ABOUT ME
THE RESEARCHER

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist. I am also a Palestinian who lived in the Gaza Strip for more than 22 years. I was born in Kuwait for a family of Palestinian refugees. On 1st August 1990, we visited Gaza for a month of summer vacation. The next morning, Sadam Hussein invaded Kuwait, which was followed by the Gulf War. Since then I became a permanent resident in Gaza. I am currently in the UK (Cambridge). Read more details below: 

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I studied for the third year of my preparatory, and secondary school in Gaza. I also completed my BA in English Language and Literature at Al Azhar University of Gaza in 1998, graduating on the honour list. After that, I worked as teacher and trainer of teacher at Gaza governmental schools (Basic, Preparatory and Secondary). In 2005, I won a Saïd Foundation Scholarship to study for an MSc in Higher Education at Oxford University. I graduated from my master’s with distinction and was awarded the Saïd Foundation Second Prize for my distinguished academic and personal achievements. I then returned to Gaza for a period of five years where I worked as a lecturer at two of Gaza’s universities. I also co-founded two centres and, and acted as a founding coordinator of a scholarship program in Gaza.

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In 2012, I won a Gates Cambridge scholarship to study for a PhD in Education at Cambridge, as their first scholar ever from the Gaza Strip and the second from Palestine. A lecturer and teacher before then, during my PhD, I studied the impact of conflict on the higher education experience in Gaza, and how this experience may be evolving in the shifting socio-political context in the Arab world. I passed my PhD with no corrections, and my research was featured prominently at the University of Cambridge. I have also produced four films from my PhD research on Academic Life in Gaza, as well as contributing with articles to academic journals and short pieces to blogs and newspapers such as University World News, Times Higher Education, and Discover Society and others. In 2018, I have been invited to join Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy as a member of their Networks of evidence and expertise.

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Between Jan 2019-Jan 2022, I worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Business Research, working as part of the Global Challenge Research Fund project: Research for Health in Conflict (R4HC-MENA), particularly the political economy of health Workstream which focusses on in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. I led the research on the political economy of health in the Gaza Strip. The report which I produced from this project was featured in academic and media outputs, and recently I have also been awarded the Gavin Reid Prize for my report by the University of Cambridge Centre for Business Research. I also produced several academic, cultural, and creative outputs from this work, which you can review by browsing my website. 

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I then worked as a Research Associate on Close the Gap project at the Faculty of Education in Cambridge. It is very exciting for me to use my knowledge and experience to support innovation for social and epistemic justice in postgraduate admissions at my two alma maters: the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. I conducted about 52 in-depth interviews with professional service staff, academics and students at 8 departments and Doctoral Training centres at Cambridge, as well as analyzed data, produced case studies, contributed to designing innovative initiatives for improving access at Cambridge, and participated in joint initiative co-design workshops. I also supervised four students for their literature reviews on race and epistemic and social justice at Oxbridge. 

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Currently, I am a Research Associate at Centre for Business Research and Bye-Fellow in Education and Academic Development at Queens' College- University of Cambridge.

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I am looking forward for my next adventure! Stay tuned:)