About Us

The Oxford SWANA Podcast platforms voices from the Middle East and its diasporas that are often left out of mainstream discourse, yet matter deeply to those who live in or closely follow the region. As students based at Oxford with roots across the globe, we use our position to bridge academic insight and lived experience, bringing politically engaged audiences into conversations that are personal, timely, and uncompromisingly nuanced.

We cut through cliché and taboo to amplify voices that resist easy categorization—analysts, artists, and thinkers whose work often sits between the cracks of academia and the media. By doing so, we aim to reinvigorate the space for meaningful analysis beyond the pressures of “publish or perish,” and to democratize what is often the best part of an elite education: the daily, unfiltered conversations with brilliant peers.

OUR MEMBERS

  • NED LEDBEATER

    Ned is a cofounder and leads audio production of the podcast. His research at Oxford focuses on the how network of cables running under the Red Sea has shaped the politics of the region.

  • SUYA VIRMANI

    Suya is a cofounder and the head of social media direction at OSP. Her research focuses on sheep in Occupied Palestine. She is interested in the role of music and the built infrastructure in structuring resistance.

  • THOMAS RUGGE-PRICE

    Tom is a cofounder of OSP. He’s researching state media reactions to human rights scandals. Focusing on how media shapes state narrative and projects soft power, he is committed to creating a space for thoughtful discourse about SWANA in the region and beyond.

  • ELI EVREN ROSS

    Eli is a cofounder and is currently working on broadening the reach of the podcast to include the voices and narratives of regional actors on the ground. His research focuses on the Late Ottoman Empire.

  • ISMAIL JAMAI

    Ismail Jamai Ait Hmitti is a Cofounder and the head of editing for OSP’s blog. His research focuses on regional inequality and state building in the Maghreb.

  • SARAH ROONEY

    With one foot in the diplomatic world and another in academia, Sarah researches the role of graphic novels in shaping domestic and diaspora visions of contentious politics and histories.

  • LIAM BRENNAN

    Liam, possibly the most well travelled person you’ll meet, researches how Islamist groups have interacted with discourses of international law over the last 20 years.

  • Sarah Bonnem

    SARAH BONNEM

    Sarah is the editor-at-large for OSP. Bridging academia and international law, she researches political violence, transitional justice, armed conflict, and collective memory across the modern Levant

  • SAFOUA BERRADY

    Safoua leads the research and the elaboration of factsheets at OSP. Her research focuses on the role of political parties in so called hybrid regimes when they are in the opposition.