I am a Research Associate at the Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies in Berlin (ipb) and a research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics at Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2019, I suport the trade union work of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) as the Regional Coordinator of FES Global Trade Union Project in the Middle East and North Africa region. In addition, I am in charge of foundation's Libya desk, and serve as the focal point for projects concerning refugees and migration in the MENA division.

Before joining FES, I studied Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science in Münster, Berlin and in Cairo, and spent several years investigating processes of authoritarian contraction in the Middle East and North Africa as part of my doctoral studies at the Berlin Graduate Muslim Cultures and Societies and in the framework of the project "Elite Change and New Social Mobilisation in the Arab World” at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP Berlin.

Throughout this period, my work has mainly centred on political violence and state repression in Egypt and Turkey as well as on processes of regime contestation from below.

I have conducted extensive fieldwork on civil society mobilization and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa and have served as a consultant to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation, the Federal Foreign Office as well as several human rights organisations and political foundations.

Since 2016, I co-head the “SAFEResearch” project for the creation of a systematic handbook for human and digital security in the social sciences. I also write for several Blogs on Middle East politics.

You can also follow me on Twitter for updates on protest and social movements in the Middle East, as well as on topics related to the restriction of academic freedom worldwide.