 2022). Her Arabic translation of Helen De Cruz's Wonderstruck was published in 2026, and she edited and led the translation of Over Land Over Sea: Journeys in Refugee Poetry in Translation. Her own poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland, The Other Side of Hope, and ArabLit Quarterly, with a Pushcart Prize nomination for her debut publication.

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Thuraya Salih is a Sudanese researcher, writer, and editor based in Cairo. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Sociology and Anthropology at the American University in Cairo, where her work focuses on questions of Islam, gender, migration, culture, media, and political transformation in Sudan and the wider region.

Professionally, Thuraya has worked across research, journalism, and communications, serving as an Editor at Andariya, a Research Assistant at the Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies (AUC), and a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Sociology, Egyptology, and Anthropology at AUC. Her experience spans editorial development, policy-relevant research, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications.

Her writing has appeared in publications including Hopes and Actions, The Muse Magazine, Andariya, 500 Words Magazine, and ADEF, where she explores themes such as conflict, gender, digital cultures, migration, historical memory, and social change. Through both her research and writing, she is particularly interested in how people navigate power, identity, and belonging in contexts of political uncertainty and displacement.

Hatem Abouelnaga is an International Relations and Public Policy researcher from Egypt. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from Saint Petersburg State University and a B.A. in Political Science from Cairo University. His research interests include international political economy, sanctions and economic coercion, Euro-Mediterranean affairs, migration governance, regional security, and public policy.

His professional experience includes work with the Information and Decision Support Center of the Egyptian Cabinet and Alternative Policy Solutions at the American University in Cairo. In both roles, he worked at the intersection of research and public communication, helping translate complex public policy, socio-economic, and political issues into accessible formats for wider audiences through policy briefs, newsletters, digital content, campaigns, and public-facing communication.
He has also contributed analytical pieces on international affairs, Russian and post-Soviet politics, and regional developments to Al-Ahram publications, including Al-Demokratia and Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya, as well as Future for Advanced Research and Studies and other think tanks and research platforms.
As part of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s Mediterranean Youth in Action – Voicing Youth Knowledge programme, he was selected among 12 researchers from across the Euro-Mediterranean region to receive the programme’s full support package. He authored the policy paper “Community-Led Local Development and Inclusive Urbanism to Avoid Gentrification in Alexandria and Tirana.” The project combined comparative policy research with communication, academic dialogue, and civil-society engagement.

He works across Arabic, English, and Russian and is particularly interested in research that connects academic analysis with public understanding, policy dialogue, and regional cooperation.

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Mohammed Abdul-Hai Yahya Issa is a Research and Knowledge Transfer Specialist at Qatar Finance and Business Academy in partnership with Northumbria University in Doha, Qatar. He holds a master’s degree in development economics with Distinction from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Econometrics and Social Statistics from the University of Khartoum, where he received the University Award for Best Academic Performance.

His research interests lie at the intersection of political economy, development economics, social statistics, and governance, with a particular focus on inequality and armed conflict in Sudan. His current research examines the relationship between perceived and objective inequalities and armed conflict dynamics.

Mohammed has published academic research and has additional manuscripts under review. He has also received research support from the Arab Council for the Social Sciences for research related to inequality in Sudan.

Miriam is a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research focuses on reconstruction, state-building, and border politics in Syria. She has published on migration, social movements, and diaspora politics in Middle East Law and Governance, the edited volume Migrations in the Mediterranean, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Middle East Review Volume 8. She has also published policy papers with Fiker Insitute, the World Governments Summit, and the International Crisis Group. 

Previously, Miriam was the Editorial Lead and a Research Associate at Fiker Institute, an international relations think tank based in Dubai. She also worked in the Early-Warning & Research Team at the International Crisis Group and was a Research Assistant to the Kuwait Chair at Sciences Po Paris. Miriam holds an MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford, an MA in Human Rights & Humanitarian Action from Sciences Po Paris, and a BA in International Relations from King’s College London. 

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I am Mariya Al Muqarshi. I hold a Master's degree in International Cooperation Studies, where I gained an interdisciplinary knowledge in international affairs and political and social issues. My research interests lie at the intersection of development studies, political behavior, international relations, security, political sociology and religion.    

I previously conducted a quantitative research on the impact of political surprises on public attitudes in Middle East. I am also passionate about NGOs and social initiatives, as I was the president of a social initiative that aimed to teach the managerial skills to the civil society. 

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Xinyu Lin (Manal) is a researcher in International Relations specialising in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She holds a PhD in International Relations from Shanghai International Studies University.

Her research focuses on conflict dynamics and foreign policy in the MENA region, with particular expertise in Lebanon. Her doctoral dissertation examined Lebanon’s foreign relations from the perspective of sectarianism. She has conducted fieldwork in Lebanon and undertaken academic visits to Qatar and the United Kingdom. Her publications include work on Lebanon and China–Middle East relations. She is fluent in Arabic, Chinese, and English, with basic knowledge of Persian and German.

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Ahmad Sleet is an MA student in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University and a researcher at the university's Arab Center Chair in Social Sciences and Humanities.

He holds a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from Birzeit University. His research interests lie at the intersection of phenomenology, hermeneutics, political ontology, and secularism, and he is currently working on an MA thesis on the twin problems of anxiety and being-with in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger.

His paper "At the Limit of the Archive: The Duty to Preserve, the Legitimacy of Deliberateness" appeared in the edited volume Experiments in the Archival Commons (Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, 2026). He has presented "Thinking Against the Museum in Palestine: Or, On the Necessity of Deliberation Before Declaring Death" at the First Conference of the Faculty of Arts, Birzeit University (2026), and "Conditional Alterity in Emmanuel Levinas: On the Limits of Identitarian Philosophy" at the university's Graduate Students' Conference (2026), where it received the Best Research Poster Award.

Eman Demerdash holds a Ph.D. in Euro-Mediterranean Studies (Political Science) from Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science, where her doctoral dissertation analyzed the political roles of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF in Catalan separatism. She also holds a Master’s degree in Euro-Mediterranean Studies, focusing on the rise of far-right political parties in Europe, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Statistics.  

Her research sits at the intersection of comparative political systems and the sociology of sports, examining how athletic institutions, fan cultures, and subcultures reflect and shape regional and national identities. Her broader work explores European separatist movements, the evolution of far-right political dynamics, and cross-regional questions of political legitimacy and social mobilization across Europe and the Middle East.  

She has published research in the Project on Middle East Political Science Studies and the European Studies Review, addressing topics from Yugoslavian sports identities to comparative regional capacities between the European Union and the Arab League. She has presented her work at international academic conferences, including the IPSA World Congress of Political Science and Georgetown University's POMEPS-CIRS workshop, and actively serves as a volunteer peer reviewer for academic publications such as the European Journal for Sport and Society and Sport in Society.

Ahmed Meliani is a PhD researcher in Marketing at the ERMOT Laboratory, Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of Fez, Morocco. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. His academic work is situated at the intersection of marketing, consumer research, and contemporary social and cultural transformations.

His research interests focus on inclusive marketing, multicultural marketing, consumer behavior, diversity and representation in marketing, identity-based consumption, advertising, and brand communication. He is particularly interested in understanding how consumers from different cultural and social backgrounds perceive and respond to marketing practices, and how dimensions such as culture, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, and social identity shape consumer experiences, attitudes, trust, engagement, and behavioral intentions.

A central dimension of his research explores how brands can communicate effectively and responsibly with increasingly diverse consumer populations while accounting for cultural differences, identity, representation, and inclusion. He is especially interested in these questions within MENA and emerging-market contexts, where rapid social, cultural, and economic transformations are reshaping consumer-brand relationships and creating new challenges for marketing theory and practice.

Methodologically, Ahmed works with systematic literature reviews, bibliometric analysis, quantitative and qualitative research approaches, and conceptual framework development. His current research seeks to advance a multidimensional understanding of inclusive marketing by examining who is represented, how inclusion is operationalized in marketing practices, why it matters to consumers and organizations, and what outcomes it generates.

Through his research, Ahmed aims to contribute to a more culturally informed and inclusive understanding of consumer behavior and to develop research that connects marketing scholarship with the realities of diverse and multicultural societies.
 

Lina Azaiez is a Master's student in Cooperation and Development at the University of Pavia. They hold a double Master degree in Migration Studies from the University of Tunis El Manar and the University of Palermo. Their research examines freedom of movement and the border regime in the Mediterranean area.

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Aleix Juárez Martínez is a historian and a researcher specialising in international relations and security. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Barcelona and a Master’s degree in International Relations, Security and Development from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he specialised in international security, conflict studies and the politics of the MENA region.

His academic and professional experience focuses on Euro-Mediterranean relations, regional security, conflicts and geopolitical developments in North Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining SSL-MENA, he worked as an intern at the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), contributing to research, policy analysis, publications and international events addressing Euro-Mediterranean affairs.

His research interests include conflicts and security dynamics in the MENA region, the role and influence of sub-state actors, particularly armed groups, and the political and economic dimensions of armed conflicts, including war economies. He is also interested in geopolitical competition in the Mediterranean, the role of external actors in the MENA region, and the evolving relationship between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

He is a native speaker of Catalan and Spanish and is proficient in English, French and Italian. He also has working knowledge of German and is currently developing his knowledge of Arabic.
 

Mesia Di Mauro is an Italian International Relations graduate specialising in the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region. Her interests include migration, gender, reproductive rights and human rights, with a particular focus on North Africa. Her Master’s research examined abortion rights and feminist activism in Morocco. She has also gained experience with civil society and humanitarian organisations in Italy, Morocco and Türkiye.

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Natalia Tsamalashvili is a Georgian researcher specializing in Middle East and African affairs, with a focus on security governance, geopolitics, foreign policy, and regional power competition. Her work examines political and security dynamics across the Middle East, North Africa, the Red Sea, and the Horn of Africa, with particular attention to external interventions, state sovereignty, and governance in conflict-affected contexts.

Natalia holds an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s degree in African Studies (EIMAS), completed across the University of Porto, the University of Bayreuth, and Bordeaux Montaigne University, with thesis supervision from Sciences Po Bordeaux. She completed the programme as an Erasmus Mundus Excellence Scholarship recipient. As part of her master’s research, she conducted fieldwork in Kenya, gaining first-hand experience in qualitative research and engaging with local perspectives and stakeholders. She also holds a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Oriental Studies (Arabic Studies) from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, where she graduated with honors.

Her professional experience includes research and policy analysis with Concordis International, the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Centre for African Studies at the University of Porto. Her work has involved conflict and political analysis, desk research, media monitoring, stakeholder engagement, and analytical writing on security and geopolitical developments across Somalia, Sudan, the Sahel, and Central Africa.
Her interdisciplinary background in Middle East and African studies allows her to approach regional developments through a comparative and transregional perspective.
 

Mohamed Vall Ahmed Seivir is a PhD Student in Economics at the University of Sfax, Tunisia. His research interests lie at the intersection of development economics and emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, human capital, technological adoption, and structural transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa and the MENA region. His work examines how countries with different levels of productive, institutional, and human-capital capacity can adopt and benefit from emerging technologies.

His research combines quantitative methods, including econometric analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), with policy-oriented approaches to development and technological change. He has also conducted research on Mauritania’s AI preparedness, examining the roles of productive capabilities, human capital, and regulatory capacity. Alongside his academic research, he has gained policy experience at Mauritania’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, working on economic analysis, data collection, and inflation forecasting.

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Saif Alislam Eid is an Egyptian Political Researcher and early-career researcher specializing in authoritarianism, state repression, contentious politics, and Middle Eastern international relations. He is currently affiliated with the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) in Doha, Qatar.

Eid holds a Master of Arts in Political Science and International Relations (GPA 3.64). His primary scholarly agenda investigates the micro-dynamics of state coercion, youth mobilization, and resistance repertoires in post-2013 Egypt, examining how civil society and dissident networks tactically adapt when conventional institutional and public spaces are foreclosed. His broader research portfolio focuses on contemporary Middle Eastern geopolitics, analyzing structural shifts in Egyptian foreign policy, transactional diplomacy, and regional alignment strategies following the October 7, 2023 catalytic shock.

In addition to his academic research, Eid possesses extensive experience in qualitative discourse analysis, primary Arabic archival curation, and scholarly media production, including producing and hosting research-driven audio initiatives such as the MASRY podcast. His scholarship has been presented at leading international conferences, including the Australian Political Studies Association (AusPSA), the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), and the American Political Science Association (APSA). His analytical and policy contributions are featured across peer-reviewed platforms and international research networks, including Noria Research.

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Aamina Al-Yahia in her last year at the University of Florida studying Anthropology and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Growing up in a Syrian-American household and witnessing the Arab Spring, she became interested in the law as a means of establishing transitional justice. 
Through her studies, Aamina has discovered a deep love for classical political theory and contrasting that with people’s lived experiences. She hopes to translate this into a career in law and governance by attaining a JD/MA. 

To gain experience in the field, she worked as a Political Science Research Intern at MIT, investigating the role of belief in Divine Intervention in Warfare and political legitimacy in diaspora groups. She has also authored a paper published in the University's of Florida's Journal for Undergraduate Research--Exposed Horrors: Violence’s Sociopolitical Impact in Post-Assad Syria.

Outside of her studies and work, she enjoys reading, calligraphy, going to art museums, traveling, and spending time in Florida’s beautiful outdoors. She enjoys entering new spaces and learning from others’ perspectives, allowing her to learn from those around her and foster understanding in new spaces.

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Fatima Zahra Znioi is a PhD candidate at the University of Warsaw and a researcher at its Centre of Migration Research. Her current research examines political remittances, diaspora politics and EU migration governance, with particular attention to how Moroccan diaspora communities contribute to political and intercultural exchange between Europe and Morocco. Her broader research interests include migration diplomacy, skilled mobility and Euro-Mediterranean relations. She also writes on migration, politics and public affairs for Obserwator Finansowy, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Warsaw Enterprise Institute and Morocco World News. She is the founder and President of the Institute for Migration Diplomacy and Policy, an independent organization promoting evidence-based policymaking and informed public debate on migration, diplomacy and public affairs.

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