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Our Team
Umbreen Salim
Founder and Managing Director
Umbreen Salim is a researcher, a feminist, an activist and gender-advocate striving to contribute to efforts promoting epistemic, political and social justice. Her doctoral research, focused on challenges of integration, is with migrant women in The Netherlands. She has over 10 years of research and advocacy experience working with women and girls, particularly migrants and refugees, advocating for human-rights and social inclusion. She is a social sector development practitioner, with over 15 years of project management experience with various INGOs and Governments, across Asia, Pakistan and The Netherlands.
Maria Dafnomili
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Dr. Erzsébet Strausz
Erzsébet Strausz teaches at Central European University, Vienna. She holds a PhD and her research focuses on creative, experimental and narrative methods in the study of world politics. She was awarded the British International Studies Association’s Excellence Prize in 2017 while working at the University of Warwick and the CEU Distinguished Teaching Award in 2020.
Dr. Christina Schiavoni
Christina M. Schiavoni is a food sovereignty activist and scholar who has worked in partnership with social movements across the globe. She holds masters and PhD degrees from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. Her research, based in Venezuela, focused on co-generation of knowledge by and for social movements.
Mossarat Qadeem
Mossarat Qadeem is an internationally known expert on Women Peace and Security and has spoken thrice in the UN General Assembly and once in Security Council on the subject. She is co-founder of ‘Commonwealth Women Mediators Network’, PAIMAN Alumni Trust, and a visiting fellow at Women Peace and Security Centre, London School of Economics.
Maria Dafnomili
Member, Board of Directors
Maria Dafnomili is a specialist in macroeconomics. She has worked as an economic analyst in the Greek Ministry of Finance and was involved in different economic projects both in Greece and the Netherlands. UK, France, Belgium, Greece and the Netherlands have been, until now, among the places of her teaching andresearch experience.
PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS
Waranya Areerom
Research Team Member
Waranya is a lawyer and researcher, specializing in human rights law. With her master’s degrees in European and International Human Rights Law (Leiden University), International Banking and Finance Law (UCL), and International Trade and Commercial Law (Durham University), she has a strong passion for promoting human rights, especially in the areas of business and human rights, migration, and children’s rights. Her past volunteer work with NGOs includes data collection for UNESCO and report review for UNDP. Waranya is based in the Netherlands.
Falguni
Singh
Research Team Member
Falguni Singh is a lawyer with an Advanced LL.M. in European and International Human Rights Law from Leiden University, Netherlands. Specialising in human rights, particularly focused on women's and children's rights, her work is dedicated to promote social justice and advocacy. Falguni's skills encompass legal research, detail-oriented case analysis, and comprehensive reporting. With a multidimensional skill set covering human rights law, women's rights, children's rights, and legal research, Falguni Singh is poised to make meaningful contributions to projects on women's rights.
Rebecca
Fairbeard
Media Management
Rebecca has recently graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a first-class bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Politics. She wrote her dissertation on the marginalisation of migrant women’s voices by the Swedish media and believes strongly in the importance of giving these women a platform to speak for themselves. Now based in The Netherlands, she’s eager to continue contributing to this impactful work.
Anne
Noël
Research Team Member
Anne is an International Studies graduate with a passion for all things research, culture and social justice. During her degree, she focused on gender studies, climate justice and moral panics and gained experience as a student podcast host and academic consultant. Since then she has worked as a museum assistant in Luxembourg, research assistant at Leiden University and research and communications officer at an anti-racist NGO where she investigated the fatal consequences of Fortress Europe.
Hope
McNaught
Research Team Member
Hope is a BA Economics and Politics student from the UK in her final year at the University of Leeds, and joined the SEEK team when she was on her study exchange at Leiden University. She has a passion for sustainable development, social outreach and women's empowerment, in particular, migrant and refugee women. She has previously volunteered with Student Action for Refugees in Leeds, participating in language improvement and community based classes, and has gained insights into the professional working environment at a market research and a quantity survey firm. She also embarked on a voluntary exchange program in Egypt where she developed her inter-cultural dialogue.
Carlotta Mallone
Research Team Member
Carlotta is a recent graduate from Leiden University with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences: Global Challenges (World Politics major). She has gained valuable experience volunteering and working with NGOs in Italy and the Netherlands. She is currently part of the legal team at Vluchtelingenwerk in Amsterdam, providing legal and practical support to refugees navigating family reunification procedures. She is passionate about addressing gender inequality, empowering women, advocating for the rights of refugees and immigrants, and promoting more just and inclusive societies. In addition, she has a strong interest in languages and is fluent in Italian, German, Dutch, English, Spanish, and French.
Sofiia
Tkachenko
Research Team Member
Sofiia is an International Relations and European Politics student at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, currently focusing on security in Eastern and Southern Europe. She combines her academic interests with activism as a Ukrainian refugee and advocate for displaced women's rights. She is mainly engaged in feminist and security studies, with her thesis exploring the reintegration of women recruited by ISIS in the Balkans. She is joining SEEK to further her commitment to gender equality and social justice.