PhD Thesis
Title: Narrative Construction in Egyptian Identity Politics and the Role of Western Extreme Right-Wing Ideologies
Expected Completion Date: 2026
PhD Supervisor: Michelle Weitzel
My PhD project explores how ideas and information travel across time and space, influence, and get adapted into different cultural and political discourses. I focus on how western right-wing extremist ideologies and narratives are integrated into non-western political contexts, with specific reference to Egypt. My research identifies right-wing extremist narratives that are being interpreted and translated into the Egyptian context among a particular segment of society, it also demonstrates its ubiquity and examines possible consequences.
Profile
Farah Rasmi is a PhD candidate in International Relations/Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, and a SSHRC-CRSH Doctoral Fellow, Canada. Her research focuses on political identities and how they are influenced by extremist ideologies and conspiracy theories. She graduated with a Master of Arts in European and Russian Affairs from the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and an HBA in European Studies, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, French Literature, and Jewish Studies from the University of Toronto. She has previously worked as a fellow at Ranking Digital Rights, and as an editor at Arab Media & Society Journal at the American University in Cairo. Farah has also interned at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in West Africa and at Political Capital Institute in Hungary.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Right-Wing Extremism
- Far Right
- Political Violence
- Nationalism, Identity Politics
PUBLICATIONS AND WORKS
- Weaponizing Media and the Dangers of Subjective Truth: Reflections on the “Arab Media Between Conflict and Peace” panel” Arab Media & Society, Issue 32 (2022-02-28)
- Beyond the War: The History of French Libyan Relations” Atlantic Council (2021-04-01)
- The effect of the 2015 refugee crisis on the share of attitude radicals” Political Capital Institute (2018-06-25)
- The Rise of the Canadian Far-Right” Political Capital Institute (2018-06-20)
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES
- Editor at Arab Media & Society Journal, at the American University in Cairo
- Research Assistant to Professor Randall Hansen, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, Canada
- Research Assistant to Professor Jeannie Miller, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Canada
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
SSHRC-CRSH Doctoral Fellow, Canada