We are glad to announce that Noor and Tamara have recently joined the network as Early Career Researchers (ECR) representatives. Tamara and Noor are currently planning big for engagement and interactions across the ECR community of the MENASP Network and looking forward to connecting with you. To introduce them, here is a short (yet interesting) bio.
Noor Alabbas is an early career researcher. She has studied her PhD in social policy and administration at the University of Nottingham- School of sociology and social policy. Her PhD thesis title Understanding Bahrain’s labour immigration policy-making process between 2002-2016: interest groups intermediation and policy networks. The thesis explores the interactions between policy actors, context, policy network and policy outcomes. She applied policy network analysis to understand the interactions between agency and structure in labour market policy process. Her research interest includes public and social policies, policy formulation and implementation, state-society relationship, interest groups collective actions, the role of the state and interest groups in the policy-making process, design and reforms of labour market policies, and governance. She studied her master’s degree in international social policy from the University of Nottingham- School of sociology and social policy. Her master thesis covered an analysis of one of the new labour’s welfare to work programme that was introduced in 1998: a new deal for young people.
Tamara A. Kool is a PhD Research fellow at Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and UNU-MERIT. She has a particular interest in the impact of conflict on society and the role of social policy in fragile contexts. Her current work focuses on the inclusion of regional-based refugees in the labour market in the Middle East, particularly in Jordan. Furthermore, she has supported various institutional consultancies in the field of refugees, social policy and humanitarian contexts for UNICEF Jordan, IOM and UNU-MERIT; and taught postgraduate courses on social protection and human development. Prior to joining UNU-MERIT, she worked as a program officer and independent research consultant for various non-governmental organisations and international platforms, where she also contributed to advocacy efforts on gender, peace and security-related topics. She obtained her MSc Public Policy and Human Development from Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT (cum laude) and, amongst others a BA in General, Comparative and Intercultural Literature from Leiden University.
