Postdoctoral Fellows and Visiting Scholars
Dr. Chrislain Eric Kenfack
Killam Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Kenfack's research is at the heart of the critical issues of our times. His questions concern the grounds for solidarity among social movements that are differently positioned in the struggle to create ecologically sustainable societies. As a consultant-researcher at the Centre for International Forestry Research in Yaounde, Cameroon, he conducted field work with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in the Congo Basin forests that were affected by REDD+ programs, developing a critique of the way "free, prior, and informed consent" (UNDRIP) principles were being interpreted. His doctoral research at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, critically examined the current UN-led global climate governance (climate politics from above) from the perspective of state centrality and market-dominated approaches, and analyzed the climate justice and labour movements' proposals (climate politics from below) as possible ways forward, based on the South African and Portuguese climate jobs campaigns case studies, producing a series of publications on the lessons for Just Transition, and labour environmentalism. He has also authored critical studies of the Paris CoP framework (and market-based climate policies more generally), and on the implications of climate change for human rights and for migrant movements. His work ranges widely across ethical, political-economic, and sociological questions linked by concerns about climate justice. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Science and Sociology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2018. Before that, he earned a Master's degree in International Relations at the University of Yaounde II, and also completed a double BA in Theology (at the Catholic University of Central Africa) and Philosophy (at the University of Yaounde I). His postdoctoral research in Alberta will examine the Indigenous climate action movement and faith-based environmental organizations, asking how they are relating to one another given the long history of church involvement in settler colonialism.
Dr. Ghada Ageel
Visiting Professor
Dr. Ghada Ageel is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. She holds a PhD and MA in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter (Britain) and a BA in Education from the Islamic University/Gaza. Her PhD dissertation examined the historic and contemporary role of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) in relation to the question of a durable solution for Palestinian refugees.
Dr. Ageel is the recipient of several awards and scholarships including The Phillips Grant (UK, 2013), The Jerusalem Studies' Scholarship of the University of Exeter (2002 and 1999), the Higher Education Award of the Ministry of Education (Palestine, 1996) and the Hebrew Language and Literature Scholarship (Gaza, 1993).
Her research interests focus on rights-based approaches to forced migration, Palestinian refugees in comparative perspective, oral history, women's studies, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the permanent status issues involved in the Middle East peace process. Dr. Ageel's work has been widely published in several newspapers, magazines and journals worldwide, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Hill, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Journal for Palestine Studies, Palestine Chronicle, MATAN Magazine (Hebrew), Occupation Magazine and many Arabic newspapers throughout the Middle East.
In addition to her book with Dr. Ibrahim Abu Jaber, Wisam Afifi, Maisam Eid, et all "Jurh Al-Nakba: Part 1" The Wound of Nakba, Part 1, Um Al-Fahem, Centre of Contemporary Studies, 2003; Dr. Ageel is currently working on a book project: The Palestinian Nakba and Israeli Apartheid : The Law and The Experience. She is also active in Faculty4Palestine-Alberta.
Dr. Murat Akcayir
Working with Dr. Rob McMahon
Dr. sasha skaidra