Dr. Michael Akladios

Founder and Executive Director

Michael earned his PhD in History from York University. A historian of Diaspora, Migration, and Ethnicity, his research primarily focuses on Egypt’s migrants in North America and the global Middle East during the Cold War. His first book project is entitled Ordinary Copts: Ecumenism, Activism, and Belonging in Cold War North American Cities. Michael is a lecturer in History at the University of Toronto. He details the historical trajectory of Coptic diasporic activism in the newly released Dalia Abdelhady and Ramy Aly eds., The Routledge Handbook on Middle Eastern Diasporas (Routledge, 2022). You can follow him on twitter @michaelakladios.

Leila Zonouzi

Editor

Leila is a PhD Candidate in Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation research is a comparative diasporic study between Iran, Egypt, and Turkey, where she argues that the events following social movements that occurred in the 2010s in her case countries have caused a new wave of mass-migration from the MENA region to the Global North. You can follow her on twitter @Leilazon.

Christin El-kholy

Social Media Manager

Christin is a bibliophile and journalism student from Scarborough, Canada who left Cairo as a baby. This relationship to “home” has lead to a lifelong investigation of diasporic identity, and a passionate interest in the ways in which a city is storied from the inside—and out. When she’s not embarking on a dérive (probably in pursuit of a donut), she’s likely convincing a friend to use the public library. You can follow her on twitter @Chrysographer.

Stephanie Amin

Grants Writer

 Stephanie Amin is a former Egypt Migrations’ intern during the 2022 summer. She is an independent researcher and filmmaker. She holds a master’s degree in political sociology from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Amin has professional experience in research, film festival coordination, translation and enjoys writing and singing. Stephanie is interested in Coptic studies, cinema and gender studies. Her first short documentary film “I Found My Love in Massara” will be premiering at Cairo International Film Festival’s 45th edition.

Amy Fallas

UC Santa Barbara X Egypt Migrations Fellow

Amy Fallas is a Salvadoran-Costa Rican writer, editor, and PhD Candidate in History at UC Santa Barbara. She is based in Cairo as the Coptic Studies Fellow at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University for 2022-23 and an Affiliated Doctoral Scholar at The Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) to write her dissertation “Their Own Poor: Charitable Societies, Communal Identities, and the Making of Sectarianism in Modern Egypt 1879-1939.” Her published work has appeared in peer-reviewed and public-facing platforms including History Compass, the Journal for Religion, State and Society, Washington Post, Mada Masr, Jadaliyya, and more. 

Emilie Maksaymous

Content Creator, Summer Intern

Emilie Maksaymous was born and raised in Paris by Egyptian-Coptic parents. She is currently studying literature, philosophy and art theory and, in the process, created a radio show and podcast named “La nuit des divas” about the generation of important feminine singers from Arab countries that emerged in the eighties. Emilie profiles such figures as Mayada El Hennawy, Sherine Abdelwahab, Majida El Roumi, and others. Through this show she showcases the artists, the main musical genres that they produce, and the model of the “arab” diva throughout different periods of time, alone or with specialists of this topic. Emilie is also an editor for a French independent musical magazine, where she writes about soul, neo-soul, and different genres of electronic music and rap. All this is an extension of her research about musical production in the MENA/SWANA region, and specifically Egypt.

Aliyah (Rebecca) Black

Oral History, Summer Intern

Aliyah, who also goes by Rebecca, is a Jewish Educator based out of the United States. They graduated from The New School with a BA in Global Studies, where they completed their undergraduate thesis on the cultural evolution of Egyptian Karaite Jews in the United States. They have worked in non profit management and community organizing. Aliyah is passionate about teaching and elevating stories and histories that are not frequently told.

Abdalla Nasef

Oral History, Summer Intern

Abdalla Nasef is the founder and host of Tahrir Podcast, a platform dedicated to insightful discussions on MENA politics and history, particularly focusing on the Arab Spring and the Egyptian Revolution. He is a graduating senior at the American University in Cairo (AUC), pursuing two Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and History. With a passion for uncovering the complexities of the region’s past and present, Abdalla aims to contribute to meaningful dialogue and understanding through his podcast, academic and political pursuits.

Andrew Riad

Writer, Summer Intern

Andrew Riad (b. 2000, Cairo) is a Coptic Nubian Egyptian artist and poet exploring the intersection of poetry, research and law. He works with textiles, text, filmography, photography, found objects, and culinary practices to undo a monolithic history and propose a [re]imagined and [re][un]written history revealing silenced narratives. Riad is a graduate of New York University Abu Dhabi (May, 2022) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Creative Writing and Legal Studies and a current MFA (poetry) student at Pratt Institute (May, 2025). He is currently a recipient of the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship and a recent alumnus of SAMT Alternative School. His work has been shown in Alserkal Avenue (Dubai), Bayt Al Mamzar (Dubai), New York University Abu Dhabi, as well as published internationally in Mizna Arab Art Journal Summer Issue 23.1, and more. 

Verena Daniel

Writer, Summer Intern

Verena Daniel is a Coptic Egyptian-American writer and journalist based in Detroit. She is a 4th-year student at Michigan State University studying international relations and Arabic. Her research focuses on Coptic language revivalism and preservation in Egypt and the diaspora. She is interested in the migration of minority communities from the Middle East and North Africa, their interactions with and impact on the cities in which they settle, and the exploration of multiple identities through various artistic mediums. Her work can be found in The State News and Niles Daily Star. You can follow her on Twitter @vereynaaa.