Scholars

Nur Turkmani
MSc Comparatve Politics

Nur is a Lebanese-Syrian graduate from the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration in the American University of Beirut. She graduated with distinction, and received the Dr. Randa Antoun Award for her public service, civic engagement and academic record. In tandem with her undergraduate degree, Nur interned at the United Nations Development Programme, in the Democratic Governance Sector, as well as the International Centre for Transitional Justice. Through her studies and experiences, she aims to bridge the gap between activism, art and academia. Whilst at LSE, Nour is hoping to focus on gender and popular politics in the Middle East, with an emphasis on the prospects of secular democratisation in Lebanon. After LSE, she aims to be involved in movements that mobilise women to be more active in politics and in shaping the public sphere in Lebanon.

Maya Mamish
MSc Social and Cultural Psychology

Maya Mamish is from Syria. She is a psychology graduate with clinical experience in providing psychological support for individuals affected by displacement and trauma. Maya’s current research interest is focused on understanding the experiences of young people who fled their homes as a result of the Syrian armed conflict. Maya hopes to use her newly acquired knowledge at LSE to contribute to the empowerment of young people, and consider co-producing ideas about what empowering community support projects should look like. If successful, this may influence policy and contribute to the upgrade of psychological, social and economic wellbeing of the young generation. 

Faisal Alkhatib
MSc Philosophy and Public Policy

Faisal is from the UAE and has a longstanding interest in the underlying philosophical issues behind policy making and their effects on society. He has an MA in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews where he served as Vice President of the University’s Philosophy Society. Prior to joining the LSE, Faisal worked in implementing governmental policy for Microsoft. He then moved to the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai where he worked in policy research, focusing on the role of applied ethics in relation to technology policy. Faisal hopes to further develop these research interests whilst at the LSE. 

Andrew Delatolla, Department of International Relations

Thesis title: The Rise of the State in the Non-West: State Formation and State Building in Lebanon and Syria, 1800-1944

Andrew is a final year doctoral candidate in the department of International Relations at the LSE. He holds an MA in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London, a BA in Political Science from Concordia University in Montreal, and a BFa in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University in Toronto. His research interests include sociological perspectives on state formation, state building, and development with particular focus on 19^th and early 20^th century Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria.

Andrew can be contacted at: a.delatolla@lse.ac.uk

Harry Pettit, Department of Geography & Environment

Thesis Title: Living in hope: youth, unemployment, and the promise of a middle-class life in Cairo

Harry is a final year PhD candidate in the Department of Geography & Environment at LSE. His thesis explores the lives of Egypt’s increasing numbers of educated unemployed youth, a population Asef Bayat has recently termed the “middle-class poor”. He exposes both how this group has been historically fashioned, and thereafter how they both experience and negotiate their marginal lives. He particularly focuses on the importance of hope as an affection of marginal living, exploring its social life over time, as well as its politics. His broader research interests include: urban marginality, youth, affect theory, global middle classes, and social theory. 

Moritz Schmoll, Department of Government

Thesis title: The Politics of Tax Collection in Egypt

Moritz is a PhD candidate at the Department of Government at LSE. He holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from Sciences Po Paris. His research interests include the state, the political economy of taxation and state-society relations in the MENA region and the wider developing world. His research explores tax collection in Egypt from historical, ethnographic and political economy perspectives. It aims at contributing to emerging strands of literature focused on the empirical study of “states at work” and on the politics behind the widespread discrepancies between laws on paper and in practice