CGDS announced the arrival of our second Jan Warner Visiting Scholar, Ms. Alina Jabbari, for fall 2021. Ms. Alina is interdisciplinarily educated, having obtained a BA in law and MA in global criminology at Utrecht University and a second MA in theology under the specialization “Peace, Trauma, and Religion” at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. During her undergraduate studies she also studied at the University of Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. She later returned to South Africa to conduct fieldwork for her first master’s thesis, focusing on contextualizing the Xolobeni mining conflict in South Africa's colonial history, tracing the historical roots of oppression and resistance. During her study for second master’s, she specialized in hermeneutics and Islamic liberation theology, completing her thesis on modern Qur’anic hermeneutics. Before joining CGDS, she worked as a project leader, trainer, and coach at a local organization committed to vulnerable communities and individuals in the city of Amsterdam. Prior to that, she served, along other roles, as a legal consultant for women with dependent residency who were dealing with issues regarding divorce and domestic abuse. She also worked as a trainer for the Restorative Justice Academy, Netherlands. In addition to teaching the Gender and Media course (HUM 202, in the Department of English) for the gender studies minor in fall 2021, Ms. Alina is pursuing her own research, focusing on the intersection between Kurdish national and religious identity. We thank Ms. Jan Warner, CGDS Patron and Champion, for her generosity in funding the Jan Warner Visiting Scholarship.
Image description: A smiling woman with long curly dark hair faces the camera. We see her from the shoulders up. She wears a collared, peach-colored shirt. The background is solid light grey.