Dr. Maissaa Almustafa is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Glendon Political Science at York University, Toronto, working on the Whole-COMM, a research project on migrant integration in Europe and Canada, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020. Dr. Almustafa is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, where she teaches courses in Middle East Politics, Global South, Global Governance, and Globalization.

She earned her Ph.D. in Global Governance and Master’s in International Public Policy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Her publications and research focus on lived experiences of refugees and the politics of marginalization that govern their lives in the Middle East and in their diasporic communities in Europe and Canada. In her doctoral research, “Refugees from Syria caught between war and borders: A journey towards protection,” which received the Award for Outstanding Graduate Work, she examines the governance structures of refugee protection and the encounters between exclusionary bordering practices and refugees’ agency during their displacement. The findings of her research appeared in leading journals.

Dr. Almustafa is currently working towards the publication of her book “Contemporary Narratives of Exile: Rethinking Refugee Protection Worldwide” which is based on her dissertation research, with Wilfrid Laurier Press.