Alaa Shatila

Alaa Shatila is a doctoral researcher in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, working at the intersection of gender, displacement, and feminist political economy. Her research examines how Palestinian women, particularly female heads of households, negotiate economic agency following their displacement from Gaza to Egypt in the aftermath of 2023.

It explores how women navigate socio-economic uncertainties and reconstruct livelihoods in the absence of male household providers, situating their experiences within broader structural power dynamics, including humanitarian aid policies and practices. Grounded in decolonial feminist approaches, her work centres women’s lived experiences as sites of knowledge production while critically engaging with humanitarian and aid systems in contexts of displacement and crisis.  

Alaa holds a Master’s degree in International Social Development from the University of East Anglia (2022), which she completed with distinction. Her academic training focused on social analysis, qualitative research methods, gender and development, and education policy. Her Master’s dissertation employed qualitative methodologies to examine the gendered division of labour in Palestine, critically analysing how structural inequalities shape women’s economic roles, responsibilities, and social positioning.  Alongside her doctoral research, Alaa has contributed to consultancy projects on women’s economic empowerment and psychosocial support in crisis-affected settings. 

Her work draws on qualitative and participatory methods, including in-depth interviews and community-based approaches, to inform programme design and policy interventions in contexts shaped by war and displacement. She also has experience in trauma-informed research, supported by academic training, with a particular focus on ethics of care in sensitive research environments.  

Her broader research interests include decolonial methodologies, feminist political economy, humanitarian and aid policy, and the politics of knowledge production in conflict-affected settings. She is particularly committed to amplifying the voices of marginalised women and advancing research that is produced with, rather than about, those it seeks to represent. Her work aims to contribute to more inclusive, context-sensitive, and evidence-based humanitarian and development practices.

• Women’s economic agency in crisis contexts
• Feminist political economy
• Humanitarian aid and policy in displacement settings
• Social norms and gender roles
• Qualitative and participatory research methods
• Decolonial approaches to research