Somayeh Rahimi is a PhD candidate and Centenary Scholar in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Her PhD project focuses on the transnational (im)mobilities of Iranian women, their drivers and implications for social justice. Her research interests include (im)mobilites, sociolinguistics, intersectionality, ethnography of bureaucracies and feminist ethnographies. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from University College London, an MA in Ancient Iranian Languages and Culture from the University of Shiraz, and a BA in German Translation from the University of Isfahan. Somayeh has many years of experience teaching English as a Foreign Language and English for Academic Purposes, and has taught in a number of countries, including Iran, Turkey and the UK. She is currently working as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at UCL.

Myriam Radhouane is a research and teaching fellow at University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her work is rooted in the international dimensions of education. In particular, she has worked on the training of teachers in issues relating to cultural diversity and migration. Her current research focuses on the schooling of refugee pupils. Alongside her research work, she coordinates several training courses in the field of education in emergency situations and teaches at bachelor’s and master’s levels.

Ayman Qwaider is a specialist in Education in Emergency (EiE) and Inclusive Education.  For over four years, he has worked with the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) as a Community Facilitator and a Consultant. He also worked with UNESCO as an Education Consultant with his expertise in conflict-sensitive education and disability inclusion. Mr Qwaider presents his work into the state of pre-tertiary education in Gaza now and before October 7th 2023. He also talks about some of his inclusive education initiatives (like Gaza Children’s Cinema) in the Gaza strip.

Saida Affouneh is the Deputy President for Digitalization at An-Najah University in the West Bank. Dr Affouneh is a widely published academic and works on digital and e-learning in times of crisis and occupation in Palestine. She is campainger for digital education and social justice projects, especially related to Children’s Right to Education. Dr Affouneh shares insights into the state of education in the West Bank now and before the war on Gaza 2023-2024.

Rana Abu-Zhaya is a Lecturer in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL.  Previously, she was a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth. She is a trained speech-language therapist and has worked with children with Autism and children with developmental language disorders. Her research program focuses on characterizing the multimodal multisensory features of infants’ language environments and examining how infants process information in such environments and learn from them. Specifically, she studies how various multimodal cues (e.g., touch, facial expressions) are combined with speech directed to infants, what kinds of information these cue combinations provide, and how their presence in the input may change as a function of development and differing cultural and linguistic backgrounds. She also explores the mechanisms that allow infants to learn from multimodal language input, and how this learning changes with development and experience.

Abdalhadi Alijla is a Palestinian social and political scientist and science advocate. Abdalhadi is the author of the “Trust in Divided Societies” by Bloomsbury Academics and I.B.Tauris UK., and co-editor of “Rebel Governance in the Middle East”. Abdalhadi is a Non-resident senior fellow at Arab Reform Initiative. He is the 2021 International Political Science Association Global South Award. He is a co-founder of Palestine Young Academy in 2020. He is an Associate Researcher and the Regional Manager of Varieties of Democracy Institute (Gothenburg University) for Gulf countries. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Orient Institute in Beirut (OIB). Since 2021, he is an associate fellow within SEPAD, sectarianism, proxies and de-sectorisation at Lancaster University. He was the Co-Leader of Global Migration and Human Rights at Global Young Academy. Abdalhadi has a PhD in political studies from the State University of Milan and an M.A. degree in Public Policy and Governance from Zeppelin University- Friedrichshafen, Germany.  He has been granted several awards and scholarships, including Gerda Henkel (2022), DAAD (2009), RLC Junior Scientist (2010), UNIMI (2012), ICCROM (2010), Saud Al-Babtin (2002) among others. 

Osman Z. Barnawi is a Professor of Language and Education at the Royal Commission for Yanbu Colleges and Institutes, Saudi Arabia. He is the founding editor of Global South Perspectives on TESOL (Book Series: Routledge-Taylor and Francis Group). His research interests include the intersection(s) of language and political economy, social and education policy studies, the cultural politics of education, multilingual and multicultural studies, Global South studies, and international/transnational education. His recent books are The Past, Present, and Future of Higher Education in the Arabian Gulf Region: Critical Comparative Perspectives in a Neoliberal Era (Routledge, 2023), Transnational Assessment Practices in the Age of Metrics (Routledge, 2023), and International TESOL Teachers in a Multi-Englishes Community: Mobility, On-the-Ground Realities and the Limits of Negotiability (Multilingual Matters, 2022). His works appear in journals such as Language and Education, Critical Studies in Education, and Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, Critical Studies in Language Education, Applied Linguistics (Oxford University Press), Applied Linguistics Review, and British Journal of Educational Studies.

Yamila Hussein Shanna is a scholar, education, activist and public speaker dedicated to socio-economic and political justice, especially in Lebanon. Her work focuses on examining matrices of oppression and liberation within the context of settler colonialism and anti-Black racism.

We’am Hamadan is a Palestinian PhD candidate in Education at Cambridge University. Her research focuses on the intersection between education and technology, particularly exploring the transitional journeys of Information and Technology graduates from Higher Education to the labour market and from the labour market and or HE into TechHubs. 

Maya el-Helou – a course instructor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her work involves making sense of everyday life, questioning normative time, and exploring revolutionary temporalities. Maya’s research interests intersect with critical perspectives on memory and identity, making her a valuable speaker on Scholasticide. 

Ramallah and Akka – two undergraduate students from UCL Encampment 2024. They preferred to use pseudonyms for the Webinar event where they will speak to their enactment of decoloniality at UCL.

Rima Karami Akkary is an Associate Professor of Educational Administration, Policy, and Leadership at the American University of Beirut. She chairs the Department of Education AUB and is the program advisor for the Educational Management and Leadership program. She holds a Doctorate in Education from Portland State University her expertise lies in K-12 Educational Administration, focusing on school principalship, organizational change, and educational policy. She is the director and principal investigator of the TAMAM project launched in 2007 to initiate school-based reform and research on how to build leadership capacity for sustainable improvement. The project has partners in 72 schools spanning 9 Arab countries and is a recipient of the 2021-2022 UNESCO-HAMDAN prize for teacher development. Karami chairs the executive committee of Shamaa, and the BOT academic committee at Ahliah School in Beirut, and serves on the executive committees of Taawon Association and Scholar Activists for Change and Learning (SAIL) cluster at AUB.

Joumana Assaf  has been a secondary education teacher since 1997-1998, specializing in science subjects. She holds a master’s and a doctorate in chemistry from France and certificates in education from the Lebanese University and the American University of Beirut. Currently, she is a researcher at the Environmental Sciences Laboratory (PRASE) at the Doctoral Higher Institute of Science and Technology (EDST) – Lebanese University. Assaf has numerous publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals indexed on Scopus, Web of Science, and ORCID. She also serves as a reviewer for international education journals like The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL), E-Learning and Digital Media Journal, and Contemporary Educational Technology. Her dedication to teaching and research fuels her passion for contributing to educational transformation.

Ruba Ali Al-Hassani presented her work at the September 2024 Webinar. She is an Interdisciplinary Sociologist and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Lancaster University’s Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion. Ruba is also a Research Consultant with King’s College London. She focuses on the study of state-society relations to centre and amplify voices on the ground in public discourse, analysis, and policy. Her research particularly focuses on Iraqi studies, law, transitional justice, crime, social control, and social movements. Ruba is a co-founder of the Canadian Association for Muslim Women in Law.

Mustafa Wshyar also presented in September 2024. He is an academic with over fifteen years of experience in teaching, research, and educational consultation. He holds a PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Szeged and an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Central Lancashire. Currently, he serves as a Research Associate at Ulster University and a Senior Lecturer at Koya University. Mustafa’s research, particularly on the “Literary Violence Triangle,” explores trauma, war, and conflict resolution. A polyglot, he is fluent in English, Turkish, Arabic, and Kurdish. He is also a distinguished member of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network, reflecting his commitment to academic excellence and innovation.

Taziri El Omrani spoke at our Webinar in October 2024. She is the first female TV-reporter in Misrata, Libya in 2011 during the so-called Arab Spring. Taziri is an independent Libyan journalist, human rights defender, writer and researcher from Amazigh indigenous culture. She co-founded the Tmazight Women Movement in 2016, managed different projects with different organizations and is a former trainer at DW Academy. This year, she guest lectured on social work and activism at ArteVelde University in Belgium where she resides. She co-authored a book about her experience as an activist in Libya called “ Write to Speak,” a collection of African Women Leaders stories. She also collaborated in a cultural artistic project with Brussel Behoort Ons Toe and the Post Collective.

Brahim El Guabli is an Indigenous, Black and Amazigh scholar from Morocco. He presented at our monthly Webinar in October 2024. Associate Professor of Arabic Studies and Comparative Literature at Williams College, El Guabli is currently Associate Professor Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns Hopkins University. El Guabli is the author Moroccan Other-Archives: History and Citizenship after State Violence (Fordham University Press, 2023), which is a finalist for the African Studies Association’s Book Award, and Desert Imaginations: Saharanism and its Discontents (forthcoming). He is co-editor of Lamalif: A Critical Anthology of Societal Debates in Morocco During the “Years of Lead” (1966-1988) (Liverpool University Press, 2022) and Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024). He is currently completing a third book tentatively entitled Literature and Indigeneity: Amazigh Activists’ Construction of a Literary Field. El Guabli is co-founder and co-editor of Tamazgha Studies Journal and the Amazigh Studies series (Georgetown University Press).