Manel Miaadi is a PhD candidate (ABD) at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her dissertation investigates the lived experience of borders as tools of control and delay, focusing on how migration policies create waiting, invisibility, and exclusion as techniques of governance. She is currently writing on temporal bordering, gendered displacement, and the erasure of migrant testimony in state archives.
Alongside her doctoral research, Manel is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Directorate for Gender Equality and Intersectional Analysis at the Department of National Defence. In this role, she supports the integration of intersectional analysis across defence policy, programming, operations, and institutional practices. Her portfolio includes capacity-building, policy development, and contributions to Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Previously, she held strategic roles at Employment and Social Development Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada, where she worked on service transformation, user experience, and performance benchmarking.
Manel also brings over 15 years of experience in education across university, vocational, community, and international settings. She mentored immigrant women through the Sister2Sister Community Leadership Program at Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto, supporting participants in setting career goals and advancing their leadership pathways. As a policy brief mentor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, she continues to guide Master of International Public Policy students in preparing briefings and delivering presentations to Global Affairs Canada and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. In parallel, Manel teaches courses in Sociology, Human Geography, and Creative Writing at Yorkville University. Her previous leadership roles include serving as a secondary school principal in Ontario, with responsibility for ministry accreditation and the transition to online learning during the pandemic, and directing a public library in Qatar, where she led multilingual programming and built institutional partnerships.
In addition to her academic and policy work, Manel has contributed to international and community-based initiatives focused on migration, governance, and refugee support. She served with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Tunisia, coordinating logistics and interpretation for international election observation missions. In Canada, she has worked with Reception House on refugee housing research and co-organized a photovoice exhibition on migrant narratives with the International Migration Research Centre. She is currently engaged in the SSHRC-funded MiFOOD research partnership, which explores the intersection of food insecurity and migration across multiple regions.
In 2022, Manel became a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) and founded a consulting practice that offers personalized, justice-driven support to refugee claimants, international students, and migrant families navigating Canadian immigration pathways. Her practice covers a wide range of temporary and permanent residence streams, including study permits, family sponsorships, and refugee protection. Among those she has accompanied are scholars affiliated with the International Students Overcoming War (ISOW) initiative and the Japan ICU Foundation, reflecting her commitment to accessible, rights-based migration support.
Manel’s work moves across borders intellectually, politically, and geographically, always asking how power moves, who it silences, and how to speak back.