Ali Hamdan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, affiliated with the Transnational Configurations, Conflicts and Goverance research group at the University of Amsterdam. He is a specialist in political geography with a regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. He has extensive field experience working and studying in the region, particularly in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, and is passionate about using qualitative methods to contribute to interdisciplinary discussions about the changing nature of political violence, forced migration, and world politics in the 21st century.

Expertise and research fields

• Political and cultural geography
• Civil war and political violence
• International relations and critical geopolitics
• Exile and transnational politics
• The Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Israel-Palestine)
• Qualitative methods

Relevant links

• The transnational configurations, conflict and governance research group

Research methods

• Semi-structured interviews
• Participant observation
• Archival research (digital)

Current research projects

• Exile Geopolitics & Syria’s Opposition | I study the way that transnational and local forces converge to produce places of geopolitical possibility

Research grants and honours

• Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) Travel, Research, Engagement (TRE) Grant, Summer 2017
• Social Science Research Council’s (SSRC) International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF), 2016-2017
• American Center for Oriental Research CAORC-ACOR Fellowship, 2015-2016
• Maurice J. & Fay B. Karpf Peace Prize, 2015
• Alice Belkin Memorial Fellowship, 2014