Ola G. El-Taliawi
MA (The American University in Cairo), PhD (University of Singapore)
Dr. Ola G. El-Taliawi is a policy scientist whose research focuses on comparative public policy and administration processes and their application to forced migration and gender. Her work experience spans across the public, private and non-profit sectors, where she’s worked as a Lecturer, Researcher, Consultant & Executive Trainer.
She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (2019); her doctoral dissertation, “Governance of Mass Displacement in the Middle East,” was nominated for the Wang Gungwu Medal & Prize. She also holds an M.A. in Public Policy and Administration from the American University in Cairo (2010).
In 2020, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Global Refugee Policy at the Department of Political Science, Carleton University. She is an award-winning author. In 2025, she received the Charles H. Levine Prize from the International Political Science Association (IPSA) for her book The Politics of Refugee Policy in the Global South (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024).
Dr. El-Taliawi currently serves as Principal Investigator of “Building Ethical Digital Policy Regimes for Asylum,” funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, and as Co-Investigator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant for the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN). She is also lead editor of the forthcoming Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Public Policy.
With 20 years of experience in higher education, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on global migration governance, global public policy, comparative governance, and others. Her career includes an internship at the UN Division for Advancement of Women (DAW) in New York (2008), as well as consultancy work for organisations including UN-ESCWA, ILO, USAID, and CIDA.
She currently serves as Executive Committee member of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA) and holds an Adjunct Professor affiliation with Carleton University.