Sumaya Malas

Sumaya Malas is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in Political Science with a focus on post-conflict reconstruction and great power politics in the Middle East and North Africa. She received her master’s degree at Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies, completing her thesis titled “Patterns of Ongoing Conflict Reconstruction Contract Distribution: Evaluating the Syrian Conflict”. Her research primarily focuses on the origins of state structures to assess measures to predict conflict, as well as the mechanisms of post-conflict reconstruction and institution building.  
Previously, she was a 2019 Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellow working on nuclear policy, international security, and arms control. Her work was on researching and promoting de-militarized and peaceful foreign policy as well as advocating for more diversity and inclusion in the national security field. In addition to working at the United Nations Population Fund in New York City and as a field translator in Al-Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, Sumaya has traveled to Sri Lanka, Syria, Lebanon, and Jerusalem to understand conflict-resolution and peace-building efforts. She also received her undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University in International Relations, Comparative Cultures and Politics, Arabic and a minor in Muslim Studies.