As a political sociologist, public scholar, and UNESCO advisor for the Arab region, I study fractured modernities and how societies rebuild the political imagination and meaning when inherited ways of understanding the world begin to unravel. More recently, I have extended this research into a conversation with science and technology to understand how rapid political and technological change is outpacing societies’ capacity to adapt.
My work is grounded in the Arab world and the Mediterranean basin, where I examine how communities respond to the pressures of authoritarian rule, extractive political economics, forced migration, and the Mediterranean north-south divide. Alongside my research, I work with universities, civil society organizations, and international institutions on cultural policy and civic engagement. As well as strengthening the social sciences and humanities across the Middle East and Europe. I also write essays, fiction, and poetry.
I hold a PhD in Political Sociology and Political Philosophy from the University of Sydney, together with a Master of Arts (Honours) in Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies and a Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University. My teaching and research have included appointments at the University of Sydney, Freie Universität Berlin, the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, the American University in Cairo, Hassan II University of Casablanca, and the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
This site’s title carries a line from French poet René Char which appears in the opening of Hannah Arendt’s Between Past and Future (1961): “Our inheritance was left to us by no testament.” It captures the driving concern through much of my work on how societies inherited fractured pasts without clear guides for imagining futures.
