Lama Mourad is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, where she researches migration and local governance in the Middle East. From 2012-2015, Lama was a CGS-Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral fellow. She spent a year in Lebanon conducting research on the role of municipalities in responding to the Syrian refugee crisis. She has published in a wide array of outlets, including the Journal of Refugee Studies, Middle East Law and Governance, as well as the Toronto Star, and Le Devoir. She has received numerous grants and awards for her work, including the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Doctoral Award, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and a Fellowship from the Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict, and Justice.