Fiker Institute’s 2026-2027 Fellows Announced
Fiker Institute is proud to announce its 2026–2027 cohort of fellows, a group of experts and researchers drawn from seven countries across the Arab world. This year’s fellows bring expertise spanning foreign policy, international development, and literary studies, reflecting the breadth of inquiry at the heart of our mission.
The cohort is divided across two distinct programs. Fellows in the Senior Fellowship engage with global developments and the broader currents shaping international affairs, situating regional questions within a wider world context. Fellows in the Al-Khaleej Fellowship turn their focus inward, examining the GCC’s evolving policy trajectory and the forces defining the Gulf’s path forward.
Together, these fellows carry forward Fiker Institute’s commitment to rigorous, regionally grounded research, and we look forward to promoting the perspectives, questions, and work this cohort will bring in the year ahead:
Dr Nourah Shuaibi
Dr. Nourah Shuaibi is a political scientist at Kuwait University, where she also serves as Head of the Women’s Research and Studies Center. She is a Nonresident Fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, a Senior Fellow at the Kuwait Research and Studies Center, and Kuwait University’s appointed representative to the GCC–Scandinavian Mediation Project through the Center for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies. She is also an appointed member of Kuwait’s Committee for Women’s Affairs, under the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Dr Afra Atiq
Dr. Afra Atiq is an Emirati poet, scholar, and interdisciplinary artist. She earned her PhD in Media and Creative Industries from the United Arab Emirates University, focusing her research on literacy and the literary ecosystem. Dr. Afra’s work spans poetry, performance, and visual arts, exploring themes such as heritage, culture, identity, and legacy. She writes and performs in Arabic, English, and French.
Dr Naser Alsayed
Dr Naser Alsayed is a Bahraini policy researcher specializing in natural resource governance and economic interconnectivity across the GCC. Over the years, he has led and contributed to research examining the Gulf’s environmental and economic landscape. He was part of the 2025–26 Leadership Masterclass cohort at Chatham House and has previously worked with several UK and GCC think tanks on research programmes focused primarily on GCC scholarship. Alsayed holds a PhD in Environmental Law and Policy and an LLM in Economic Law, both from SOAS University of London.
Nebras Soliman
Nebras Soliman is a Syrian diplomat with a decade of experience in bilateral and multilateral affairs. During his career he managed a range of cultural and humanitarian intergovernmental programmes. He holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights and a Diploma in United Nations Studies, with his current research and academic interests focusing on global governance and the reform of international institutions.
Tala Karkanawi
Tala Karkanawi is a DPhil candidate in Politics at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on political violence, control and compliance, and foreign intervention, with a particular focus on Lebanon and Syria. Tala holds an MA in Politics and Economics of the Middle East from King’s College London and an LLB in Law from Brunel University London.
Fadi Hachem
Fadi Hachem is an international human rights lawyer and lecturer in International Law and Human Rights. He is currently a PhD researcher at Université Catholique de Louvain and has published several studies on law and human rights in the Arab World. His research interests include human rights protection and vulnerable groups. As of last year, he joined the International Article 18 Alliance as a member of its council of experts.
Abdulla Al-Kalisy
Abdulla Al-Kalisy is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, and a PhD Candidate in International Relations at the University of St Andrews. His doctoral research examines emerging forms of citizenship in Iraq through the lens of social movements, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Baghdad. His research has included serving as the Iraq lead field researcher for the XCEPT programme, examining cross-border trade between Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. His more recent work has focused on emerging dynamics of Iraq’s engagement with the evolving regional order.