Senior Fellows

Nadia Abu-Zahra is Associate Professor of International Development and Global Studies and a member of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa. Nadia Abu-Zahra has has worked on projects in health, environmental issues, human rights, and education, supported by Oxfam, UNICEF, the European Union, the Open Society Foundation, and Global Affairs Canada. She was previously based at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, and currently serves on the Reconciliation Committee of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and on the Boards of the Group of 78, the Al-Qazzaz Foundation for Education & Development, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. She is co-author with Adah Kay of Unfree in Palestine: Registration, Documentation and Movement Restriction. The collective efforts of Community Mobilization in Crisis — a project she co-directs, to develop open educational resources for use locally and internationally — have garnered several awards.

Saad El Hakmi is a current Research Assistant at Ryerson University working on various projects related to immigrant communities in Canada. He has a Masters of Arts in Immigration and Settlement Studies at Ryerson University. His research interests are in the labour market experiences of immigrants, immigration laws and policies, and identity of migrants.

Master Research Paper Publication: El Hakmi, Saad (2017) Professional Organizations Versus International Medical Graduates and Foreign-Trained Engineers

Diana El Richani is a Beiruti anthropologist based in Ottawa and is currently the Project Manager of the Community Mobilization in Crisis project. She holds a BA in Sociology and Anthropology, with a double major in Philosophy, from the American University of Beirut. Most recently, she holds an MA in Anthropology from the University of Ottawa. Her MA thesis focused on the political imaginaries of the alternative and the ways through which they navigated the complex political terrain during the Beirut municipality elections in 2016. Her interests include social movements and community mobilizations in the Middle East, relationships to the state and its apparatuses, and extends to questions on postwar architectures, transitional justice, and ideas of decolonial cultural expressions.

Ola Mohajer manages peacebuilding programs in Sudan and South Sudan. Previously, she was a Senior Policy Advisor in the Ontario Public Service working on matters of international trade and government information/data. Prior to joining government, Ola worked for the United Nations, consulting on refugee employment in Jordan and country-wide results and reporting in Zimbabwe. Ola holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. All views expressed are her own. 

Aisha Shibli is a Research and Policy analyst at the University of Waterloo, where she is responsible for the interpretation of corporate bylaws, policies and procedures. She previously worked for the Centre for Security Governance as an Editorial Supervisor for Stability: International Journal of Security and Development. Aisha has worked in various non-profit organizations, a private for-profit organization, and a think tank, and has policy analysis and advising experience with the University of Waterloo, the Ontario Caucus, and Senior Administrators at Habitat for Humanity across Canada. Aisha holds a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science, with a special focus on Canadian and Indigenous politics and relations. Her interests include human rights and justice, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous and minority rights, self-governance and autonomy.

Nawroos Shibli is currently a Ph.D candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA). Her research will analyze the discourses, structures and behaviours that perpetuate and intensify the prevalence of acute Islamophobia and racism against Muslims at home and abroad, and how the international community has responded to the human rights impacts of Islamophobia as a transnational phenomenon. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Global Governance from the BSIA where she focused on the socio-political implications of Islamophobic and Orientalist discourses in mainstream American media, for which she was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal award at University of Waterloo. She also graduated with a Joint Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History, with a Global Governance and International Relations Specialization, and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies from UW.

Previously, Nawroos was a program assistant for the International Law Research Program (ILRP) at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She has also held various research assistant positions at the University of Waterloo in the department of political science and McMaster University in the department of anthropology. During her university career, she was a Graduate Research Fellow at CIGI and a transcriber for the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee). She has also served as a Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Security Governance.

Currently, Nawroos serves as an Editorial Assistant for Stability: International Journal of Security and Development.