A word from our postdoctoral research fellow

Dr Amany Soliman joined the NVIC as a postdoctoral research fellow in October 2017. She is a lecturer of modern history and international relations at the Mediterranean Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. For her PhD thesis, she examined the nationalist movements in Spain, specifically in Catalonia and Basque regions and their journey in the 20th century. She has been awarded a research fellowship in the War Studies Department of King's College London as well as the Gingko Library scholarship for East-West Dialogue. Her research and teaching interests include social and political history of modern Egypt, nationalism and nationalist movements, history and politics of marginalized groups, the Great War in the Middle East, as well as political, social and cultural history of the Mediterranean and the Middle East region. In 2017, she was selected as a research fellow in the Leiden University team working on the ERC project "Rethinking Disability: The Global Impact of the International Year of Disabled Persons 1981 in Historical Perspective". The research team is led by Prof. Monika Baár and Dr. Soliman's research focus will be on the issues, debates, (dis)engagement, organization and main concerns and socio-political issues of the persons with disability in Egypt and the Arab World. Her research will focus on the multiple perspectives on how to empower the persons with disability and how their rights in the MENA region are perceived from philanthropic and charity support to a human rights and inclusive citizenship approach.