People
Core Participating Faculty
Adam Brown
The New School for Social Research
Brown heads the Trauma and Global Mental Health Lab at The New School, where he is also Vice Provost for Research. Brown’s lab studies the impacts of migration and displacement on mental health, with a particular focus on PTSD. Brown has led CFMDE’s intensive summer research program to Switzerland, exploring the place of mental health care in the institutional response to forced displacement.
Marguerite Feitlowitz
Bennington College
Feitlowitz is the author of the internationally acclaimed A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture, among many other works. Feitlowitz taught multilingual courses on translation and literature and guided Bennington Translates, a popular multilingual translation and interpretation organization. She organized “Lexicons of Migration,” an international conference on translation, language, and displacement, in November 2022.
Maria Höhn
Vassar College
Höhn taught courses on Germany, World War II, and migration past and present. She was a core founding member of the CFMDE, and served as Faculty Director and PI of the project from 2018–2022. She is the co-editor of “Migration, Displacement and Higher Education: Now What?”, an open-access interdisciplinary introduction to Forced Migration Studies, and has written numerous works of European history.
John Hultgren
Bennington College
Hultgren teaches courses in environmental politics and policy, as well as political theory and immigration politics. He is the author of Border Walls Gone Green: Nature and Anti-immigrant Politics in America. Hultgren’s research explores how efforts to protect “the environment” are mediated by social forces such as sovereignty, nationalism, race, and capitalism.
Parthiban Muniandy
Sarah Lawrence College
Building on his research on temporary labor migration in Southeast Asia and South Asia, Muniandy leads the CFMDE summer research program to Malaysia. He teaches courses in sociology, ethnography, migration, and human rights. Muniandy is the author of Ghost Lives of the Pendatang: Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations in Urban Malaysia.
Philipp Nielsen
Sarah Lawrence College
Nielsen teaches on the intellectual, cultural, and political history of modern Europe, with particular emphasis on German and Jewish history. His research addresses the history of democracy and its relation to emotions, constitutional law, and architecture. He is the author of Between Heimat and Hatred: Jews and the Right in Germany, 1871–1935.
Danielle Riou
Bard College - Annandale
Riou is the Associate Director of Human Rights Project and teaches courses in migration, border policy, human rights, and more. In 2022, she received the Beth Rickey Award from the Bard Center for the Study of Hate for her leadership role in Bard’s efforts to welcome and integrate over 75 newly arrived students from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and other countries.
Peter Rosenblum
Bard College - Annandale
Rosenblum teaches on topics including international law, human rights, labor migration. His research has focused on the legal obligations and oversight of the mining industry in South Africa and Peru, as well as on tea plantations in India. Rosenblum leads the Inclusive School Boards Initiative, a collaboration with NYCLU to increase non-citizen participation in local civic life in the Hudson Valley.
Hanan Toukan
Bard College - Berlin
Toukan teaches courses in Middle Eastern studies, international politics, decolonial theory, contemporary art theory, and more. Her research examines the political and social roles art and culture play with a focus on the politics of knowledge production in/about the memories, displacements, racializations, histories and ecologies of Global South contexts.
Kirsten Wesselhoeft
Vassar College
Wesselhoeft teaches courses on religion, race, and migration, Islamic studies, gender studies, and ethnographic research methods. She advises Vassar’s Migration and Displacement Studies correlate sequence, and served as Faculty Director and PI of the CFMDE from 2022–2024. Wesselhoeft is the author of Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France (University of Chicago Press, January 2025).
Guest Scholars
Al-Saadi is an Iraqi Maqam scholar, singer, artist and writer. He was a visiting scholar at Sarah Lawrence College in 2019 and 2022–2024. Alongside his accompanist, translator, and co-teacher, George Ziadeh, he has given multiple public performances at CFMDE campuses, and taught a popular Iraqi Maqam Ensemble course multiple times. He is also author of Al-Maqam wo Buhoor al-Angham, a comprehensive text on the Iraqi Maqam and its poetry.
Ayeni is a microbiologist who held a fellowship through the CFMDE and the Institute of International Education, serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Vassar College from 2020–21. During those three semesters, Ayeni taught four biology courses, mentored students in independent laboratory research, and co-authored a book with seven Vassar students entitled Global Trends in Orthodox and Traditional Treatment of Selected Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases. Ayeni is now Assistant Professor with the Department of Environment and Occupational Health at Indiana University Bloomington.
Abamosa teaches in the department of Pedagogy at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences. His research, inspired by his own experiences arriving in Norway from Ethiopia, focuses on the social inclusion of refugees into higher education as well as larger themes of belonging and the dynamics between host societies/migrants. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Abamosa taught guest lectures on refugee education and disruptive pedagogy in multiple Education courses. Abamosa also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with Vassar undergraduates on his scholarship.
Dalal is an architect, urbanist, artist, and scholar based in Berlin. In Spring 2021, he taught a course called Refugees and Urban Space at Vassar College. The course explores refugee housing and the production of new urban spaces by local and international actors working to assist resettled populations. Dalal is also the author of From Shelters to Dwellings: The Zaatari Refugee Camp (2022).
Gulel is a scholar of European studies and law, based at the University of Portsmouth. Her research focuses on the effects of the Islamist and authoritarian transformation of Turkey on gender equality and women’s rights through interdisciplinary theoretical approaches. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Gulel guest-taught in multiple courses, including Global Feminism.
Gulel also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which she worked together with a Vassar student on her scholarship.
Hamzah is a Yemeni poet-scholar, author and educator based in the Netherlands who has published in Arabic, English, Dutch, and German. Her research focuses on alternative pedagogies, working with Yemeni women in Yemen and in the diaspora. She is the founder of the Yemeni Women Archive and completed a fellowship at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2023. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Hamzah lectured on poetry as pedagogy in several courses, both virtually and on campus. Hamzah also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which she worked together with a Vassar student on her scholarship.
Sharif Jamal is a visual artist and archivist from Afghanistan. After receiving a degree in graphic design from Kabul University in 2015, he worked on many artistic exhibitions and taught visual arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, KarAmoze Institution, and galleries throughout Kabul. He has also completed archival work for the Rah-e-Farda Radio and Television network, the Bakhter News Agency, and other organizations. Jamal’s research focuses on preservation activities to prolong the life of archival records. He is the Polyani Refugee Scholar at Bennington College from 2023-2025.
Sorour Karampour
Karampour is an Iranian scholar of literature and an experienced literary translator. Her teaching and research interests include postwar American literature, nineteenth century English romanticism, and literature by women. Through Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, she participated in a multilingual course on translation.
Kaya is a geographer, co-founder of International Cultural Research Center (UKAM, an Istanbul based think tank) and a founding member of the Turkish Association of Geographers. He holds a position at the University of Ghent in Belgium and his current research is focused on placemaking as an avenue for identity making among immigrant and minority communities, in particular the Turkish diaspora of Belgium. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, he gave multiple guest lectures in the Geography and Religion departments. Kaya also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with a Vassar student on his scholarship.
Kirabira is a scholar of international law who teaches at the University of East London. In addition to his academic research on the role of NGOs and social movements in postwar contexts, Kirabira also has experience as a legal consultant to the UN Council for Human rights and many other international bodies. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, he guest-taught on human rights in Uganda and Myanmar in a course in the International Studies program. Kirabira also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with Vassar undergraduates on his scholarship.
Muharram is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany, focusing on postcolonial studies and the “blue humanities.” His current work focuses on environmental humanities in the Arabic-speaking world, and deals with issues of migration, exile, ecofeminism, oceanic encounters, and the role of Yemeni Hadhramis in connecting Indian Ocean cultures. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Muharram gave a lecture on the Blue Humanities in a course on Arabic literature. Muharram also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with a Vassar student on his scholarship.
Anna Romandash
Romandash is an award winning Ukrainian journalist, media professional, and author of Women of Ukraine: Reportages from War and Beyond (2023). Her reporting on human rights has been recognized by the Index of Censorship, UNESCO, G20, and the Council of Europe. As a part of CFMDE’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Romandash partnered with Vassar faculty to teach a module on podcasting with multiple Media Studies courses. Romandash also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which she worked together with a Vassar student on her scholarship.
Sadeghi is a political scientist and Research Associate at University College London. She has also undertaken multiple appointments in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on political imagination, the politics of memory, and tactics of future-making in contemporary Iran. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, she taught virtually in multiple WFQS courses including Global Feminism. During her fellowship, Sadeghi participated in a roundtable addressing the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran. Sadeghi also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which she worked together with a Vassar student on her scholarship.
Shafiqullah Shakir
Shakir is a political scientist who specializes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, border issues, nation-states in formation, and international relations. He has extensive experience as a researcher, research project manager, and analyst with both governmental and non-governmental organizations in and outside of Afghanistan. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, he gave multiple lectures in the History department and International Studies program. Shakir also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with a Vassar student on his scholarship
As a doctoral student in the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark, Tafech was a Dissertation Fellow at Vassar College in 2020–21. Together with Maria Höhn, she taught Refugees Past and Present: Camps, Survival Strategies, Entrepreneurship. Tafech is now Program Manager for Refugee Leadership at Refugees International.
Muhammed Zeino
Zeino’s research focuses on the lived experience of displaced Syrian men in Istanbul. He completed a Masters in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford and is now pursuing a PhD. As a part of Vassar’s Digital Scholars Fellowship, Zeino guest-lectured in several courses in Anthropology, International Studies, and Sociology. Zeino also held a Summer Research Fellowship, through which he worked together with a Vassar student on his scholarship.