Carmen Geha
Research Fellow, IBEI
Associate Fellow, Chatham House
Contact data
Biography
Carmen is a scholar-activist and an expert in women's political and economic participation, refugee policies, and collective action in the Middle East and North Africa. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews (2014). She was a Maria Zambrano Fellow at Pompeu Fabra University (2022-2024), tenured Associate Professor at the American University of Beirut (2020-22), and has held visiting positions including as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University (2021), research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (2018), and the Watson Institute at Brown University (2015).
Carmen is also an international consultant with 15 years of practitioner experience in designing strategies and programs on gender equality, elections, civil society, and public sector reform. She's currently co-founder and Managing Director of Soltara Consulting, a growing network of consultants specializing in strategy design, leadership development, and knowledge mobilizing for inclusive policies and practices.
Background and education
- (2014) PhD in International Relations, University of St. Andrews
- (2008) MA in Public Administration, American University of Beirut
- (2006) BA in Public Administration, American University of Beirut
Awards
- 2022-2024. Maria Zambrano, Spanish government award for international talent
- 2021. Fulbright Scholar, for research and teaching
Professional memberships & affiliations
- Soltara Consulting SLU, Co-founder and Managing Director
- Arab Reform Initiative, Senior Advisor, Women's Political Participation Program
- Research Fellow, European Institute for the Mediterranean (IEMed)
Courses
Research
Research interests
- Gender and Politics
- Inclusive Employment Policies
- Migration and Refugee Policies
- Protest Movements
- Middle East and North Africa
IBEI Research Clusters
Research projects
Support and Accelerate Workplace Inclusion (SAWI initiative). Link
Selected publications
- 2024.Bridging the Gap Between Imagined and Plausible Futures for Refugees: What Students Wish Their Teachers Knew.AERA Open,10Link
- 2023.Creating Educational Borderlands: Civic Learning in a Syrian School in Lebanon.Journal of Refugee Studies,36, nº4:782-801
- 2021.Whose feminism? Gender-inclusive policymaking in the arab Middle East and North Africa.The SAIS Review of International Affairs,41: 23
- 2020.Breaking the Cycle: Existential Politics and the Beirut Explosion.Middle East Law and Governance,12, nº3:357-368
- 2019.From Recipients of Aid to Shapers of Policies: Conceptualizing Government–United Nations Relations during the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon.Journal of Refugee Studies,32, nº4:645-663
- 2019.Co-optation, Counter-Narratives, and Repression: Protesting Lebanon's Sectarian Power-Sharing Regime.The Middle East Journal,73, nº1:9-28
- 2019.Exporting ‘Active Citizenship’: Foreign Support for Citizenship Education in the Arab world.Citizenship Studies,23, nº5:486-501
- 2019.Resilience through Learning and Adaptation: Lebanon’s Power-Sharing System and the Syrian Refugee Crisis.Middle East Law and Governance,11, nº1:65-90
- 2019.The myth of women’s political empowerment within Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system.Journal of Women, Politics & Policy,40, nº4:498-521
- 2016.Civil Society and Political Reform in Lebanon and Libya: Transition and Constraint.Routledge Press.Link
Documents
Conferences and Lectures
Recent invited talks as a practitioner:
- “Empowering Human Resource Managers for Inclusive Policies: Lessons from the MENA region,” presented at Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW), selected as one of 350 Top Speakers, Barcelona 2-5 October, organized by Zona Franca de Barcelona and BNEW.
- “Support and Accelerate Workplace Inclusion: A Roadmap for the MENA region,” presented at conference Towards More Inclusive Economies: Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona 20-21 September 2023
- “Mobilizing employers and businesses for inclusive workplace policies for women in the MENA,” presented at Barcelona Women Accelerator Week, Barcelona 10 March 2023, organized by Zona Franca de Barcelona and BWAW.
Sample invited talks as an academic:
- “The Migration of Activists from the Arab Middle East and North Africa to the European Union,” Copenhagen Center for Political Mobilization and Social Movement Studies, online (February 2023)
- “Women migrants and refugees, securing rights and ensuring protection,” MED Dialogue, Caixa Forum, IEMED and Club of Rome, Barcelona (2022)
- “Participatory Action Research as Dialogical Organizing in Crisis,” Organization Studies Workshop, Greece (2022)
Recent published policy papers or analysis
- 2024. Geha, Carmen, and Charlotte Karam. "Mobilizing Employers to Accelerate Workplace Inclusion in the Middle East and North Africa." IEMed. (2024): 34.
- 2023. “Displaced and Dispersed: Women and Gender Activists from the Arab Middle East and North Africa,” European Institute of the Mediterranean
- 2022. “Spotlight: Middle East and North Africa,”SHEcurity index on women, peace, and security, annual report.
- “Lebanon’s Catastrophic Warlord Regime and the Tragedy of a Complicit State,” IEMED Yearbook, 2022
- “The Search for Solidarity in Exhaustion,”Women and Social Transformation in the Arab Region, Afkar special issue, European Institute of the Mediterranean
- “Policy Conversations across the Mediterranean: migratory governance, Europe and Lebanon in the spotlight,” Euro-Med Mig Policy paper.
- 2021. “People before Politicians: How Europeans can help rebuild Lebanon,” European Council on Foreign Relations.