Dr N.F. Alkhalili (Noura)

I have a PhD in Human Geography from Lund University, Sweden. My research expertise spans over three areas. The first area engages with renewable energy studies, energy transitions in North Africa, energy export between North Africa and Europe, green extractivism, occupied territories and energy justice in the MENA region. The second area lies at the intersection of critical and political geography, urban studies, and settler-colonial studies with focus on Palestine. The third area draws upon postcolonial, decolonial and anti-colonial theories in relation to debates on the decolonization of knowledge production and the university.

My PhD research analyzed the role of planning in relation to power, colonialism and subaltern agency in Jerusalem. I took an interdisciplinary approach that spanned urban studies & urban planning, critical geography, refugee & camp studies, as well as settler-colonial studies. It advances critical debates on planning and governance within ethnically divided cities by outlining the subaltern dynamics in relation to land, the commons and urbanization that respond to inequalities of power within ethnically marginalized areas. The thesis argues that Jerusalem should be approached from the theory of settler-colonial hegemony, thus it contributes to scholarship on Palestine and provides a detailed analysis that could feed into a wider analysis of the dynamics of settler-colonialism in general, as well as informing Palestinian strategies in the ongoing struggle for liberation.

My Postdoc research is engaged with the political ecology of renewable energy, particularly in the context of North Africa and its energy relationships to Europe. This has prompted attention to questions regarding socio-ecological and geopolitical challenges of renewable energy transitions and potential energy export to the EU. Moreover, the research focused on the connections between green extractivism and occupied territories through renewable energy production.