The Saïd Rhodes Forum on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon & Palestine

THE SAÏD RHODES FORUM ON SYRIA, JORDAN, LEBANON & PALESTINE HANDBOOK

Thank you for participating in what promises to be a fascinating and exciting Saïd - Rhodes Forum on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon & Palestine.

This exploration of the region’s rich and complex history, and its dynamic future, does more than celebrate the partnership between the Saïd Foundation and the Rhodes Trust, it demonstrates the tremendous power of bringing people together from different perspectives to debate the world’s pressing issues.

At the Rhodes Trust, we believe that when people come together in a shared spirt, exciting new things begin. That idea is at the core of the Rhodes Scholarships, bringing people together from diverse backgrounds with different perspectives to debate, learn and develop new ideas for the future.

Rhodes Scholars often speak of fighting the world’s fight. At a time still marked by conflict, uncertainty and division in many parts of the world, it is heartening and humbling to see people coming together to think deeply about the past, and how we can build a future filled with prosperity and hope.

ELIZABETH KISS, WARDEN & CEO OF THE RHODES TRUST

Dear attendees, I would like to welcome you all to the second Saïd Rhodes Forum on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine at the Saïd Business School.

The world has changed immensely since we held the inaugural Saïd Rhodes Forum in February 2020 just before the pandemic hit, and the challenges facing our region have been exacerbated further ever since. I hope you make the most of this intellectual event by reflecting on our rich history and troubled present, and by engaging in open discussions on our future.

I am delighted that our unique partnership with the Rhodes Trust allows us to bring together the brightest minds to discuss the current realities of our beloved region, and I am grateful to all the speakers who are joining us today to share their knowledge and insights.

I would like to thank the Rhodes Trust and the scholar organising committee for their incredible efforts in putting this forum together, and I hope you enjoy it and leave feeling motivated and inspired.

WAFIC RIDA SAÏD, CHAIRMAN OF THE SAÏD FOUNDATION

PROGRAMME PRE-FORUM EVENT | FRIDAY 20 MAY 2022 Start

6:00PM

End

Activity

Location

8:30PM

Drinks Reception and Oud Performance, followed by Q&A - Mohannad Nasser, Oudist & Composer

Trinity College Auditorium. Registration Essential.

FORUM | SATURDAY 21 MAY 2022 Start

End

Activity

Location

9:00AM

9:40AM

Registration and Reception

Saïd Business School, Entrance Lobby

9:45AM

Welcoming Remarks - Elizabeth Kiss (Virginia & Balliol 1983), Warden, Rhodes House

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

9:55AM

Introductory remarks from Chair of the Organising Committee - Amer Baroudi (Syria & Worcester 2019), Co-Founder, Masref and Researcher, Blavatnik School of Government

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

9:40AM

9:45AM

9:55AM

10:00AM

Opening Remarks Saïd Foundation

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

PART ONE: HISTORICISING THE PRESENT Start

End

Activity

Location

10:00AM

10:10AM

Introduction from Organising Committee Member - Joumana Talhouk (Lebanon & Queen’s 2019), MPhil Candidate in Development Studies, University of Oxford

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

10:10AM

10:30AM

Keynote Speaker Tamim Al Barghouti, Poet, Professor and Diplomat

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Start

End

Activity

Location

‘Historicising the Present’ Panel discussion, with 30 min Q&A

10:30AM

12:00PM

- Himmat Zoubi, Post-Doctoral fellow, Rosa-Luxembug Stiftung (EUME - Forum Transregionale Studien, and the Centre for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Freie Universität -Eliana Abu-Hamdi, Program Manager, MIT & Visiting Associate Professor, Pratt Institute - Sana Tannoury-Karam, Visiting Fellow, University of Cambridge - Sami Moubayed, Chairman, The Damascus History Foundation

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Moderated by: Joumana Talhouk (Lebanon & Queen's 2019)

12:00PM

12:10PM

Group Photo

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

12:00PM

1:00PM

Lunch & Networking

Saïd Business School, Garden Room

PART TWO: NAGIVATING PIVOTAL MOMENTS Start

1:00PM

End

Activity

Location

1:10PM

Introduction from Organising Committee Members - Melanie Cremona, Public Policy Consultant, Freelance Advisory and Project Coordinator, Thomson Reuters Foundation Oudai Tozan, Doctoral Candidate, University of Cambridge

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Start

1:10PM

End

Activity

Location

1:30PM

Keynote Speaker Waad Alkateab Filmmaker & Activist

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

'Navigating Pivotal Moments' Panel discussion with 30 min Q&A

1:30PM

3:00PM

- Karam Shaar, Independent consultant on Syria, Research Director of the Operations and Policy Center & NonResident Scholar, Middle East Institute - Nisreen Salti, Associate Professor of Economics, American University of Beirut - Maha Shuayb, Director of Centre for Lebanese Studies, British Academy Bilateral Chair in Education, University of Cambridge and LAU - Barik Mhadeen, Independent Policy Analyst

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Moderated by: Melanie Cremona & Oudai Tozan

3:00PM

3:30PM

Coffee & Networking

Saïd Business School, Common Room

PART THREE: ENGAGING THE FUTURE Start

3:30PM

End

Activity

Location

3:40PM

Introduction from Organising Committee member - Leen Aghabi, Analyst, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Start

3:40PM

End

Activity

Location

4:00PM

Keynote Speaker - Rania Succar, Senior Vice President, Money Offerings at Intuit; Co-Founder and Board of Directors Member, Jussor

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

‘Engaging the Future’ Panel discussion with 30 min Q&A

4:00PM

5:30PM

- Valentina Kassisieh, CEO, The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation - Jessica Obeid, Non Resident Scholar Middle East Institute, and Senior Advisor, Azure Strategy - Amr Najjar, Senior Researcher, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) - Omar Ferwati, Researcher, Forensic Architecture

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

Moderated by: Leen Aghabi

5:30PM

5:45PM

Closing remarks from Organising Committee chair - Amer Baroudi (Syria & Worcester 2019)

Saïd Business School, Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre

SPEAKERS & PANEL BLURB: HISTORICISING THE PRESENT War, instability, occupation, dictatorship, and sectarianism. These are the words typically associated with our region. The state of division, conflict, and violence is essentialised as a timeless truth, an inevitable fate, an inescapable outcome. Such historical narratives, though, only serve to mystify the structural conditions that created and perpetuate the region’s current state of affairs. How did we get here? What else has existed? And what can history teach us as we grapple with an oppressively stagnant present and a seemingly hopeless future?

This panel grounds today’s challenges in a historical reading of the region’s modern legacies of political thought, geopolitical ruptures, pivotal socioeconomic developments, and major urban transformations. By exploring the urban and intellectual histories of Haifa, Amman, Damascus, and Beirut, we seek to unpack tensions around the national identities, anti-colonial struggle, governance regimes, and political economic structures that shape the present.

Tamim Al-Barghouti is a Palestinian poet, political scientist and diplomat. He is the author of: “Al-Wataniyya Al-Aleefa and The Umma and The Dawla: The Nation State and the Arab Middle East He is also the author of “War, Peace, Civil War: a Pattern?” in Palestine and the Palestinians in the 21st century, “Cracking Cauldrons” in Shifting Sands: the Unraveling of the Old Order in the Middle East, and “The Post-Colonial State: The Impossible Compromise” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics.

Keynote

He received his PhD in political science from Boston University in 2004, and has since taught at Georgetown University, the Free University in Berlin, and the American University in Cairo. He was also a fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced studies 20072008. worked with and at the United Nations between 2005-2006 and 2011-2017. His UN positions included: Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary General-the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia and Head of the Palestine Unit in the same Commission. He was the core team leader and lead author of the UNESCWA report Injustice in the Arab World, and the Arab Development Outlook: Vision 2030.

As a poet, Al-Barghouti is widely read in Arab. His poetry readings packing stadiums and amphitheaters, and his poems have had hundreds of millions of readers and viewers on various traditional and new media. During the Egyptian uprising of January 2011, a TV recording of Tamim’s lyrical poem "Hanet" (Almost there); was projected in Cairo’s Tahrir Square every couple of hours on makeshift screens, despite the internet being down and regional news channels being banned. He currently has his own poetry program on AJ+ Arabic.

Panellist

Himmat Zoubi (Zu’bi) is a Palestinian researcher and feminist activist. She received her PhD in Sociology from Ben-Gurion University and holds two Master's degrees, one in Criminology and another in Gender Studies. Her work focuses on cities in colonial context and she published several book chapters and articles on gender, cities and settler colonialism, memory and oral history, indigenous knowledge and resistance. She has received several awards and grants for her research, among them the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) fellowship, and the Scholarship for Outstanding Postdoctoral Arab Fellows from the Council for Higher Education (2020-2021).

Panellist

Eliana Abu-Hamdi is currently the Program Manager for the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative (GAHTC) at MIT. She recently joined the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians as well as the faculty of Pratt Institute as Visiting Associate Professor. She also teaches courses on Global Poverty and the Ethics of Development as well as the History of Global Urbanism at Hunter College, in the Department of Political Science. She is an urbanist, designer and Middle Eastern/Global South scholar with published articles in the International Journal of Islamic Architecture, Traditional Dwellings and Settlement Review, as well as Cities. She contributed two chapters, one in an edited volume on Urban Governance in the Middle East from McGill-Queens Press, and another on Social Housing in the Middle East from University of Indiana Press.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian historian and writer who has written extensively on the modern history of Damascus from the late Ottoman period until creation of the United Arab Republic in 1958.

His research focuses on Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is a research fellow at St. Andrews University in Scotland and a co-founder of its Syrian Studies Center. He was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Panellist

Moubayed served as editor in chief of Forward Magazine, Syria’s premier English monthly, from 2006 to 2012. In 2004, he co-founded SyrianHistory.com, the first online museum of Syrian history, for which he continues to work as chief editor. From 2000 to 2001, Moubayed served as bureau chief for the Daily Star in Syria, and since 2005 he has taught international relations at the University of Kalamoon in Syria, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. He is also vice president of Haykal Media in Syria.

Panellist

Sana Tannoury-Karam is a historian of the modern Middle East, writing on the intellectual history of the Left in the Levant. She received her PhD in History from Northeastern University and holds an MA in Political Studies from the American University of Beirut. In 2019/2020, Tannoury-Karam was an Early Career Fellow at the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) affiliated with the Center of Arab and Middle East Studies at the American University of Beirut, and a lecturer in the Humanities Department at the Lebanese American University. She had also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Rice University in 2018/2019. She has various publications, including her latest article “This War is Our War: AntiFascism Among Lebanese Leftist Intellectuals during World War Two” in Journal of World History 30, no. 3 (September 2019). She is also co-editor of and contributor to the volume The League Against Imperialism: Lives and Afterlives with Leiden University Press (2020).

In the academic year 2020/21, Sana Tannoury-Karam is a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, affiliated with the Center for Global History at Freie Universität Berlin. In 2021/22, she remains affiliated with EUME.

SPEAKERS & PANEL BLURB: NAVIGATING PIVOTAL MOMENTS As the region experiences severe socio-economic transformations, undemocratic governance regimes, growing inequality, and the harsh consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, what can we learn from civil society actors, researchers, and policy specialists working to challenge bleak realities and prompt change amidst stagnation?

This panel aims to unpack the region’s complex present by hearing from experts in the fields of education, peacebuilding, economic policy, and health inequality. While the region is plagued by a prevailing sense of despair, the panelists’ critical assessment of dominant governance practices, forward-looking propositions, and success stories of creative initiatives will allow us to draw valuable lessons and inspire new possibilities for a better future.

In particular, the panel will rethink how education can bring social cohesion to the region, with a focus on refugees and people with disabilities. It will discuss the dynamics between the youth and governments, focusing on the role of youth in the political, economic, and social reforms needed in the region. The panel will also unpack the relationship between inequality in resources and access and how this contributes to the socio-political and economic instability in the region. Finally, the panel will unpack the political and economic dynamics and policies in the region, and their relationships with conflict and prosperity.

Keynote

Waad al-Kateab is a Syrian activist and award-winning filmmaker, whose debut feature film, For Sama, won a BAFTA for Best Documentary and received a nomination at the Academy Awards 2020. Waad, who lives in London with her family, is currently working on a new documentary covering the Olympic Refugee Team, commissioned by the IOC for XTR, working alongside Oscarwinning producer Joanna Natasegara. Waad also dedicates time to her advocacy campaign, Action For Sama. In 2021, Waad was announced as the recipient of the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Panellist

Originally from Aleppo, Syria, Karam Shaar has lived for 14 years in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and New Zealand. He is particularly interested in Syria’s political economy. His writings on the subject have been published in the Middle East Institute, The Brookings Institution, Carnegie Middle East Center, and the Atlantic Council. He has also been quoted by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, CNBC, PRI, BBC, Aljazeera, and Al-Arabiya. Karam was active in his support for democratic reforms in the first year of the Syrian uprising (2011-12), but he later fled the country and continued his activism from abroad. Karam has published multiple peerreviewed academic and policy papers in fiscal and monetary economics and international trade. He works as an independent Syria consultant, the Research Director at the Operations and Policy Center (OPC), and the Syria Program Manager at the Political and Economic Networks Observatory. Prior to that, he worked as a Senior Analyst at the New Zealand Treasury, a researcher at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and as a Senior Lecturer on Middle East Politics at Massey University.

Panellist

Nisreen Salti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. She works on development economics and political economy. Her research is on inequality and inequity in resources, access, and outcomes, with a focus on health. She is especially interested in marginalised communities, particularly refugees. Her work has appeared in Social Science and Medicine, the Lancet, Tobacco Control, the International Journal for Middle Eastern Studies and the Journal of Economic Studies among others. She has been an active participant in local and regional policy debates, engaging policy-makers and analysts in government and at various multilateral organizations and arms of the UN. She obtained her PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 2006, and a Masters in Public Affairs in 1999.

Panellist

Maha Shuayb is the director of the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) and has been recently awarded the British Academy Bilateral Chair in Education at the University of Cambridge and LAU. Maha has a PhD in education from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on education inequalities, education of refugee children, citizenship and history education. She is a co-founder of the Lebanese Association for History and the Disability Research and Advocacy Hub.

Panellist

Barik Mhadeen previously worked for Generations For Peace from January 2021 as a Senior Policy Research Specialist. In this role, he was responsible for developing, leading on, coordinating, and implementing high quality policy research in the peacebuilding/conflict field. Originally from Jordan, Barik holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. His research focused on social movements in the Arab world and the shifting dynamics of political contention post the 2011 uprisings. He attended the Lebanese American University in Lebanon during his undergraduate career, where he majored in Political Science/International Affairs and minored in Economics. Before joining GFP, Barik was a Senior Researcher in the field of Human Security at the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute, where he supported the research and implementation of WANA’s several Human Security and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) projects in Jordan and the region. Barik has also been actively engaged in the operationalisation of the Youth, Peace and Security YPS agenda at the national and regional levels and was a member of the Mediterranean Discourse on Regional Security (MDRS).

SPEAKERS & PANEL BLURB: ENGAGING THE FUTURE Globally, future-oriented discussions are concerned with climate change, sustainable planning, artificial intelligence, digital technologies and economies, and social innovation. In the region however, these topics are often considered irrelevant as they drown in pressing social ailments, economic decline, and political conflicts. Nevertheless, such global transformations have profound consequences on the region, and contrary to dominant beliefs, the region’s rich with creative capacities, ready to contribute to global issues.

This multidisciplinary panel will bring cutting edge research and development in conversation with the region’s concerns. In particular, the panelists will unpack how artificial intelligence can enable governments to design effective public policies, streamline decision-making, and enhance citizens’ engagement.

They will explore how digital technologies can be used to investigate human rights violations and transformations in education as the world becomes more digitized.

Panelists will also discuss the potential of social innovation to positively impact communities through arts, literature, and thought leadership, and the prospects for alternative energy in the region as climate change intensifies. Geared towards the future, this panel will help us imagine a future beyond boundaries, one that transcends the limitations imposed on the region and its people.

Keynote

Rania Succar is the Senior Vice President of Money Offerings, Intuit Co-Founder and is on the Board of Directors Member for Jusoor.

Succar is the SVP/Business Leader for the QuickBooks Money portfolio, including small business payments, banking, and lending. She and her team have launched several game changing offerings for small businesses over the past few years, including QuickBooks Capital, which expands access to capital to early-stage businesses; Cash Flow Planner, which gives small businesses visibility into their cash flow 90 days into the future; and QuickBooks Cash, which provides an all-digital, no fee bank account that offers instant money movement capabilities. Prior to that, she held several roles at Google over the course of five years, most recently serving as the Director of Brand Solutions for North America. Before joining Google, Rania worked with McKinsey & Company in the US and Dubai.

Given her Syrian heritage, Rania has been deeply involved in creating opportunities for youth in the Arab world. Most recently, Rania cofounded Jusoor (“bridges” in Arabic), a global non-profit organization focused on investing in Syria’s youth for a brighter tomorrow. To date, the organization has helped educate nearly 1,000 young people who otherwise would not have been able to continue their education.

Panellist

Valentina Kassisieh is the Chief Executive Officer at The Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation (AHSF). Valentina is a Jordanian social activist with a focus on community empowerment and cultural inclusion. She is currently the CEO of Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation (AHSF), a non-profit organization dedicated to investing in cultural, scientific and social innovation. She is also on the board of the Innovative Startups Fund Project (a World Bank project), a member of the Higher National Committee for Music, the National Committee for Media Education, the Higher Advisory Committee for the “Development of a National Strategy for Improving Reading Skills in the Arabic Language” program, and a member of the board of trustees of the Baptism Site Development Zone. She has sat on several boards such as the National Scientific Research Fund, Al-Balqa' Applied University, and the state TV “Al Mamlaka”. She is also a member of the College Council at the faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan.

Before joining AHSF, Valentina held the position of Director General of the Jordan River Foundation, a national NGO, focusing on community and youth empowerment, entrepreneurship, and child safety. Valentina holds a master’s degree in management studies with a focus on applying business process re-engineering on income-generating projects. In 2010, Valentina was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship.

Panellist

Amr Najjar is a Senior Researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST). Amr (PhD) is a full-time researcher in Artificial Intelligence, explainable AI and AI Ethics.

He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in top journals and international AI conferences and participated in several European and International research projects. Amr is also interested in outreach and knowledge dissemination. He has been the scriptwriter of several popular science shows online.

Panellist

Jessica Obeid is an independent energy consultant. She possesses unique assets of combining technical and policy expertise and has advised a wide range of entities across the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Additionally, Jessica is a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute - Washington DC in the Energy and Economics Program, and Lebanon Program. She also serves as a senior global advisor for Azure Strategy - London. In 2017-2018, she was a resident fellow at Chatham House’s energy, environment, and resources program. Prior to that, she had a decade of experience in engineering, and was the Chief Energy Engineer at UNDP in Beirut. Jessica has published widely, and regularly provides expert commentary to leading media outlets.

She has been awarded the EU Visitors Program, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office International Leaders and the US State Department TechWomen fellowships. She holds a Masters’ degree in political sciences, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Lebanese American University.

Panellist

Omar Ferwati is a researcher with Forensic Architecture (FA), an agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, which applies pioneering spatial analysis techniques for human rights investigations. His work with FA has ranged from investigating airstrikes to colonial violence, to environmental racism. Omar has previously taught at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture. His own research currently focuses on how civilians use architecture to survive urban warfare and other crises. Omar trained as an architect in Canada and has worked at several architecture practices.

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MEET THE SJLP COMMITTEE

Amer Baroudi (Chair)

Syrian-born serial entrepreneur and Rhodes Scholar, Amer holds two degrees from the University of Oxford and is a governance, policy, and finance expert. He co-founded award-winning international companies, built properties in Europe, served as the founding president of the Oxford Syria Society, and advised clients ranging from government authorities to a Premier League FC. Currently, Amer is CEO of the award-winning Swiss banking fintech ‘Masref’ which provides safe and ethical banking services to everyday people from distressed economies. He is a tireless optimist, an expert problem solver, and, secretly, a music composer!

Joumana Talhouk (Moderator)

Joumana graduated with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from the American University of Beirut (AUB). She is a candidate for the MPhil in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. Her thesis explores the interplay of domestic labour, money, and migration in the social reproduction of the Lebanese middle class, against the backdrop of the country’s economic collapse. Joumana also has research experience with the AUB on Lebanon’s policy framework for hosting Syrian refugees in Lebanon. More recently, she is a collaborator on a comparative research study led by the Peace Research Institute, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and AUB on refugee education in Lebanon and Kenya, exploring refugee young people’s sense of belonging and civic identity, and how education might contribute to building durable futures in contexts of displacement. While in Lebanon, Joumana was involved in student organizations, student and municipal elections, and wider political movements.

Melanie Anne Cremona (Moderator)

Melanie is a Lebanese-Greek Oxford Graduate in public policy and Oxford-Saïd Foundation Scholar with seven years of professional experience in the social sector, including five years at the United Nations. Most recently, she worked at the Thomson Reuters Foundation in London where she implemented projects supporting the media in centralizing marginalized communities in countries like Lebanon and others. Prior to that, she worked at the UN in Geneva on high-profile projects with policy makers. In her spare time, she writes articles on the MENA region and hosts live talks on her Instagram channel about the socio-political situation of Lebanon to democratize public policy. Passionate about storytelling, she aspires to advance social change through every aspect of storytelling.

MEET THE SJLP COMMITTEE

Oudai Touzan (Moderator)

Leen Aghabi (Moderator)

Oudai is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Cambridge researching the potential role of the Syrian diaspora academics and researchers in rebuilding the higher education sector of Syria. He is currently a co-chair of the University of Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group (CPERG). Oudai has 10 years of experience in teams and projects management for the purpose of supporting access to higher education. He worked in the private and INGOs sectors with organisations like Oxfam and UNESCO RILA Scotland. Most recently, he co-founded and managed the International Syrian Association for Education Development, an international network of over 150 researchers, academics and professionals working on projects to support Syrian students to access higher education in the Levant region. Also, he recently managed the first online conference for the Syrian Diaspora “Syrians Around the World”, attracting 1200 Syrian attendees from 50 countries. Oudai is Saïd Foundation scholar and Chevening alumni. He is interested in the intersection between education and other fields such politics, economy and sociology.

Leen Aghabi is a Jordanian policy practitioner with over six years of cross-disciplinary work experience in public policy, economic development and evidence-based research. She currently works with the World Bank Group in Jordan. Her portfolio of advisory projects focuses on providing private sector solutions that lay the foundation for job creation and sustainable economic growth in MENA and Africa. Before joining the World Bank Group, Leen was a Policy Analyst at the Political Affairs Directorate of the Office of His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan. Prior, she was a Research Fellow in the field of Human Security at the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) Institute, where she supported the research and implementation of WANA’s several Human Security and Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) projects. Leen holds a Master’s degree in International Relations, with Merit, from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which she completed as a Saïd Foundation scholar.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR IN-PERSON ATTENDEES

COVID We appreciate that the current COVID climate is changing, however, we are adhering to the safety guidelines provided by the University: Face coverings are no longer required to be worn and can be used as a matter of personal choice when at the event.

You are encouraged to be respectful of each other’s space.

You are encouraged to undertake a lateral flow test in advance of the event.

Please do not to attend the event if you are displaying symptoms of Covid-19 or if you have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past five days (or longer if you still have a fever/high temperature), as this is the most infectious period.

NAME BADGES Please wear your name badge at all times. Staff members and volunteers can be identified by purple badges.

DRESS CODE Business casual, no tie.

A cloakroom will be available near the registration desk.

CATERING If you have let us know about specific dietary requirements and you do not see something suitable being served at a meal, please do speak to a member of the catering team directly to receive your alternative option. Lunch and refreshments will be provided at Saïd Business School.

Please bring your own bottle for drinking water. Refill stations are available throughout the business School.

PHOTOGRAPHY / LIVESTREAMING A photographer and videographer will be present throughout the day and all sessions will be recorded and streamed for our online audience. Please contact us in advance if you have any questions regarding this. If you indicated during registration that you would not like to be photographed, you will be given a white lanyard upon arrival.

SOCIAL MEDIA We highly encourage you to join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #SJLP22. Rhodes Trust can be found on Facebook as @RhodesTrust, on Instagram as @rhodestrust and on Twitter as @rhodes_trust.

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SPECIAL THANKS RHODES TRUST GEORGIE THURSTON RODOLFO LARA TORRES SORINA CAMPEAN TIFFANY TAYLOR SOPHIE CROWE BEN RUSSELL DEBBIE WRAY ISABELLE BARBER HANNAH WARREN HELEN NICHOLSON

SAÏD FOUNDATION CATHERINE THOMÉ HANI JESRI

SJLP ADVISORY BOARD SIHAB KABBARA VIKESH GADHIA DAWN CHATTY ELIZABETH KISS

AND TO THE SAÏD BUSINESS SCHOOL FOR THEIR GENEROSITY IN HOSTING THE FORUM