Nawroos Shibli

Nawroos Shibli is a Ph.D candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Her research focuses on understanding the discourses, structures and behaviours that perpetuate and intensify the prevalence of acute Islamophobia and racism against Muslims at home and abroad, along with the increased trend toward the securitization of Islam and the Muslim. She is interested in analyzing national iterations of Islamophobia and how this political force intersects with minority rights regimes and impacts the social, political and economic rights of Muslims. What are the human rights impacts of Islamophobia? How has the international community responded to groups affected by this structural racism and are there frameworks and remedies in place to help prevent the continued rise of islamophobia as a transnational phenomenon? These are some of the questions Nawroos is interested in.

Previously, Nawroos was a program assistant for the International Law Research Program (ILRP) at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She has also held various research assistant positions at the University of Waterloo in the department of political science and McMaster University in the department of anthropology. During her university career, she was also a Graduate Research Fellow at CIGI and a transcriber for the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee). She also served as a Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Security Governance.

She graduated with a Joint Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History, with a Global Governance and International Relations Specialization, and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Waterloo. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs where she focused on the socio-political implications of Islamophobic and Orientalist discourses in mainstream American media, for which she was nominated for the Governor General’s Gold Medal award.

Currently, Nawroos is a Senior Research Fellow with the Canadian Arab institute. She also serves as an Editorial Assistant for Stability: International Journal of Security and Development. In her spare time, she volunteers with CIGI’s public events team and with Pet Patrol, a local cat adoption/rescue agency.