MAPPING THE PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE ON WOMEN AND GENDER IN THE ARAB REGION
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT
Sara Mourad, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Program Coordinator of Gender & Women’s Studies
American University of Beirut
Sara Mourad is an Assistant Professor in the Media Studies program. She works at the intersection of media studies, feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and queer studies. Her current research explores the role of media in the formation and expression of sexual subcultures and identities in postwar Lebanon. It examines gender and sexual non-conformity in television talk shows, literary texts, digital publications, and films to understand the shifting boundaries of publicity in contemporary Arab societies. Sara earned her BA in Political Science at the American University of Beirut and her PhD in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in the International Journal of Communication, the Journal of Communication Inquiry, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and Jadaliyya.
Research interests: intersection of media, cultural studies, feminist theory, and queer studies. Her current research explores the role of media in the expression of gender and sexual dissent and the formation of queer and feminist subcultures and identities in postwar Lebanon. It examines gender and sexual non-conformity in television talk shows, literary texts, digital publications, and films to understand the shifting boundaries of publicity in contemporary Arab societies.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO
Martina Rieker, Ph.D.
Director, Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies The American University in Cairo
School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Martina Rieker is the Director of the Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at The American University in Cairo. The Institute hosts an MA program in Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East/ North Africa with three specializations: Gendered Political Economies, Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East/ North Africa and Geographies of Gender and Justice. Current research, with Hanan Sabea, includes Gendered Urban Precarities: A Knowledge Network (Cairo, Cochabamba, Georgetown, Ibadan, Mumbai, Ramallah, Shanghai) with York University (Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) 2017-2023); Remaking Societies, Remaking Persons: A Supranational Forum for Memory Work with University of Western Cape, University of Ghana Legon, and Makerere University. (Mellon Foundation, 2018-2021). Publications include: Handbook on Gender and Cities, Linda Peake and Martina Rieker, Editors (Elgar, forthcoming 2019); Rethinking Feminist Interventions into the Urban. Linda Peake and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Routledge 2012); Comparing Cities: Middle East/ South Asia. Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Oxford University Press 2010); Urban Margins: Envisioning the Global South. Guest Edited Issue by Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Social Text 95 (2008); Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Palgrave Press 2007).
Research interests: Critical geographies, Urbanism, Precarity, and Methodologies
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH
Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, Ph.D.
Professor, English Department
Coordinator of the Women’s Studies Minor
Nawar Al-Hassan Golley is Professor in literary and cultural theory and gender and women's studies at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. Al-Hassan Golley is the author of, Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies. Shahrazad Tells her Story (Texas University Press: 2003), editor of Arab Women's Lives Retold. Exploring Identity Through Writing (Syracuse University Press: 2007), co-editor of Mapping Arab Women’s Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within (American University in Cairo Press: 2012) and Guest Editor of HAWWA: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World‘s Beyond Boundaries: Exploring Arab Women’s Autobiographical Narratives (Dec. 2014). Al-Hassan Golley is the founding Director of the United Arab Emirates Gender and Women’s Studies Consortium and organizer of its first conference on Gender and Women’s Studies in the Arab Region (March 7-9, 2012). She has organized several international conferences and has presented many papers at international conferences such as the Berkshire on the History of Women, National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). She has published book chapters and articles in prestigious scholarly journals. In both her research and teaching, Al-Hassan Golley adopts an interdisciplinary approach drawing on her research interests in Critical and Literary Theory, Autobiography Theory, Postcolonial Literatures and Discourses, Feminism, and Arab Women’s Writings. Al-Hassan Golley is a regular commentator on gender-related issues in the media.
Research and Training areas: Women’s writings; Self-writing; Postcolonial literature and studies; Feminist theory and women and gender studies; Gender and feminism in the Middle East; Women’s movements.
BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY
Lena Meari, PhD
Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Department of Social and Behavioral Science
Acting Director, Institute of Women Studies
Lena Meari, was born in Haifa to a refugee family from Al-Birweh village. She has integrated in her academic training and research various disciplines including: anthropology, psychology as well as gender studies and development. She has taught and conducted research at Birzeit University and the University of California, Davis. After completing her PhD she spent a semester in the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University working on developing her PhD dissertation titled “Sumud: A Philosophy of Confronting Interrogation” which investigates the transforming colonial relations in colonized Palestine from the perspective of the interrogation-encounter.
Dr. Meari’ research interests are in the geopolitics of knowledge production, decolonized methodologies, colonial structures and colonial relations, the politics of sumud, revolutionary subjectivity, anti-colonial feminist theory, and critical approaches to the concept of development with emphasis on Palestine and the Arab World.
Research interests: geopolitics of knowledge production, decolonized methodologies, colonial structures and colonial relations, the politics of sumud, revolutionary subjectivity, anti-colonial feminist theory, and critical approaches to the concept of development with emphasis on Palestine and the Arab World.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Suad Joseph, Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor, Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies
University of California, Davis
Suad Joseph is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and scholar of Middle East gender and family studies. She founded a group leading to the establishment of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association; she founded the Association for Middle East Women's Studies and co-founded its internationally recognized journal – Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies; she founded the Arab Families Research Group; and a six-university consortium. She co-founded the Arab American Studies Association and the Association for Middle East Anthropology. She was the president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the main professional association for scholars of the Middle East. She co-founded the Women and Gender Studies Program and founded the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Research, the largest such prize in the United States; the graduate mentor award by the Consortium for Women and Research, and the Diversity Leadership award and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award by UC Davis. She is General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures- the first encyclopedia of its kind, which Choice, the magazine for librarians, ranked as “essential” for libraries. She has edited or co-edited 8 books, and published over 100 articles. For the past decade and half, she has offered training in proposal writing and research design to young scholars in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Dr. Joseph’s research has focused on the relationships between religion and politics, family and the state, gender and citizenship, children and rights, and culturally specific notions of selfhood.
Research interests: Gender and citizenship; Family and child socialization; Family and state; Human rights and discourses of selfhood.
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences
Seteney Shami, Ph.D.
Director General
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences
Seteney Shami is founding Director-General of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences since 2012. She is an anthropologist from Jordan and obtained her BA from the American University of Beirut and her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. After establishing the first graduate department of anthropology at Yarmouk University, Jordan, she moved in 1996 to the regional office of the Population Council in Cairo as director of the Middle East Awards in Population and the Social Sciences (MEAwards). In July 1999, she joined the Social Science Research Council in New York (from which she is currently on leave) as program director for the program on the Middle East and North Africa (currently) and the program on Eurasia (until 2010) and the program on InterAsia (since 2008). She has been a visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University, University of Chicago, Stockholm University, and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (Uppsala). Her fieldwork has focused on Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, and the North Caucasus. Her research interests center on issues of ethnicity and nationalism in the context of globalization, urban politics and state-building strategies, and population displacement and transnational mobility. Publications include the co-authored book (with Mitchell Stevens and Cynthia Miller-Idriss) Seeing the World: How US Universities make Knowledge in a Global Era (Princeton University Press 2018); edited volumes Middle East Studies for the New Millennium: Infrastructures of Knowledge (co-edited with Cynthia Miller-Idriss, NYU Press 2016); Publics, Politics and Participation: Locating the Public Sphere in the Middle East and North Africa (SSRC Books and Columbia University Press, 2009), and “Occluding Difference: Ethnic Identity and the Shifting Zones of Theory on the Middle East and North Africa” (co-authored with Nefissa Naguib), in Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa: Into the New Millennium, S. Slyomovics and S. Hafez, eds., Indiana University Press, 2013
WATER, ENERGY, FOOD NEXUS WORKING GROUP
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT (AUB)
Mohamad Abiad, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Faculty Agricultural and Food Sciences
American University of Beirut
Dr. Mohamad Abiad is an Associate Professor of Food Processing and Packaging at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut (AUB). He also holds an adjunct faculty position at the School of Packaging at Michigan State University (MSU). Dr. Abiad has a BE in Civil Engineering from AUB (1998), an MBA from the Lebanese American University (2002), and an MSE (2004) and a PhD (2009) from Purdue University.
Research interests: Dr. Abiad’s research interests includes rheology of foods, polymers, emulsions and biomaterials; development of functional membranes for food packaging applications; food packaging design and development for traditional local foods; as well as investigating issues related to sustainability and recycling as it relates to the agro-food sector. Dr. Abiad is well published with more than 23 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals as well as 40 presentations in international and national conferences and meetings.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO (AUC)
Hani Sewilam, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Director, Center for Sustainable Development
American University of Cairo
Research interests & related experience: Sustainable Development and Natural Resources Management; Safe Wastewater use in Agriculture; Artificial Intelligence Modeling; Decision Support Systems; Integrated Water Resources Management
Related experience: Prior to joining AUC as a professor for sustainable development and water resources management, Dr. Sewilam coordinated water management capacity development activities for United Nations. He is also working at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany as the academic director of the Department of Engineering Hydrology and executive director of the UNESCO Chair on Hydrological Changes and Water Resources Management. From 2002 to 2010, Sewilam worked as the deputy director for the Department of Engineering Hydrology at the RWTH Aachen University. He managed many international research and capacity building projects in 21 countries. In 2008, he established the first North African Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE Cairo).
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH (AUS)
Kazi Fattah, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
American University of Sharjah
Research Interests: Before joining AUS, Dr. Fattah worked as an environmental engineering consultant in Canada and as a faculty member at the University of Asia Pacific in Bangladesh. His research interests are in the design, operation, optimization and environmental management of water and wastewater treatment systems; removal and recovery of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) from wastewater; the treatment of desalination reject water; and water reuse and application of membrane in water treatment. He is actively involved with the Water Environment Research Foundation, an international research body, and a reviewer for various journals and conferences.
Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa Khamis
Professor, Department of Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences
Teaching Areas: Chemistry and Environmental Sciences
American University of Sharjah
Research Areas: Wastewater treatment technologies, wastewater reuse in agriculture, plant response and physiology as affected by saline nutrients and draught. Physico-chemical methods for analysis, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics in solution phase. Protein-nucleic acid interactions as well as spectroscopy at low temperatures.
BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY (BZU)
Ahmed Abu-Hanieh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
Birzeit University
Research interests: Sustainable Energy and resource efficiency
Related experiences: Dr. Abu-Hanieh helped establish a new master’s program in sustainable engineering at BZU. He obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from the Free University of Brussels. His specialties include: active control of vibrations; operations and technology management; robotics; analog and digital control of mechanical systems.
LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (LAU)
Hussein Hassan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Food Science and Technology
Lebanese American University
Research interests: Non-microbial food safety and food processing, in specific, assessing the effects of processing technologies on the quality of locally made foods, in addition to identifying and preventing the occurrence of toxic residues in foods manufactured and marketed in Lebanon.
Related experiences: Dr. Hussein Hassan received his Ph.D. in Food Process Engineering from McGill University, Canada. He is the recipient of the George Stewart International Competition Award (2011) by the Institute of Food Technologists (USA), in addition to the Stumbo Paper Competition Award (twice in 2010 and 2011) by the Institute of Food Thermal Processing Specialists, USA.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS (UCD)
Bryan Jenkins, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Bryan Jenkins teaches and conducts research in the areas of energy and power, with emphasis on biomass and other renewable resources. He has more than thirty years of experience working in the area of biomass thermochemical conversion including combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis. His research also includes analysis and optimization of energy systems. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses on energy systems, heat and mass transfer, solar energy, and power and energy conversion, including renewable energy and fuels, economic analysis, environmental impacts, fuel cells, engines, electric machines, fluid power, cogeneration, heat pumps, thermal storage, and other technologies. He is a recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the US Department of Energy for exceptional contributions to the development of bioenergy, and the Linneborn Prize from the European Union for outstanding contributions to the development of energy from biomass. Dr. Jenkins in Co-PI of the SRTP project and has submitted a proposal to UC Davis Global Affairs to convene WEF Nexus Committee at UC Davis.
Andre Daccache, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
University of California, Davis
Research interests: Dr. Daccache’s research focuses on precision irrigation, remote sensing, crop and soil spacial variability, hydraulics of pipeline systems, crop modeling, water resources management, irrigation engineering, and climate change impact analysis.
INTERESTED UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS (UCD) FACULTY:
Stephen Kaffka, Ph.D.
Director of the California Biomass Collaborative and Extension Specialist, Department of Plant Sciences
University of California, Davis
Research Interests: plant commodities and products; field crops; vegetable crops; natural resources and environment; soil, plant, water, nutrient relationships; management of saline and sodic soils and salinity.
Related Experience: Dr. Kaffka participates on several advisory committees for the California Energy Commission and California Air Resources Board, including ex officio member of the Bioenergy Interagency Work Group. From 2003 to 2007 he was director of the Long Term Research on Agricultural Systems Project. As director he led the development of current and new projects focusing on sustainable agriculture. His commodity assignments include sugar and oilseed crops. Since coming to U.C. Davis in 1992, he has also carried out research on water quality and agriculture in the Upper Klamath Basin, and the reuse of saline drainage water for crop, forage, energy biomass feed stocks and livestock production in salt affected areas of the San Joaquin Valley. He has received meritorious service awards from the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists and the Soil and Water Conservation Society, is past president of the California chapter of the American Society of Agronomy, and past section leader for American Society of Agronomy’s division on environmental quality.
Khaled Bali, Ph.D
Irrigation Water Management Specialist
Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center
University of California, Davis
Dr. Khaled Bali is currently the Irrigation Water Management Specialist at the University of California Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, CA. He has been with UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources since 1992 and served in different capacities as irrigation and water management advisor in Imperial County (1992-2016), UCCE county director in Imperial County (2009-2016) and two years as interim director of the UC Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville (2012-2013 and 2014-2015). He received his PhD in soil physics from UC Davis (1992), MS degree in irrigation and drainage from UC Davis (1987), and BS degree in soil and irrigation from the University of Jordan (1984). He is responsible for designing, implementing, and conducting educational and applied research programs in irrigation, drainage, water management, water quality, soil salinity, waste management, reuse of wastewater for irrigation and nonpoint source pollution control practices. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jordan (2006-07) and conducted research on reuse of wastewater for irrigation and constructed wetlands to treat wastewater.
Daniele Zaccaria, Ph.D.
Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist
Department of Land, Air and Water Resources
University of California, Davis
Dr. Zaccaria specializes in agricultural water management and irrigation. Zaccaria completed his Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering at Utah State University. He served as scientific officer at the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies in Italy before joining the UC Davis faculty in 2013. His research interests include agricultural water management, irrigation, agriculture, fruit and nut trees, environment and natural resources. His work focuses on modern agricultural water management solutions to improve resource efficiency in irrigated agriculture. Resource efficiency aims to decouple economic growth from environmental burdens. When this concept is applied to irrigated agriculture, it requires that design and management of irrigation systems enable growers to enhance the economic profits from farming activities, without generating adverse environmental effects.
He helps farmers optimize soil, water, and energy management, and find best practices for efficient and sustainable irrigation. When scaling-up efforts to the district and project level, he uses analytical approaches for performance evaluation and modernization of irrigation delivery systems.
OTHER KEY UCD UCDAR PROJECT PERSONNEL
Suad Joseph, Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
University of California, Davis
Dr. Joseph founded the BCBCB Consortium in 2001 and continues to serve as the Chair. Her anthropological field work has focused on her native Lebanon, politicization of religious sects, and the relationships between local community and community organizations and the state. She founded many enduring organizations: the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology; the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies; the Arab Family Research Group; and co-founded the Arab American Studies Association and the Association for Middle East Anthropology. She is founding Director of the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis and was awarded the UC Davis Prize – the largest undergraduate teaching and research prize in the United States.
GENDERING STEM EDUCATION
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT (AUB)
Livia Wick Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chairperson
Sociology, Anthropology and Media Studies Department, American University of Beirut (AUB)
Dr. Wick studies the political and cultural dimensions of medicine and childbirth in and around urban centers of the Arab World. Her research in Palestine tracks how these environments become objects for the re-organization of infrastructure in times of crisis and war, the appearance of different professional bodies, knowledge and practices, and the sites for new forms of cultural expression. She is an anthropologist at the American University of Beirut. Dr. Wick holds a PhD in the History, Anthropology and Science, Technology and Society from MIT.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO (AUC)
Martina Rieker Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Director or the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, American University of Cairo (AUC)
Martina Rieker is the Director of the Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at The American University in Cairo. The Institute hosts an MA program in Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East/ North Africa with three specializations: Gendered Political Economies, Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East/ North Africa and Geographies of Gender and Justice. Current research, with Hanan Sabea, includes Gendered Urban Precarities: A Knowledge Network (Cairo, Cochabamba, Georgetown, Ibadan, Mumbai, Ramallah, Shanghai) with York University (Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada) 2017-2023); Remaking Societies, Remaking Persons: A Supranational Forum for Memory Work with University of Western Cape, University of Ghana Legon, and Makerere University. (Mellon Foundation, 2018-2021). Publications include: Handbook on Gender and Cities, Linda Peake and Martina Rieker, Editors (Elgar, forthcoming 2019); Rethinking Feminist Interventions into the Urban. Linda Peake and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Routledge 2012); Comparing Cities: Middle East/ South Asia. Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Oxford University Press 2010); Urban Margins: Envisioning the Global South. Guest Edited Issue by Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Social Text 95 (2008); Gendering Urban Space in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Kamran Asdar Ali and Martina Rieker, Editors. (Palgrave Press 2007).
Hanan Sabea Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology, American University in Cairo (AUC)
Hanan Sabea is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the American University in Cairo. Her research on dynamics of land and labor on plantations in colonial and postcolonial Africa, state-subject relations, and the production histories and memories, is part of her forthcoming monograph Present Pasts: Coloniality of Power and Laboring Subjects on Sisal Plantations in Tanzania. Her current research projects include shifting meanings of the political; meanings, affects and the aesthetics of revolutionary times; irregular migration; gender and regional gatekeeping constructs; and knowledge production in the social sciences. She has published articles in Africa, Journal of Historical Sociology, African Studies, Feminist Africa, and International Journal of African Historical Studies, International Journal of Working Class History, Cultural Anthropology. Additionally, she is co-editor of Visual Productions of Knowledge: Toward a Different Middle East (Cairo Papers in Social Science, American University in Cairo Press) and How to Read the Arab World? Alternative Perspectives from the Social Sciences. (Cairo: Al-Ain Publishing House); Academic Dependency and the Professionalization of the South: Perspectives from the Periphery (Spanish-English Volume published by University of Cuyo (Argentina) and Latin American Council for Social Science (CLACSO); and Oral Histories at the Times of Change: Gender, Documentation and the Making of Archives (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press).
Dr. Sabea is interested in science on knowledge production in the social and human sciences, ethnography as a political project, and critical rethinking of the relations to and through “things”/objects in our everyday. Dr. Sabea is fascinated by the idea of how the laboratory and the classroom are sites of knowledge production, as well as sites for the making of subjects. She would like to explore the making of object-subject relations in science classrooms and labs and how this builds on “common sense” knowledge about the social in which such training and learning about “science” takes place. How young men and women are taught “science” in terms of the practices and conceptions of what is nature, what is the object and who is the subject, and how they relate to them, is a critical step to unpacking the making of gendered subjects in the social. How are teachings and talk about tools, experiments, materials in the lab and the classroom articulated with what assumptions about sociality and the relation between humans and non-human or subject/object; how is the mess in sorting out the details of that which is labeled nature, science, objective, subjective, etc. erased in the attempt to establish the premise of operating with objects and concepts of science? How is contingency accounted for and explained? How do objects then create relations in the lab and the classroom that get to be organized around already prevailing understandings about power that populate the larger social worlds in which they operate, and how can a focus on object agency (following Latour) enable a different conceptualization of relations among participants in the lab and the classroom. Her overall interest would be pursuing ethnography of science classrooms and labs, and in archival research (both oral and written archives) of histories of production of relations to objects and people in labs and classrooms, should complement the research in classrooms. She proposes a synthesis between feminist trajectories and actor-network theory (ANT), with special focus on object-subject relations, social messiness in everyday practices, and a shift in knowledge metaphors to how we know, how we relate and sense rather than merely how we see and hear.
Rania Siam Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Biology; American University in Cairo (AUC)
Dr. Siam is the chair of the Department of Biology and a professor of microbiology at the School of Science and Engineering. During her tenure in the AUC biology department, she contributed to its positive evolution through initiating several programs. She pioneered the evolution of the biology department from a predominantly teaching department to a research and teaching department, conducting selected cutting-edge research that is critical to the region. Through aggressive and successful external research grants, she equipped a contemporary molecular biology laboratory and the first working high throughput genomic laboratory in Egypt. Different faculty members in the department and their graduate students are currently utilizing these laboratories, to pursue diverse research. She was the founding director for the graduate program in Biotechnology. She coordinated inter-disciplinary teaching, obtained external funding both through grants and fund raising to fund graduate students, performed program assessments and obtained national accreditation. The program reached full capacity one and half year after it was initiated and is now one of the most successful graduate programs in our institution. Professor Siam holds a PhD in microbiology and immunology in 2001 from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She earned an MBBCh from Ain Shams University, Faculty of Medicine. Siam held several post-doctoral positions including McGill Oncology Group, Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She also held positions at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratories, La Jolla, CA, USA and The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA. Recently she was a visiting scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research.
Dr. Siam’s research interests lie in understanding the environmental communities residing in harsh environments in the Red Sea, particularly the "polyextremophiles" that constitute the microbial assemblage of deep and hot brines pools in the Red Sea. Twenty-five brine pools have been described to date in the Red Sea, however, knowledge of the microbial communities that inhabit these pools, and how these organisms are affected by and contribute to the geochemical properties of their extreme environments, remains sparse. My research team explores the unique microbial communities in these environments to understand the microbial evolution of such microbes that allow them to survive under harsh environments. Additionally, they exploit such unique microbial communities to discover enzyme with unique properties that can be used in biotechnology. She is also interested in biology education and fostering rigorous science education, to girls, in developing countries. The idea is to utilize biology to create thinkers and responsible ethical citizens.
BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY
Ghada Karaki Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering, Birzeit University (BZU)
Dr. Karaki joined Birzeit University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. Prior to coming to Birzeit, she worked as an Associate Researcher at the Bauhaus University - Weimar in Germany. Ghada received her B.A. in civil engineering from Birzeit University and her MSc. and Doctorate degree from Bauhaus University- Weimar in 2012. Ghada’s teaching interests include structural analysis, _nite element methods and earthquake engineering. During her work in Birzeit, she has developed at the department of civil engineering a new structural mechanics lab, and numerical analysis lab. Her primary research interests are Performance-based earthquake engineering, rehabilitation of existing buildings, structural reliability and risk analysis, uncertainty and sensitivity studies in structural analysis and design, optimization in structural design.
Dr. Karaki is interested in performance-based seismic assessment which has developed in the last two decades. The main aim of performance-based assessment is to identify the damage pattern in buildings such that an educated decision can be made regarding the seismic risk and the needed strengthening of the building. Buildings designed and constructed in Palestine prior to the introduction of seismic codes in late the 1990s are of need of examination regarding their structural behavior. Furthermore, the design of new buildings emphasizes on the additional seismic forces in the analysis stage and deemphasizes the importance of detailing in the construction stage, which will lead to a higher level of uncertainty in behavior of the structural system in an earthquake. Performance-based seismic assessment offers a consistent framework for engineers to evaluate how a building may behave in an earthquake, in particular when a building that does not meet a number of conventional prescriptive requirements and responds in a highly non-linear manner with potentially mixed-ductility response.
Encouraging women researchers and engineers to lead in the different areas advances their engineering and research careers. Furthermore, this wide spectrum of areas allows women to work with different groups of people e.g. international researchers, local engineers and planners, and municipality and government officials, to build a wide network of relations, and to empower women who already are part of these groups. It also showcases women’s abilities, and their impact on the anticipated results. This gives women researchers and engineers the platform to present their work to the society and establish a role model for other young women and their families, which forces change regarding women in engineering.
LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (LAU)
Iman Osta Ph.D.
Assistant-Dean and Professor
Department of Education, Lebanese American University (LAU)
Iman Osta is an associate professor of mathematics and computer education. She is, since October 2014, Assistant-Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. She has chaired the Department of Education at LAU from October 2010 to September 2012. She is currently Acting Chair of the Department of Education.
Dr. Osta is a Fulbright Fellow. She was affiliated, in Fall 2013, to the University of Maryland (UMD) as a “Fulbright Visiting Scholar” to conduct research in collaboration with the team of the Mathematics Education Center at UMD.
She holds a PhD in “Didactique des Mathématiques et de l’Informatique” and a DEA in IMSS (Informatique et Mathématiques en Sciences Sociales) from Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble; a DEA and “maîtrise” in Social Sciences, and a CAPES in mathematics from the Lebanese University. Throughout her career, she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in mathematics education, curriculum design, research methodology, educational technology, STEM Education, and others in the fields of pre- and in-service teacher preparation for teaching mathematics, as well as computer education for teachers.
At the national level, Iman Osta contributed to the development of the Lebanese curriculum for informatics and chaired the national Evaluation Committee for the math and informatics curricula. From 2007 to 2011, she led and worked on a collaborative project with Michigan State University for developing three courses in Educational Technology, with sensitivity to the gender differences regarding males’ and females’ abilities and styles of using technology, as well as the social and educational biases regarding this issue.
She has published research work on the use of computer technology in the teaching and learning of geometry, on student learning assessment and curriculum evaluation, on the national Lebanese math exams, and on the learning of algebra.
Dr. Zina Sawaf, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Gender Studies
Zina Sawaf is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Lebanese American University. Previously, she was an Early Career Fellow with the Arab Council for the Social Sciences. A social Anthropologist, she has written and published on ethnographic practice in the Arab region, divorce and the state in Saudi Arabia and the history of anthropology in Lebanon. Her book project, “Encountering the State: Women and Intimate Lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,” based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Arabian Peninsula, is a study of embodied encounters between women and the processes, offices, and officials of the state, as well as its material culture.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Linda Bisson Ph.D.
ADVANCE Associate Director, and Policy and Practices Review Initiative Co-Director
Professor and Maynard A. Amerine Endowed Chair, Viticulture and Enology
Dr. Bisson is a Professor and Geneticist in the Agricultural Experiment Station in the Department of Viticulture and Enology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. She co-chairs the Policy and Practices Committee of the ADVANCE program. She served for several years as chair of the CAP Oversight and Appellate Committees. Dr. Bisson served as Department Chair from 1990-1995. She was awarded Honorary Research Lecturer for the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society of Enology and Viticulture (2000). Dr. Bisson held the Maynard A. Amerine Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology from 1997 to 2008. Dr. Bisson is the Science Editor for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. Dr. Bisson received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UC Davis Extension (2002), the Excellence in Education Award from Associated Students of UCD (2004), and the DEVO Excellence in Teaching Award (2012) and was the recipient of the James M. Craig Lectureship from Oregon State University (2011). The textbook that she co-authored, “Principles and Practices of Winemaking” won Le Prix en Oenologie from the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (1998). Dr. Bisson has served for three years as Chair of the Academic Senate, Davis Division, of the University of California. Dr. Bisson’s main area of research is the investigation of utilization of carbon and energy sources in yeast, and her work led to the identification of the first eukaryotic glucose sensor, the SNF3 gene, and to the discovery the HXT (HeXose Transporter) genes of Saccharomyces.
Clare Cannon Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Human Ecology, UC Davis
As Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of California, Davis Dr. Cannon is excited to continue her research in applying feminist theories and methods to issues and problems related to social inequalities, primarily related to the environment. She currently has two main research lines:
1) Applying theories of intersectionality to studies of the environment; and
2) Applying queer and feminist theories to policies and interventions around personal-based violence. Her research continues to evolve in analyzing social vulnerability due to climate change related disasters and socio-environmental health in environmental justice communities. She received her doctorate in Sociology from the interdisciplinary City, Culture +Community program at Tulane University. For more information, visit cannon.faculty.ucdavis.edu.
Lijuan (Dawn) Cheng Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis
Dr. Cheng is an associate professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Davis with her PhD degree earned from the University of California, San Diego. Her primary research area is in structural engineering with a strong focus on innovative materials and systems and renewal of infrastructures using advanced composite materials. This is to address our nation’s challenging transportation needs via creating the next generation safe/long-lasting infrastructures in civil engineering field. Her research group here at UC Davis works on design, mechanics and durability of innovative composite materials and systems, and the short-/long-term performance of such structural systems. As a scholarly researcher and an educator, her educational career goal is to help establishing a program that integrates the wide research and teaching participation of underrepresented, minority and diversified student groups into training the next civil engineer generation in the cutting-edge multidisciplinary research field. Prior to joining in UC Davis, Dr. Cheng was actively involved in the SWE chapter at UC San Diego, EERI and PEER Student Leadership Council (participated in many outreach activities such as the Research Experience for Teachers). She has also been on the faculty advisor panel for the Society of Women Engineers Little Sister Day and has been the research advisor of more than 30 female students at UC Davis. She has consistent track records of mentoring female and underrepresented students at UC Davis.
Suad Joseph Ph.D.
Director University of California Davis and Arab Region Consortium (UCDAR)
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, UC Davis
Suad Joseph is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and scholar of Middle East gender and family studies. She founded a group leading to the establishment of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association; she founded the Association for Middle East Women's Studies and co-founded its internationally recognized journal – Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies; she founded the Arab Families Research Group; and a six-university consortium. She co-founded the Arab American Studies Association and the Association for Middle East Anthropology. She was the president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the main professional association for scholars of the Middle East. She co-founded the Women and Gender Studies Program and founded the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Research, the largest such prize in the United States; the graduate mentor award by the Consortium for Women and Research, and the Diversity Leadership award and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award by UC Davis. She is General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures- the first encyclopedia of its kind, which Choice, the magazine for librarians, ranked as “essential” for libraries. She has edited or co-edited 8 books and published over 100 articles. For the past decade and half, she has offered training in proposal writing and research design to young scholars in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Dr. Joseph’s research has focused on the relationships between religion and politics, family and the state, gender and citizenship, children and rights, and culturally specific notions of selfhood.
Denneal Jamison-McClung Ph.D.
UC Davis ADVANCE Program Coordinator, Associate Director of UC Davis Biotechnology Program, Director of BioTech SYSTEM
Denneal Jamison-McClung leads the UC Davis ADVANCE team as Program Coordinator and is responsible for managing and supporting the program and initiatives. In this role, she supports Faculty Director Karen McDonald by facilitating communication and outreach, project programming, NSF reporting, and logistical needs of the ADVANCE program. Dr. Jamison-McClung is also Associate Director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, where she is involved in academic program administration for the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology (DEB) doctoral degree program and coordinates the NSF CREATE-IGERT training program in transgenic plant technologies.
As an educator, her primary focus is interdisciplinary training in the life sciences and engineering, with emphasis on biotech-related regulatory, policy, ethics, entrepreneurship and IP paradigms. She administers graduate programs that aim to develop a broad set of professional skills in doctoral students, enhancing their ability to work across disciplines, communicate effectively and move research discoveries from the laboratory into the marketplace. In addition to graduate education, Dr. Jamison-McClung is also an instructor for the UC Davis undergraduate University Honors Program (UHP) and serves as the Director of the BioTech SYSTEM, a regional consortium promoting K-14 STEM education.
Dr. Jamison-McClung earned her PhD in Genetics with a Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology and her BS in Biological Sciences with a minor in Women’s Studies from UC Davis.
Mona Monfared Ph.D.
Lecturer, Molecular and Cellular Biology Dept., UC Davis
Dr.Mona Monfared is a Lecturer in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at UC Davis. She teaches BIS102: Structure and Function of Biomolecules and BIS103: Bioenergetics and Metabolism. She received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UC Davis, working on understanding the molecular genetics of the female side of plant reproduction. Dr. Monfared did her postdoctoral research at the Plant Gene Expression Center at UC Berkeley/USDA studying genes involved in seed pod and leaf development as well as stem cell maintenance. In addition to her biology research, she has pursued a passion for teaching and has been an instructor at a number of schools in the San Francisco Bay Area (Santa Clara University, St. Mary's College, Holy Names College, and UC Berkeley Extension). At UC Davis, she has a research program that focuses on biology education and professional development for graduate students. Her current projects include using writing to increase engagement in high enrollment biochemistry courses, building a teacher training program for graduate students, and building a shared resource for robust assessments across the upper division biology core courses. Creating an inclusive and empowering classroom environment is a priority for her and exploring ways in which to do this is a constant thread throughout her work.
Dawn Sumner Ph.D.
Professor
Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Davis
Dr. Sumner earned her B.S. with honors in Geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1989 and her Ph.D. in Geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995. She then returned to Caltech as an O.K. Earl Postdoctoral Fellow. In 1996, Dawn joined the Faculty at UC Davis. Most of Dawn’s research focuses on understanding Earth’s early environments and microbial ecology, emphasizing the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and its environmental effects. In recent years, her research expanded to include studying the microbial ecology of ice-covered Antarctic lakes that are analogs for ancient life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system. In addition, she works with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, using the rover Curiosity to explore ancient environments in Gale Crater on Mars. Dawn regularly shares her research with the public and is dedicated to helping scientists of all backgrounds prepare for and succeed in scientific careers.
TRANSFORMING REFUGEE MENTAL HEALTH
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT (AUB)
Mariette Awad
Associate Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Awad is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the American University of Beirut. She has been a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Intel Mobile Group, and MIT. She was invited by CVC labs, Google and Qualcomm to present her work on machine learning and image processing. She has published a book “Efficient Machine Learning” in 2015 and has more than 70 conferences, book chapter, and journal publications. She has received 21 grants to support her research including two multidisciplinary multi-million-dollar grants from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and Intel. Prof. Awad is active in her community: she has created the Women affinity group at AUB and the Lebanon chapter. She also organized the first summer school on artificial intelligence in 2015 and a hackathon on social innovation in March 2017 both at AUB. Prior to her academic position, she was with IBM System and Technology group in Vermont as a wireless product engineer. Over the years, her technical leadership and innovative spirit has earned her twice management recognition, two business awards, and 10 patents at IBM. Her current research interests include machine learning, data analytics and internet of things.
Mohamed Fouad
Assistant Research Professor and Co- Director of the Refugee Health Program, Global Health Initiative (GHI)
Department of Epidemiology & Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences
Dr. Fouad’s current research interests focus on Syrian displacement inside Syria and the neighboring countries, as well as the impact of this crisis on their health and well-being. From 2002-2012, Dr. Fouad served as Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded Syrian Center for Tobacco studies, where he coordinated multiple health promotion studies. Fouad is a co-author in several commentary publications in The Lancet as well as the international Journal of Public Health on assessing the Syrian’s health crisis and the response to this devastating event. Currently, he is a PI of a project funded by Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University on Refugee Health Policy with a focus on NCDs among Syrian refugees in three countries; Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. Also, he is a co-PI of a project funded by Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises- ELHRA on identifying ways to promote health systems resilience in contexts of protracted displacement through systems analysis of UNRWA provision to Palestine refugees displaced by the Syria crisis. Fouad is serving as a commissioner in two Lancet Commissions; AUB Lancet Commission: Syria and the crises in global governance, health and aid, and UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health.
Lilian A. Ghandour, PhD MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences
Dr. Ghandour received her PhD from the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from AUB. Dr. Ghandour has been involved in the design and analyses of various national and international surveys related to youth mental health. Mainly, her research focuses on understanding the epidemiology of substance-related and other addictive behaviors, specifically the nonmedical use of psychoactive prescription drugs, underage and harmful alcohol consumption, as well as general mental health disorders in children and adolescents. Dr. Ghandour is also involved in translational research, conducting local epidemiological research to help inform national policies and practices. She has received several extramural research grants and awards for her work on youth mental health, and has published extensively in high tier peer-reviewed journals.
At AUB, Dr Ghandour has been responsible for teaching and contributing to several undergraduate and graduate courses in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public health. She has taught a variety of student populations (undergraduate health science students, graduate public health students, medical students) as well as physicians and health professionals, both at and outside of AUB.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO (AUC)
Kate Ellis
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Dr. Kate Ellis is an assistant professor of psychology at The American University in Cairo, and serves as both the graduate programs director and the coordinator of the leadership in mental health course. She is also a clinical psychologist who works predominantly with refugees and individuals who have experienced trauma. Her research focuses on the impact of violence and conflict, with a focus on young people. Dr. Ellis has published several peer reviewed works regarding the experiences of young people exposed to community and political violence). She has also published works on the mental health experiences of ‘looked after children' and the challenges faced by detained youth offenders). Dr Ellis has recently completed an empirical study, training lay counselors from a Sudanese refugee population to deliver narrative exposure therapy within their community. Currently, Ellis is involved in projects to develop and evaluate intervention programs in conflict-affected settings such as Egypt, upscaling mental health interventions in low economic countries and developing accessible online, culturally appropriate interventions for trauma in Egyptian Arabic.
BIRZEIT UNIVIERSITY
Rita Giacaman
Professor of Public Health
Institute of Community and Public Health
Dr. Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory. The founder of the Institute, Rita's current work focuses on the development of measures to assess psycho-social health which are relevant and appropriate for context, and ways in which interventions could generate active and positive resilience and resistance to ongoing war like conditions, especially among youth.
Members of the Institute work in teams, combining various disciplines and sub-disciplines in conducting research. Our approach in multidisciplinary, we draw on classical public health, medical and other disciplinary theories and methods. In addition, we also draw on sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, engineering and other disciplines whenever relevant to our research questions. The Institute’s collaborative research interest include: Non-communicable diseases and associated factors, War and health, Women’s health, Mental health, Violence and health (political, domestic and communal), The development of metrics to assess the effects of violence on health. Young people’s health and wellbeing, Adolescent health and well being, and Demography and population (especially fertility, but also maternal, infant and child mortality).
Weeam Hammoudeh
Assistant Professor
Faculty Member - Institute of Community and Public Health
Weeam Hammoudeh holds a PhD and MA in Sociology from Brown University, and an MPH from Birzeit University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Community and Public Health, and formerly ACSS (Arab Council for the Social Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Researcher at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Birzeit University. She is interested in understanding how political and social transformations impact health, psychosocial wellbeing, and population processes, particularly in conflict areas; as we as how health systems and social institutions develop and shift in relation to political, economic, and structural factors, particularly in developing countries and post-colonial settings. Her dissertation research utilizes a political-economic and mixed-methods approach to understanding changes in Palestinian fertility in the oPt. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund, Open Society, the Palestinian American Research Center, and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences. She has extensive research experience in health and population studies, including research on reproductive health, maternal and child health, women’s health, demographic processes and change, as well as quality of life and population psychosocial wellbeing, and mixed-methods approaches.
LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERDSITY (LAU)
Carmel H. Bouclaous
Assistant Professor
Gilbert & Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine
Dr. Carmel H. Bouclaous is Assistant Professor at Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon. She teaches social medicine and global health and serves as the social medicine discipline coordinator. Dr. Bouclaous holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva-Switzerland, a Master of Public Health and a Master of Nutrition from the American University of Beirut-Lebanon. Her research interests lie at the intersection of public health, nutrition, development, and sustainability. She focuses on the effects of the social, political and economic environments on health. She has a number of peer-reviewed publications. She was the appointed Director of Academic Affairs at the school and was involved with faculty and student-related issues including academic recruitment and peer review of faculty members. She is the NBME’s Executive Chief Proctor for LAU responsible for instituting the customized assessments and the subject exams of the American National Board of Medical Examiners. As member of the school’s accreditation and registration steering committee, she is championing the governance and administration standard required for accreditation by the World Federation for Medical Education. She is advisor to the Lebanese Medical Students’ International Committee (LeMSIC) and LAU’s Medical Student Association (MSA). With LeMSIC, she coordinates the medical student exchange program where the school welcomes a number of international students annually. She oversees the activities of MSA such as national screening events, health awareness campaigns, and fundraising activities. Prior to joining LAU, Dr. Bouclaous worked extensively in healthcare management. She is currently serving a six-year term as council member of her hometown of Beit El Chaar -Lebanon.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Suad Joseph
Distinguished Research Professor, Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies;
Director, UCDAR, Global Affairs
Dr. Suad Joseph is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and scholar of Middle East gender and family studies. She founded a group leading to the establishment of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association; she founded the Association for Middle East Women's Studies and co-founded its internationally recognized journal – Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies; she founded the Arab Families Research Group; and a six-university consortium. She co-founded the Arab American Studies Association and the Association for Middle East Anthropology. She was the president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, the main professional association for scholars of the Middle East. She co-founded the Women and Gender Studies Program and founded the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: the UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Research, the largest such prize in the United States; the graduate mentor award by the Consortium for Women and Research, and the Diversity Leadership award and the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award by UC Davis. She is General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures- the first encyclopedia of its kind, which Choice, the magazine for librarians, ranked as “essential” for libraries. She has edited or co-edited 8 books, and published over 100 articles. For the past decade and half, she has offered training in proposal writing and research design to young scholars in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Patrick Marius Koga
Assistant Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences
UC Davis School of Medicine
Dr. Koga’s research interests include the global refugee crisis impacts on host countries’ health systems and populations; posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war refugees and victims of oppression and violence from the Middle East and Central Asia; sub-threshold PTSD as an occupational risk in law enforcement officers; refugee telehealth in UNHCR camps to link up “upstream” with “downstream” public health communities; sociocultural, religious/spiritual, and brain correlates of moral disengagement in dehumanizing others, war atrocities, and terrorism. Dr. Koga is a founder of the Sacramento Ulysses Project which offers pro bono psychological counseling to traumatized refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria, using a demedicalized model for refugees with subthreshold PTSD to reduce post-resettlement trauma and comorbid conditions while increasing their resilience and social integration.
Raquel E Aldana
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity; Professor of Law
Raquel E. Aldana is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity at UC Davis and a Professor of Law at the School of Law. She joined UC Davis in 2017. Aldana is a graduate of Arizona State University (earning a bachelor’s degree in English and another in Spanish) and Harvard Law School. She was a professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before joining the McGeorge School of Law faculty in 2009. Her scholarship has focused on transitional justice and criminal justice reforms in Latin America as well as immigrant rights in the United States. She has taught immigration law and international human rights, lawyering for immigrants, “crimmigration,” criminal law and procedure, international labor law, and Latin American comparative law. She founded and directed the McGeorge School of Law’s Inter-American Program, which trains bilingual and bicultural lawyers for transnational careers or to work with the growing Latino population in the United States. She served as the school’s associate dean for faculty scholarship, 2013–17. She is co-editing From Extraction to Emancipation: Development Reimagined, a forthcoming book from the American Bar Association. She was recently re-elected to the Latin America and Caribbean Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative, and previously served as the co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala in 2006 and 2007.