Nominees for the BRISMES Committee on Academic Freedom (2024-2027)

Passent Moussa

I am an Egyptian-born academic and human rights defender currently living in Germany. For the past 14 years, my work has centered on supporting human rights and democratic transition in the MENA region. As an Egyptian, I have spent my entire life under dictatorship regimes, where I have experienced first-hand how the restriction of various freedoms and rights, including academic freedoms, can severely affect not only democratic practises and transitions, but most importantly, processes of knowledge production and subject formation on a larger scale. Having studied in the UK for the past seven years, completing my MA in Human Rights at the University of Essex and my PhD in Sociology at the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex, I am increasingly concerned that universities in the UK and globally are being restricted. This is a worrying development that needs to be watched with great concern and caution. In my previous work for various international development organisations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I have supported actors and campaigns advocating for freedom of expression and academic freedoms, particularly in the Mashreq region. My research interests lie in the sociology of human rights, authoritarianism, processes of subjectivation, social theory, political transitions, and politics in the Middle East.