PHD
 

PhD Thesis Title: Before Securitization, Beyond Security: Security, Islam, and the Politics of the Sacred

PhD Supervisor: Michelle Weitzel

The project examines how security is produced through narratives, perceptions, and everyday practices among transnational Muslim communities. Situated within Critical Security Studies and International Relations, the project explores the intersections of political Islam, identity, and the constitution of security in contemporary world politics.
 

profile

Amena El Ashkar is a PhD candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Department of International Relations and Political Science, specializing in security studies, conflict analysis, and Middle Eastern studies. Her research focuses on counterinsurgency, civilian mobilization, collaboration, and proxy warfare, with a particular emphasis on conflict dynamics in Palestine and Lebanon.

Prior to joining the Geneva Graduate Institute, Amena served as a research assistant at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies and worked as an editor and translator at the Institute of Palestine Studies in Beirut, focusing on the daily Hebrew news section. She also has experience as a journalist with various television channels and as a writer for Arabic and English media outlets.

Amena is a recipient of the British Chevening Scholarship and holds an MA in Israeli Studies with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
 

Research Interests
 

• Security Studies
• Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
• Muslim resistance Groups
  
   

Areas of expertise
 

• Critical Security Studies
• Specializing in political Islam
• Security narratives
• Perceptions of threat, and the relationship between religion, identity, and security in contemporary world politics