Justine Salam is a PhD (ABD) candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She specializes in energy studies and studied across Canada on topics such as the Oil Question in Iraqi Kurdistan and petro-political partnerships between China and the Middle East. Her current research examines the governance of royalties in Alberta’s extractive sector, including the provincial, federal, global, and sectoral factors that affect royalty frameworks.

In parallel, Justine works as a Graduate Professional Skills Program Specialist at Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (University of Waterloo). She sits on the board of the WINS Foundation and volunteered for an education centre in Indonesia where she taught in elementary school and built artificial reefs for a local marine conservation program.

In 2017-2018, Justine completed an internship at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in the Energy Security Section of the Emerging Security Challenges Division, where she worked on various energy-related dossiers for the Alliance. In 2015, Justine was a visiting scholar at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (SciencesPo). She presented her research at multiple international conferences in North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and the Middle East, and won numerous awards. She was trained on federalism and natural resources governance in Italy, Austria, and Canada.

Justine is also passionate about higher education and career development strategies for graduate students. She was the Global Governance Councillor at the Graduate Student Association (GSA) for 2016-2017 and she worked for—and is an alumni of—MITACS Canada where she mentored top international graduates at the University of Waterloo. Her interests include: career strategies, professional and personal growth, redesigning of social sciences and humanities graduate programs, talent retention, and skill development.