Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts

Research Interests: Development and education, cultural resistance, women and gender, displacement, refugee rights, postcolonialism, narratives of identity, collective memory, border politics

Isabelle graduated from the University of St. Andrews in 2021 with a Bachelors in International Relations and Arabic. While an undergraduate, she studied Arabic at the American University of Beirut, and interned with the Middle East Institute and World Connect, a community-driven development organization. Her undergraduate thesis examined how Palestinian female artists, writers, and filmmakers explored and challenged occupation and patriarchal norms within and beyond Palestinian society through their work. Prior to CCAS, Isabelle was a teaching fellow at an international school in Beirut. In tandem, she studied Lebanese dialect and volunteered with WingWoman, a livelihoods program working to alleviate period poverty in Lebanon, and AlSama, an education center in the Shatila camp. As a MAAS student, Isabelle is interested in further exploring contemporary development practices, gender studies, and the relationship between identity and resistance in arts and cultural traditions - particularly in the context of refugee and internally displaced communities.