Eleyan Sawafta, MA, MA, BSc

Area of Study / Keywords

Political Science Peace & Conflict Studies Political Planning & Development Civil Engineering

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About

Trained across civil engineering and political science, Eleyan Sawafta is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. His interdisciplinary journey across Palestine, the United States and Canada has been shaped by a central question: how do the large systems organizing contemporary life shape political power and human rights? He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering, an MA in Planning and Development and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies. This trajectory gradually shifted his attention from how systems are designed and structured to examining whom systems serve and how their consequences are experienced.

His doctoral research examines technoscientific regimes (institutional arrangements through which scientific knowledge, technological systems, innovation and political authority interact to shape human rights). Across three domains, such as migration governance, protest policing and AI-assisted warfare, his research asks how technologies (re)organize how people become visible to institutions and able to exercise rights. Through multi-level sociotechnical analysis, Sawafta seeks to bring science and technology studies into conversation with political science, human rights and social justice.

Supervised by Professor Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Sawafta has served as Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP), a graduate research assistant, with the University of Alberta’s interdisciplinary Bridging Divides program, working in a research lab co-led by Professor Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Professor Geoffrey Rockwell. The lab's projects are funded by the Government of Canada through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), with a $98.6M budget, and focus on citizenship, immigration, digital technology, and political participation. He is also an Associate Fellow at York University’s Institute for Technoscience and Society. Recognized through prestigious awards — including the SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship and Killam Grand Challenges Scholarship for Interdisciplinary Research — his research has been presented internationally across North America, Europe, and West Asia and published in various interdisciplinary journals.

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Research

I am currently working on several research projects that reflect my commitment to addressing critical issues at the intersection of technology, immigration, and social justice. My current research projects include:

Data ethics protocols for immigrant serving organizations and newcomer privacy protection (Completion date: September 2026)

Training in software Voyant (Expected completion: December 2026)

Observatory on Immigration Discourses (IDIO) (Expected completion: First version of the Observatory ready to use by December 2026)

Advanced digital technologies and immigration governance in comparative perspectives (Expected completion date: December 2026)

Digital Platform Modernization and Transformation in Canada (Expected completion date: December 2026)

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Teaching

In Winter 2026, I began my role as a teaching assistant for Professor Blair Attard-Frost in the course POL S 298: The Politics of Digital Technology. In Spring 2022, I started at UNCG as a teaching assistant for the course PCS 308: Working Through Interpersonal Conflict. This class investigates the origins of interpersonal and intergroup tensions and teaches effective techniques for addressing these issues in various settings, including the workplace, community, and home. Transitioning from my role as an Arabic tutor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLC) to a researcher and teaching assistant in the Peace and Conflict Studies department has provided me with excellent opportunities at UNCG to advance my professional and academic pursuits. I look forward to further expanding my research.

Eleyan Sawafta, Zarif Masud, Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Ebrahim Bagheri, and Geoffrey Rockwell

Canada. 2026 May; 57 (3):49-75 10.1353/ces.2025.a989105

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Eleyan Sawafta

Australian Journal of Environmental Education. 2026 February; 10.1017/aee.2026.10134

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Eleyan Sawafta

Religious and Socio-Political Studies Journal. 2026 January;

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Eleyan Sawafta

U.K. 2025 August; 7 (2):13-41

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Hasan Ayoub and Eleyan Sawafta

2025 July;

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Eleyan Sawafta

USA. 2024 June; 16 (2):7-13

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Eleyan Sawafta

UK. 2024 February; 6 (1):142-146

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Eleyan Sawafta and Hasan Ayoub

Qatar. 2023 July; 12 (45):105-136 10.31430/WYLM1291

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Eleyan Sawafta

UK. 2023 February; 5 (1):200-237

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Eleyan Sawafta

Palestine . 2021 August;

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View additional publications

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• ResearchGate