Hussain Alhussainy, BA (Hons), MA Student

Contact

Grad Research Assistantship, Faculty of Arts - Political Science Dept

Email: halhussa@ualberta.ca
Address: 11-07 Tory (H.M.) Building
11211 Saskatchewan Drive NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 2H4

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Critical Disability Studies Theory and Policy Middle East Political Economy Post Colonialism Neoliberal institutions Society

About

I am pursuing my MA in Political Science at the University of Alberta as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded scholar and currently work as a Research Assistant at the Stuttering Commons under Dr. Joshua St. Pierre. I graduated with an Honours degree in Political Science. During my convocation in June 2024, I was awarded the Judge Gurcharan Singh Bhatia, C.M. Outstanding Leadership Silver Medal in Arts for my work in disability rights activism as a founding member of the Council on Systemic Ableism and as President of OASIS (The Faculty of Arts undergraduate Students’ Association) I am currently serving as Vice President Labour on the Political Science Graduate Students Association (PSGSA)

Research

My research focuses on the intersections of disability, institutions, and political economy in Canadian and Middle Eastern contexts. My undergraduate Honours Thesis critiqued systemic ableism in Canadian post-secondary institutions, shaped by historical eugenics and neoliberal policies, and introduced the institutional model to address these barriers.

Currently, my MA research seeks to de-Westernize the understanding of disability through a post-colonial lens, comparing how disability is experienced and understood collectively in the Middle East versus individually in the West. It also examines how neocolonialism, Western intervention, and colonial legacies contribute to socioeconomic disparities that not only hinder progress in disability rights and inclusion but also obstruct efforts to both de-Westernize and decolonize understandings of disability. This research challenges the dominant narrative of apathy towards disability inclusion in the region.

Featured Publications

Barred from the Border; Disability Discrimination Within Immigration Systems

Hussain Alhussainy

Crossings: An Undergraduate Arts Journal. 2024 July; 10.29173/crossings200

Clash Of Civilizations, Orientalism, and the “Civilized” and “Uncivilized”; Comparing International Reactions Through The Cases Of The Middle East And Europe

Hussain Alhussainy

Crossings: An Undergraduate Arts Journal. 2023 July; 10.29173/crossings128

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