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In the next phase of his work with the Special Commission on Social Science Research in the Middle East and North Africa, Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., professor in and founding chair of UNE’s Political Science program in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, has been invited to participate in a working group to study the ethics and politics of research questions as they pertain to social science in the Middle East.

Ahmida was invited to join the commission, an initiative of the Research Ethics Committee in the Middle East and North Africa (REMENA) project at Columbia University, last year. The REMENA project is dedicated to developing guidelines for the conduct of responsible, ethical, and social inquiry in the Arab world. The commission is composed of a selected group of distinguished scholars who will work on the project for two years.

The overall initiative is intended to address a variety of challenges facing the increasingly globalized field of social science research, including questions of how, when, and where social scientists do and should collaborate; how they interact with research subjects; and what standards of transparency should be observed within the research enterprise.

Ahmida was selected for the smaller working group for his thought leadership on and critical thinking about the way research questions have been structured and because of his strong visions for ethical research and practice.

The working group aims to produce a short report and set of recommendations for how to do more ethical social science research in Middle Eastern and North African studies.

“I am delighted and honored to serve in this national commission,” Ahmida said. “It is nice to be recognized as a 91ֱ����Ƶfaculty member and to give our University some national visibility as well.”