Riwan Bellour (Wolfson College)

College: Wolfson College

Department: Faculty of History

Thesis title: ‘Algerian Migration and Protection in Ottoman Tunisia: between Cross-imperial Dynamics and Legal Pluralism’

Supervisor: Dr Natalya Benkhaled-Vince

Biography:

Before joining the University of Oxford as a DPhil student in History, I completed an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London and a Master’s degree in Global and Transnational History at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris and the École Nationale des Chartes. My academic training has been rooted in the modern Middle East and North Africa, migration history, and the study of political and legal affiliations across imperial settings.  

My doctoral research examines nineteenth-century Algerian migration to Ottoman Tunisia, with a particular focus on legal pluralism, protection, and cross-imperial dynamics. I am interested in the movements, legal statuses, everyday experiences, and political imaginaries of Algerian families and individuals who settled in Tunisia, and in the strategies through which they navigated overlapping Ottoman, French, and local frameworks of power and belonging. More broadly, my work explores how mobile populations shaped governance, social relations, and imperial authority in the modern Maghreb. 

I have presented my research at several academic venues, including the Congress of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Scientific Interest Group (GIS MOMM) in Lyon, where I gave a paper on consular registration and the scope of protection, the Seminar on the Historical Anthropology of Maghreb Societies in the Modern Period (16th–19th Centuries) organised by Professor Isabelle Grangaud, and the Seminar History and the Historian Confronting Quantitative Methods organised by Professors Claire Zalc and Claire Lemercier, both at the EHESS, Paris.

Research interests:

Modern Middle East history; North African history; the Ottoman Empire; migration and mobility; legal pluralism; protection and political affiliation; consular and diplomatic history; colonial and imperial history; transnational history.

Naji Safadi (Nuffield College)

College: Nuffield College

Department: Department of Politics and International Relations

Supervisors: Dr Hashem Abushama and Professor Yaacov Yadgar

Biography: I am a PhD student in International Relations at the University of Oxford. My thesis explores questions of political subjectivity and hegemony in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Embracing notions of contradiction, paradox, and fluidity, I trace the shifting terrains and scales of Jawlani anticolonial praxis amid Zionism’s attempts to produce colonial subjectivities. My research is supervised by Hashem Abushama and Yaacov Yadgar, and funded by Nuffield College and the ESRC.

I draw on long-term ethnography, in-depth interviews, photography, oral history, and archival materials in Arabic and Hebrew. To study how people make sense of their complex social worlds, I engage with Marxist and queer theory, critical geography, and political anthropology.

At Oxford, I have taught undergraduates across departments and disciplines in courses on International Relations, Geographies of Debt, Marxism, and Politics in the Middle East. In the Department of Politics and International Relations, I co-founded and co-convene the interdisciplinary Sovereignty and its Discontents (SAID) seminar. I have published my writing and photography in collaboration with the Institute for Palestine Studies.

Previously, I completed an MPhil in International Relations (funded by Nuffield College & ESRC) at Oxford; and a BSc in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics at the University of Amsterdam, where I received the Middle East Studies Center’s Best Thesis Prize.

Arwa Mokdad (St Hugh’s College)

College: St Hugh’s College

Department: Department of Politics and International Relations

Thesis title: ‘Peripheries in the State System: National, Regional, and International Interests in Oman, Yemen, and Lebanon’

Supervisor: Professor Stathis Kalyvas

Biography: Arwa Mokdad is a Middle East analyst with expertise in geopolitics, development, and public policy. Currently, she is a DPhil candidate researching the role of periphery communities in state building at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Stathis Kalyvas. Her work focuses on local, regional, and international influences on state-periphery relations within the Middle East. She has taught at the University of Oxford and is a visiting scholar at Peking University where she teaches ethnography and Arabic Language and Culture. Her research interests include peace and conflict studies, Gulf politics, and regionalization. 

She has worked and lived extensively in the MENA region, including a non-profit in Oman and refugee camps in Lebanon. Her work experience includes NGOs (Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation), think tanks (the International Center for Dialogue Initiatives, the Red Sea Initiative, NESA), and international institutions (the United Nations). Her articles have been featured in the Harvard Middle East Journal, Responsible Statecraft, and the New Arab. Arwa holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in International Studies with a speciality in Human Rights and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Alice Catanzaro

College: St Antony’s College

Department: School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography

Supervisors: Professor Walter Armbrust and Professor Morgan Clarke

Biography: My research explores how Muslims navigate living an ethical life through seeking expert guidance in the form of fatwas (non-binding Islamic legal opinions) in multi-mediated environments like Morocco. It addresses the intersection between the anthropology of ethics and media studies. I will conduct fieldwork in Sefrou, Morocco addressing state radio and television fatwas in addition to in-person oral and telephone fatwas at the local Sefrou Religious Council to understand the interplay between multiple forms of mediation and hierarchical Islamic guidance. Most importantly, I will work specifically with questioners to determine the importance of these answers, their use, and the mix of guidance they consume. In light of the variety of fatwa ‘platforms,’ my research seeks to answer a number of questions related to the relationship between the media of communication and the processes of production and consumption of state fatwas. How does this process contribute to or challenge existing anthropological literature on mass mediation and forms of mediated Islamic guidance, both hierarchical and non-hierarchical? What kind of questions are being asked to different media? What kind of decisions are Sefrouis making when they approach one medium over another? How does the eventual answer impact their lives? Ultimately, what does seeking expert guidance mean in an everyday context?

Prior to starting my DPhil, I completed a MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford where I studied the intersections between early newspaper fatwas and questions of science and the unseen. I received a BA in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. I have spent extended time in Morocco conducting independent research through a Fulbright grant into the creation of modern Islamic scholarly authority at institutions of higher religious education. I also worked as a research assistant, conducting fieldwork for multiple American anthropologists studying topics including spiritual security and youth Sufism.

Nour Obeid (St John’s College)

College: St John’s College

Department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Supervisor: Professor Mohamed-Salah Omri

Biography: I’m a DPhil candidate in Arabic and Comparative Literature at AMES. I obtained my MA and BA degrees in English Literature from The American University of Beirut, with a focus on theatre and philosophy. My current research explores modern Arabic literature in the Mashriq and Maghrib, with particular attention to personal libraries/archives, the novel, and theatre. 

Research interests: Arabic and Comparative Literature, Theatre, Private Libraries, Cultural History, Philosophy and Literature.

Daniel Miller

College: St Antony’s College

Department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Supervisors: Professor Raihan Ismail and Professor Michael Willis

Biography: Daniel Miller is a doctoral candidate in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at St Antony’s College, where he holds the H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani scholarship in Contemporary Islamic Studies. His research explores the communities of exiled Islamist activists from the Arab world living in London from the last decades of the 20^th century, focusing on how these transnational networks led to the exchange of ideas and impacted relations between the UK and states of the Arab world. He also retains broader research interests in the history of the Arab Gulf, particularly the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia, and contemporary Islamic political thought. He has been invited to present his work at a number of high-level academic conferences, including the British Association of Islamic Studies (BRAIS) and the University of Chicago’s Middle Eastern History and Theory conference (MEHAT).

Before starting his DPhil, Daniel received a Distinction in his MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford (St. Peter’s College), as well as First Class Honours in his BA in European and Middle Eastern Languages (French and Arabic), also from the University of Oxford (Pembroke College), for which he was also the recipient of the Roger Bannister Scholarship for academic and sporting excellence and the Brian Wilson Prize for Arabic. He has also previously served as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Middle East Review blog.

Research interests: Political Islam, Modern Islamic Thought, Saudi Arabia, British policy in the Middle East

Selected publications:

Miller, Daniel. 2024. ‘Language Use and Perceptions in Morocco: Reviewing the Success of the National Charter for Education and Training’. Oxford Middle East Review 8 (1): 80–116.

Sara Katona

College: St Antony’s College

Department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Thesis title: ‘Cultural Production and Constructions of Moroccanness after 2011: Ethnographic, Phenomenographic, and Policy Perspectives’

Supervisor: Professor Michael Willis

Biography: Grounded in interdisciplinary training, my research examines Moroccan national identity at the intersection of cultural anthropology, human geography, and political thought. Living, studying, and teaching across the Mashreq and the Maghreb over the last decade have shaped my analytical perspective and continue to inform both my scholarly work and teaching practice.

I have held teaching and research posts in the USA, Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, China, and Morocco, including teaching identity politics at the American University of Iraq–Baghdad and as an English instructor at Al Neelain University in Khartoum, Sudan.

Research interests: Identity, cultural studies, Maghreb, belonging, postmodernism, local epistemology, care-driven academia

Selected publications:

Journal of Islamic Marketing 

Co-Author – Accepted March 2025 

Zakat Compliance Behavior: Case of Small and Medium Enterprises 

Moving Abroad, edited Palgrave volume 

Author – Published July 2024 

Becoming in Baghdad – when normative meets empirical in a classroom 

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-97-2765-0 

International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation 

Co-Author – Published January 2023 

Service recovery: the moderating role of customer loyalty in the context of Moroccan retail banking 

DOI:10.1504/IJLEG.2023.10057471 

Journal of Islamic Marketing 

Co-Author – Published April 2023 

Antecedents of Charitable Donations (Sadaqah) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does Islamic Religiosity Matter? 

DOI: 10.1108/jima-09-2021-0296 

Zeina Dowidar

College: St Antony’s College

Department: School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography

Thesis title: ‘Sexual Morality and Assault Disclosure in Egypt’

Supervisors: Professor Walter Armbrust and Professor Zuzanna Olszewska

Biography: Zeina Dowidar is a cultural programmer and award-winning audio producer. She is the co-founder of Hekayyatna, a community-driven production house. She combines academic rigour with creative practice and community organising to understand how stories create change.

Her academic background includes a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at King’s College London, and an MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Research Interests: Zeina’s research investigates how sexual morality is learned and negotiated in contemporary Egypt, focusing on how these moral frameworks shape women’s choices around disclosing or concealing their experiences of sexual assault. She examines how sociocultural notions of honour and shame are taught to young women, both at home and in wider society, and how these lessons shape their embodied decisions and practices of disclosure. The research design systematically examines the various sites where sexual morality is taught, interpreted, or enacted to pinpoint how these contribute to women’s decision-making processes around disclosure.

Grounded in praxis, her research actively blends theory and action to promote social change. Central to this work is a survivor-centred workshop series that explores how women understand and navigate their assault disclosure decisions, fostering shared reflection about consent, morality, disclosure, silence, and social reaction. Zeina will also collaborate with frontline organisations addressing sexual violence in Egypt.

Selected publications: 

Dowidar, Z. and Shaker, N. (2025) ‘Egypt’s #MeToo: Sexual Morality, Class, and Gender Politics Across Two Critical Cases’, in #MeToo and the Politics of Transnational Feminism: An Anthology. New York: NYU Press, pp. 66–84. 

Ahmet Furkan İnan (St John’s College)

College: St John’s College

Department: Ruskin School of Art

Thesis title: ‘A Paradoxical Becoming: Abstraction and Historicity in Contemporary Art from Istanbul’

Supervisors: Professor Anthony Gardner and Professor Brandon Taylor

Biography: I’m an art historian, writer and editor working across the intersections of contemporary art and the politics of time, currently reading for a DPhil in History and Theory of Contemporary Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.

I previously studied Archaeology and History of Art at Koç University in Istanbul between 2015-2020, and received my MA in History of Art from University College London in 2021. In my MA thesis, I focused on the work of Sarkis Zabunyan, a Turkish-Armenian artist living in Paris. Examining the ways in which Sarkis’ installation titled Çaylak Sokak (1986) complicates conventional assumptions about the historicity of a work of art, I analysed how the work’s hauntological qualities render the limits of art history visible. 

Before coming to Oxford, I was the managing editor of Istanbul Museum of Modern Art between 2021 and 2023. I occasionally write for art and culture publications based in Istanbul, such as Argonotlar, Varlık, Istanbul Art News and Art Unlimited.

My research at the Ruskin, supported by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge DTP, St John’s College and the Clarendon Fund, concerns the emergence and development of contemporary artistic practices in Istanbul during the 1990s. Through a series of exhibitions, I explore how a new generation of artists configured a paradigm of art making that challenged Turkish modernism’s hegemony by asserting an autonomous sphere of production. I investigate the processes through which this autonomous sphere has gradually lent itself to the demands of a globalising art establishment over the course of the 2000s and 2010s, while claiming that a nuanced analysis of its moment of birth reveals what contemporary art has actually been and what it could have become.

Fatim-Zohra El Malki (Mansfield College)

College: Mansfield College

Department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Thesis title: ‘Governance without Accountability: The Politics of Education Reform in Neoliberal Morocco’

Biography: Fatim-Zohra El Malki is a DPhil candidate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford. Her thesis, Governance without Accountability: The Politics of Education Reform in Neoliberal Morocco, examines how participatory reform narratives have concealed deepening inequality, governance fragmentation, and the coercive restructuring of Morocco’s public education system since the late 1990s. Framed within the lens of authoritarian neoliberalism, her work explores how education policy operates simultaneously as a tool of political legitimation and social control.

Her research highlights the precarious conditions of Moroccan teachers, particularly under the rise of contractual employment, and interrogates the broader implications of education reform for state-society relations. Drawing on social movement theory and critical policy analysis, she challenges the privatisation of public services and argues for reform models rooted in equity, accountability, and local realities.

Fatim-Zohra holds a legal background and has completed advanced studies in law, public policy, and governance. She earned master’s degrees in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (2016) and in Violence, Terrorism, and Security from Queen’s University Belfast (2013). Her academic and professional experience spans legal analysis, policy research, and critical perspectives on institutional accountability, civic space, and the role of the state in shaping reform across North Africa.

Alongside her academic work, she served as Senior Researcher at the Rabat Social Studies Institute on a multi-country project examining decentralisation and inclusive citizenship in North and sub-Saharan Africa. She has also held research positions at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, contributing to work on EU-Maghreb security cooperation, transitional justice, and human rights in post-uprising contexts. Her writing has featured in Jadaliyya, Sada, TIMEP, and the European Council on Foreign Relations, among others.

Research interests: State-society relations in North Africa; the politics of knowledge and reform; education as a site of contestation and governance; criminal justice reform; access to fair judicial systems in the global south.