Experts on countries of origin by country

Anthropologist and qualitative researcher with over a decade of experience conducting research with vulnerable populations. Specializing in participatory, ethical, and mixed methods research with lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) women and LGBTIQA+ groups; human rights; SOGI inclusion; intersectional data analysis; sexual and gender-based violence; sexual and reproductive health and rights; NGOs and community-based organizations; HIV/AIDS programming; and inclusive and diverse programming in development and nonprofit interventions.

Noah Tucker is senior research consultant for the Oxus Society, an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard and held the Handa Studentship at the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) from 2021-2024.  He was previously Executive Editor for the Not in Our Name film and television series, the first region-wide project designed to prevent violent extremism in Central Asia through community dialogues in areas most directly affected by recruiting to Syria. Noah has worked as a consultant to programs supporting and evaluating programs for returnees from the Syrian conflict in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for the US State Department and USIP. He has worked broadly on collaborative projects for government, academic and international organizations to identify the way social and religious groups affect political and security outcomes in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Recent publications include “Uzbek Women in the Syrian Conflict: First-Person Narratives and Gendered Perspectives on Mobilization and De-Mobilization.” Noah has worked on Central Asian issues since 2002—specializing in religion, national identity, ethnic conflict and social… Read more

The Expert is a Barrister-at-Law of England and Wales. The Expert is a practicing Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He holds the position of Head of Chambers at "LexAria and Jurists" (link: https://lexariaandjurists.com/), with nearly a decade's experience in legal practice. The expert regularly moves before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh for various matters, including Writ (Judicial Review), Criminal and Civil Appeal and Revision, Bail Petition, Intellectual Property, Company Matter, Inheritance, Public Interest Litigation, Muslim Personal Law, Succession Law, Hindu Law, etc.

As a practicing Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and Journalist, the expert is capable to verify any legal documents, including cases, GDs, judgments, and other relevant documents, and check records from the government offices of Bangladesh, including Courts and Tribunals, unless restricted by law or the relevant office. 

Parallel to his legal pursuits, the expert is the Legal Affairs and Political Editor of The Daily Campus and a columnist. Accumulatively, he possesses over 18 years of sustained experience as a Journalist in Bangladesh, having written extensively on a broad range of issues, including human rights, the criminal justice system, politics,… Read more

I am a sociologist and academic researcher specializing in Development Studies, Social Inequality, Environmental Stressors, Political Opinions, etc., in the context of Bangladesh, with expertise in governance, political institutions, environmental justice, climate change adaptation, migration, rural livelihoods, social exclusion, human rights, sustainable development, and mental health. Along with 27 years of teaching and research at national and international universities, my 36 years of lived experience with political dynamics in Bangladesh can contribute a sharp judgment to any case arising there. My research focuses on the interactions among political, environmental, socio-economic, and mental health processes that shape vulnerability and resilience (economic, social, and political) in Bangladesh.

I have extensive experience conducting empirical research throughout Bangladesh using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches, including structural equation modelling (SEM), Fuzzy DEMATEL, multivariate statistical analysis, and participatory field research. My work has examined political participation, institutional accountability, climate-induced displacement, environmental governance, livelihood transformation, poverty, and social inequality. My academic… Read more

Dr. Emma Varley is an Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Brandon University whose research spans over two decades in sociocultural and critical medical anthropology. Her work foregrounds the cultural, ethical, and political dimensions of medicine and public health, with particular expertise in maternal and neonatal health in contexts marked by conflict, weak governance, and structural violence. Her long-term ethnographic research focuses primarily on Pakistan and India, where she has examined how state policies, sectarian dynamics, and institutional practices shape obstetric care, health service delivery, and the lived experiences of women, families, and healthcare providers.

Dr. Varley’s scholarship integrates rigorous ethnographic methods with critical theory to explore power, exclusion, and embodiment in medical and humanitarian settings. Her publications address the impacts of political strife, natural disaster, health system mismanagement, and social marginalization on maternal health outcomes, advancing broader debates in global health, gender studies, conflict studies, and the anthropology of medicine.

Dr. Hanna Vasilevich is a researcher and academic currently based at the International Centre for Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity Studies in Prague, where she serves as Board Chair. Dr. Vasilevich has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Law & Anthropology Department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany. Before she worked at the European Centre for Minority Studies (Germany) and taught in a number of Universities in Czechia and Germany. 

Matthew Venker is a legal anthropologist studying race, citizenship, and migration in Burma (Myanmar) and among the Burmese diaspora. He uses historic, ethnographic, and visual studies methods to understand intersectional experiences of law and litigation. His current research focuses on the experience of irregular migrants leaving Burma in the wake of the nation's 2021 military coup. He has published on the racial and gendered legacies of colonial litigation, particularly among ethnic Chinese in Burma.

Matthew has fifteen years' experience working in East and Southeast Asia, including China, Thailand, and Myanmar. He has conducted research in Myanmar since 2017. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023.

Emmah Wabuke holds a PhD from University of Cambridge, a a Master of Laws (LL.M) from Harvard Law Schooland a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the University of Nairobi. She is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She has experience conducting in-depth and impactful research works on varied human rights issues, including, women, peace and security, reproductive justice, criminal justice reform and sexual and gender-based violence.

Emmah also has extensive experience designing teaching curriculums on the impact of the law and politics on women’s lived experiences, and has conducted professional trainings on refugee protection, SGBV and human rights law in Kenya; and the laws governing Human Rights Defenders’ advocacy. She has previously worked as a law lecturer and was the Founding Director of Strathmore Law Clinic, based at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, from 2018 to 2020. She has also worked as a summer lecturer at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge on Politics of Conflict and Peace.

The Expert is a sociologist and religious studies expert with specialisation in Asia and the Middle East. He has authored over 150 subject-specific expert legal reports concerning human rights, asylum and terrorism cases. The Expert has spent several years in the field, carrying out research both in Britain and abroad, enabling him to generate expert reports on the country conditions of asylum applicants. The Expert has been involved in several cross-cultural research projects in the private and public sector. As an expert in South Asia, he spent several years conducting extensive fieldwork across South Asia. In Pakistan, he worked alongside local politicians and social workers, gaining considerable insight into national and local political and legal structures in Pakistan. This makes him a regional expert of South Asia and the Muslim world, especially related to religion, society, culture and politics. He is a peer-reviewed member of the academic community and currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Science at Bangor University. He has authored three books: (1) Radicalism Unveiled (Routledge, 2013); (2) Segregated Britain: Everyday Life in Muslim Enclaves (Peter Lang, 2020); (3) Leaving Islamism (Peter Lang, Forthcoming).

Lauren Wallace is a Canadian-Ghanaian medical anthropologist and public health expert with more than a decade of experience in global health. She has specific expertise in issues such as healthcare access, health systems’ capacity, mental illness, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and LGBTQI rights in West Africa. She is currently a Research Associate at the Global Strategy Lab at York University in Canada. She was formerly a Senior Researcher at the Dodowa Health Research Centre of the Research and Development Division of Ghana Health Service, in Accra, Ghana.

Lauren Wallace is a medical anthropologist and public health expert with nearly a decade of experience in global health. She has specific expertise in women’s health and reproductive health in West and East Africa. She is presently a Senior Researcher at Dodowa Health Research Centre of the Research and Development Division of Ghana Health Service, in Accra, Ghana, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. 

Lesley Jo Weaver, PhD, MPH, is an academic expert in medical anthropology, global health, mental health, race, gender, chronic diseases, food insecurity, and homelessness. Her research focuses, broadly, on the social production of health and illness. In the US, Weaver's federally funded research addresses the ongoing crisis of houselessness in the Pacific Northwest by exploring stress and health among people living with insecure housing. In India, Weaver’s federally funded research explores how the day-to-day management of type 2 diabetes shapes North Indian women’s abilities to participate in social roles considered appropriate for women of their age, class, and caste groups. She also studies how South Indian women explain and understand distress, and what they do when they are so stressed that they need to seek help. In Brazil, Weaver’s work has examined how food insecurity influences physical and mental wellbeing. In addition to this fieldwork, Weaver co-hosts and co-produces the academic podcast Speaking of Race, a longstanding program that explores the history and present-day reverberations of scientific racism around the world. 

Lesley Jo Weaver, PhD, MPH, is an academic expert in medical anthropology, global health, mental health, race, gender, chronic diseases, food insecurity, and homelessness. Her research focuses, broadly, on the social production of health and illness. In the US, Weaver's federally funded research addresses the ongoing crisis of houselessness in the Pacific Northwest by exploring stress and health among people living with insecure housing. In India, Weaver’s federally funded research explores how the day-to-day management of type 2 diabetes shapes North Indian women’s abilities to participate in social roles considered appropriate for women of their age, class, and caste groups. She also studies how South Indian women explain and understand distress, and what they do when they are so stressed that they need to seek help. In Brazil, Weaver’s work has examined how food insecurity influences physical and mental wellbeing. In addition to this fieldwork, Weaver co-hosts and co-produces the academic podcast Speaking of Race, a longstanding program that explores the history and present-day reverberations of scientific racism around the world.

Bruce Whitehouse is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lehigh University, where he is also affiliated with the Africana Studies and Global Studies programs. He teaches courses pertaining to culture, globalization, capitalism, humanitarianism and development, and contemporary African societies. His first book, Migrants and Strangers in an African City (Indiana University Press, 2012), examines the multigenerational flow of people from West Africa to the Congo River Basin. His second book, Enduring Polygamy (Rutgers University Press, 2023), studies the resilience of plural marriage in Bamako, Mali. His research has been published in journals including African Studies Review, Global Networks, Hommes et Migrations, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly. He lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

I am a Scholar and Legal researcher with expertise in South Asian countries, specialising in the preparation of country expert reports. Provide independent, impartial, and evidence-based analysis on country conditions, including political, legal, social, and human-rights contexts. My work supports solicitors, counsel, courts, and tribunals by delivering well-researched expert opinions grounded in academic sources, field knowledge, and authoritative reporting, with a clear understanding of the duties and standards applicable to expert evidence.

James Wintrup is a medical anthropologist with expertise in development and global health in Africa, especially Zambia. He has over 8 years of experience in conducting research, using qualitative research methods. He has collaborated and conducted research with policymakers and academics in Africa, the UK and Norway. His research has ethnographically examined the social and political effects of a range of different health interventions in Zambia. He has published articles in Social Science & Medicine, Critical Public Health, Critique of Anthropology, and History and Anthropology.

Countries of Expertise: Syria (and to a lesser extent Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey).

I write books and articles about the political, military, economic, social and cultural conditions in Syria. My most recent book is The Blood Between Us: Syria’s Revolutionary Transition (Saqi, 2026). My journalism has been published at The Guardian, New Lines Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Unherd, Al Jazeera, the New Statesman and other outlets. The BBC and others have frequently interviewed me on Syria.

I am also the chief English editor of the Syria Prisons Museum and the ISIS Prisons Museum; these are documentation projects producing evidence of crimes in prisons run by the Assad regime and ISIS for use in trials and for wider justice and accountability purposes.

As well as prisons, I focus on transitional justice, militias, sectarianism, and political and economic development.

I am a political science consultant with extensive expertise in governance, political institutions, conflict analysis, democratic transitions, and public policy, with a regional focus on Afghanistan and Albania. My work combines rigorous political analysis with practical policy recommendations to support governments, international organizations, and research institutions operating in complex political environments.

Dr. Abduslam Zagud is a British-Libyan expert witness specialising in Arab socio-political affairs, Islamic law, tribal and community dynamics, and international human rights. He holds a doctorate in General International Law and brings over 17 years of combined academic, professional, and lived experience across the Arab world to his expert practice. Dr Zagud holds an intensive research experience on international public law, international human rights law, international relations and immigration law. 

As a Libyan national who has lived, studied, and worked across multiple Arab countries, and who maintains active community ties in the United Kingdom, Dr. Zagud occupies an unusual position among country experts: he shares the language, culture, religious traditions, and social frameworks of the people he writes about. This enables a depth of insight that goes beyond conventional desk research. Arab nationals speak candidly with him, update him on conditions on the ground, and provide the kind of nuanced, lived detail that is rarely accessible to an outside observer.

He is a Full Member of the SOAS Arbitration and Dispute Resolution Centre and holds Law Society accreditation as a Supervising Senior Caseworker in Immigration and Asylum Law. He works… Read more