Adam Hanieh is Professor of Political Economy and Global Development at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of International and Area Studies (IIAS) at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His current research focuses on issues of political economy, oil, and capitalism in the Middle East. His most recent book is Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2019 British International Studies Association, International Political Economy Group Book Prize.
Hèla Yousfi is Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the University Paris Dauphine, DRM (UMR CNRS 7088) (France). She received her Ph.D. from the University Paris West University Nanterre in 2006. She is specialized in the field of sociology of organizations. She has conducted research and published on the topic of political culture and management practices transfer in Arab countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Her other areas of interest include institutional change and economic development, postcolonial studies of management and social movements.
She is the author of She is the author of: Trade unions and Arab revolutions: The Tunisian case of UGTT (March, 2017), Routledge Research in Employment relations.
Dr. Tamirace Fakhoury is an associate Professor of Political Science and Global Refugee and Migration Studies at the Global Refugee Studies Research Group (GRS) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen. She is also the Scientific advisor to the Kuwait Chair at Sciences Po in Paris (2020-2022). Dr. Fakhoury has taught at the summer sessions at the University of California in Berkeley between 2012 and 2016. In fall 2018 and summer 2019, she will be a visiting fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research where she will carry out a project on the European Union’s role in the polycentric governance of displacement.
Estella Carpi is an Associate Professor in Humanitarian Studies at University College London. Social anthropologist by training, she researches places which are part of her life. With a PhD in the Anthropology of Humanitarianism from the University of Sydney (2015), most of her work has revolved around the identity politics of humanitarian aid and welfare, as well as urban and faith-inspired forms of aid provision. After studying Arabic in Damascus (2005 and 2007), she worked for several research and academic institutions in Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE, and Turkey. She is author of several academic articles in English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Arabic. She published one book in Italian "Specchi Scomodi. Etnografia delle Migrazioni Forzate nel Libano Contemporaneo" (Mimesis, 2019) and "The Politics of Crisis-Making. Forced Displacement and Cultures of Assistance in Lebanon" (Indiana University Press, 2025).
Salwa Ismail is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research focuses on everyday forms of government, urban governance and the politics of space. She has published widely on Islamist politics and on state-society relations in the Middle East. She is the author of Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism (I.B Tauris 2003 & 2006), and Political Life in Cairo’s New Quarters: Encountering the Everyday State (University of Minnesota Press 2006). Her recent publications have appeared in Third World Quarterly 2011, Social Research 2012, Contemporary Islam 2013.
Sara Fregonese is Lecturer in Political Geography in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Her expertise is in urban conflict and urban geopolitics, and her research interests include conflict and urban space in Lebanon, and the spatial and experiential implications of terrorism and urban security in European cities. She is the author of War and the city: Urban geopolitics in Lebanon (Bloomsbury/IB Tauris, 2019) and co-author of The radicals’ city. Urban environment, polarisation, cohesion (Routledge, 2013). She is currently co-leading two research projects: Humanities for Resilience (financed by Arts and Humanities Research Council) and Vivre en ville avec la terreur : quels effets du terrorisme diffus sur les ambiances urbaines? (financed by Initiative d’ Excellence Paris/Seine).
Daniel Meier received his PhD in political science from the Graduate Institute in Geneva and his Habilitation (HDR) in political science from the Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA. He recently won a Junior-Professor Chair at Sciences Po Grenoble leading a research program on the Geopolitics of Borders in the Middle East. Since 2001, he conducted extensive fieldwork researches in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and Iraq. Member of the Association of Borderland Studies, “regional editor” for the Journal of Borderlands Studies, his scientific interest focuses on identity and spatial issues, with a special dedication for border conflicts and borderland issues in the Middle East. His last monograph (in English) titled Shaping Lebanon’s Borderlands: Armed Resistance and International Intervention in South Lebanon (IB Tauris, 2016). He is also the editor of In-between border spaces in the Levant (Routledge, 2020) and co-editor with Rosita Di Peri of Mediterranean in (dis)order: Space, Power and Identity (Michigan U Press, 2023).
Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, researched and taught in Beirut, Paris and Berlin, and has been since 2007 Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books include: The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published in 15 languages; Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky; The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives; The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising; and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising.
Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, researched and taught in Beirut, Paris and Berlin, and has been since 2007 Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London. His many books include: The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published in 15 languages; Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky; The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives; The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising; and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising.
Francesco Cavatorta is professor of political science at Laval University in Quebec City Canada. His research focuses on dynamics of democratization and authoritarian resilience in the Arab world. He is currently working on a project examining the relationship between neoliberal economics and Salafi political parties.
Rosita Di Peri is associate professor at the Department of Culture, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, Italy where she teaches ‘Politics, Institutions and Cultures of Middle East’ and 'Mashrek Politics and Institutions'. Her research interests are on democracy and authoritarianism in Middle East with a focus on Lebanon. She is the scientific coordinator of the Summer School ‘Understanding the Middle East’ and member of the board of SeSaMO (Italian Association for Middle Eastern Studies). She published several articles in Italian and international Journals, such as ‘Rivista Italiana di Politiche Pubbliche’, ‘Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica’, ‘British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies’, ‘Politics Religion and Ideology’, 'Mediterranean Politics', ‘Oriente Moderno’ and ‘Meridiana’. She authored a book on the politics of contemporary Lebanon (Il Libano contemporaneo, Carocci, Roma 2017, in Italian) and co-edited several books and Special Issues.
Dr. Tamirace Fakhoury is an associate Professor of Political Science and Global Refugee and Migration Studies at the Global Refugee Studies Research Group (GRS) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen. She is also the Scientific advisor to the Kuwait Chair at Sciences Po in Paris (2020-2022). Dr. Fakhoury has taught at the summer sessions at the University of California in Berkeley between 2012 and 2016. In fall 2018 and summer 2019, she will be a visiting fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research where she will carry out a project on the European Union’s role in the polycentric governance of displacement.
Raymond Hinnebusch is professor of International relations and Middle East politics at the University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He is founder and director of the Centre for Syrian Studies. His major works include Egyptian Politics Under Sadat (Cambridge University Press 1985); The International Politics of the Middle East (Manchester University Press, 2003, 2nd ed. 2015) and Syria: Revolution from above (Routledge: 2001);. He co- edited The Foreign Policies of Middle East States, with A. Ehteshami, Lynne Rienner Publishers,2nd edition, 2014; Turkey-Syria Relation: between Enmity and Amity, with Ozlem Tur, Ashgate Publishers, 2013; Sovereignty after Empire: Comparing the Middle East and Central Asia, with Sally Cummings, Edinburgh University Press, 2011; The Iraq War: Causes and Consequences, with Rick Fawn; and Syria: From Reform to Revolt: Politics and International relations, with Tina Zintl, Syracuse University Press, 2014.
Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Political Science at Saint Joseph University – Beirut; holder of a PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris I – Sorbonne, and a CAPES in Philosophy and Psychology from the Faculty of Pedagogy at the Lebanese University; author of many publications and research articles. Representative of the President of the Republic at the Permanent Council of the Francophonie.
Professor Kiwan was advisor to the Minister of National Education and Fine Arts 1991-1992 and to the Minister of Culture and Higher Education 1992-1996. She was appointed as expert in many programs of the World Bank and UNESCO. In 2007, she was nominated member of the United Nations University Council until 2013.
Professor Kiwan is nominated by UNESCO member of the senior experts group in charge of revisiting the Report of Jacques Delors on "Education in the 21 century”. She is also member of the Senior advisory experts Committee of the program MOST at UNESCO.
Sensitive to human rights and women rights, she has a lot of articles on these issues and is representative of Lebanon in the Executive Board of the Arab Women Organization. Her priorities in action and research are the following topics: civil society, political parties, pressure groups, political culture and gender issues.
Paola Rivetti is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations in the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. She is an Associate Editor at the journals Iranian Studies and Partecipazione e conflitto. She is author of Political Participation in Iran from Khatami to the Green Movement (2020) and the co-editor of Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention (2018) and Continuity and change before and after the Arab uprisings: Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt (2015).
