Alaa is a director at the Jordan Entrepreneurship and Innovation Association. She graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Arab Studies and is passionate about innovative Arab institutions.

Arnub is a Coordination Officer at the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development. She graduated with a master’s degree in Medical Anthropology from University College London.

Ayah is a writer. She was formerly a Mercy Corps Officer, having graduated from the University of Toronto with a master’s degree in Social Justice Education. 

Ayah is a PhD candidate of Modern English Literature at the University of Kansas. She was a Lecturer in the University of Jordan before moving to the US. Her research focuses on Critical Prison Studies and Neocolonialism.

Dima is a writer, translator, and researcher based in Amman. She received a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

​Ethan is a teacher at King’s Academy, having completed a doctoral dissertation in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Arkansas. His fieldwork focused on Palestinian labor in West Bank settlements.

Haneen is the library coordinator at the Lesser Amman Library. She has graduate degrees in sociology and women’s studies from the University of Toronto.

Ignacio is an independent researcher and activist. He studied at Universidad de Deusto and Université Saint Joseph de Beyrouth and has since been traveling.

Ismael is a doctoral candidate at Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy. His current research in Amman combines methods from literary geography and sociology of literature.

​Kamel graduated from New York University in Abu Dhabi, where he majored in Political Science. His thesis focused on the intersection of political violence and state legitimacy in Hezbollah and Hamas. At the Institute, he is interested in appropriating Western notions of government in such a way the local identity is not compromised, whilst government is optimized.

Muhannad works in the NGO sector. He completed a master’s degree in philosophy at Boston College and is pursuing a doctorate in the same field. His interests include Spinoza, German Idealism, and Merleau-Ponty.

Sultan is a Labor Market Researcher based in Amman. He has a graduate degree from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Employment and Labor Relations, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He is interested in economic theory, sociology, and progressive thought.

Tariq Adely is a translator and journalist. He graduated from Brown University in 2014 with a BA in Comparative Literature, focusing on translation of contemporary Spanish and Latin American poetry. He is interested in performative speech, semiotics, and theories of translation. Looking forward, he hopes to introduce works of Arabic literature to English-speaking audiences.

Yara is an architect at AE7 and a volunteer at Jordan Open Source Association. 

Manal is a project officer at the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Williams College, where she taught Arabic.