Mkhaimar Abusada

Visiting Lecturer, Political Science and the Middle East and North African Studies Program

Contact: m.abusada@northwestern.edu

Mkhaimar Abusada is a visiting lecturer in residence from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. An Associate Professor of Political Science at Al-Azhar University-Gaza and the former chair of the university's political science department, Mkhaimar’s primary research topics include Palestinian politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He received his PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Roberson Alphonse

Visiting Lecturer, Medill School of Journalism and Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Contact: roberson.alphonse@northwestern.edu

Roberson Alphonse is a visiting lecturer at the Medill School of Journalism in residence from January 2025 to December 31, 2025. Roberson is a Haitian media professional and serves as the head of national news at Le Nouvelliste, the newsroom director at Magik 9 and the producer of the Dèyè Kay program. He reports on sensitive subjects and challenges facing the country, including corruption, human rights and socio-political crises in Haiti. In addition to his investigative journalism, Roberson works to train the next generation of journalists in Haiti and is working on his first book, an anthology retracing his 20 years of journalism.

Inaya Rakhmani

Visiting Scholar, Equality Development and Globalization Studies Program at the Roberta Buffett Institute

Inaya Rakhmani is a visiting scholar in residence from January 5–19, 2026 and is hosted by Laura Hein, Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor of History. Rakhmani is the Director of Academics of the Asia Research Centre at the University of Indonesia (ARC-UI) and studies media, communication, and the information ecosystem to explain broader capitalist changes and forces hindering democratic developments in Indonesia. The Roberta Buffett Institute's Equality Development & Globalization Studies Program invited Rakhmani to Northwestern as a Buffett Visiting Scholar to forge relationships with Northwestern faculty, present on ARC-UI’s research initiatives, and develop program-building skills in consultation with leadership at the Roberta Buffett Institute and its affiliated programs and centers. Her visit is supported by a Buffett Global Collaboration Grant.

Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih

Visiting Scholar, Equality Development and Globalization Studies Program at the Roberta Buffett Institute

Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih is a visiting scholar in residence from January 5–19, 2026 and is hosted by Laura Hein, Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor of History. Yasih is the Deputy Director of Academics of the Asia Research Centre at the University of Indonesia (ARC-UI) and investigates the precarity of work arrangements in the gig economy and the formation of worker identities therein, based on their subjective experiences and organizing propensity. The Roberta Buffett Institute's Equality Development & Globalization Studies Program invited Rakhmani to Northwestern as a Buffett Visiting Scholar to forge relationships with Northwestern faculty, present on ARC-UI’s research initiatives, and develop program-building skills in consultation with leadership at the Roberta Buffett Institute and its affiliated programs and centers. Her visit is supported by a Buffett Global Collaboration Grant.

Önder Eren Akgül

Postdoctoral Fellow

Contact: onder.akgul@northwestern.edu

Önder Eren Akgül is the 2024–2026 Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. Akgül is a historian of capitalism, political economy and the environment in the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Mediterranean. He is currently working on his first book manuscript, A Global Hinterland: Crisis and the Order of Accumulation in Late Ottoman Greater Izmir, an intertwined history of global capitalism, Ottoman political economy and local labor and ecology. Akgül is concurrently developing two new research projects—the first exploring the history of extractivism in the Ottoman mountains and the second focusing on the global history of the left in Turkey during the long 1960s. Akgül is a regular producer for the Ottoman History Podcast. Before coming to Northwestern, Akgül taught classes on the history of Modern Turkey and global capitalism at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, and International Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.