Zaina (she/her) is a third year international PhD student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She joined the department as an MA student in the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies concentration, graduating in 2020 with a thesis titled “There Shall Be Made No Differentiation”: The Maintenance of Stratification in the State of Kuwait through the 1959 Nationality and Aliens Residence Laws.” She is interested in research that explores global racism, citizenship, immigration, and labor. Her focus naturally gravitates towards the MENA region, where she is from, but she is equally excited by other geographic locations.

Prior to joining UT, Zaina worked as a programming coordinator for a fine arts center and a national cultural center at her native State of Kuwait for two years. She organized conferences, workshops, artist residencies, exhibitions, concerts, and theater shows. Zaina holds a BFA in Visual Arts (2015) from the California Institute of the Arts and an MFA in Community Art (2017) from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Zaina lives far away from her family but gets her cuddling quota through her foster fur babies and number one ride or die pup Zoey, who has enjoyed attending a sociology class or two despite her arthritis and anxiety! If you see her around campus just offer her a yummy treat and she will love you forever. As for Zoey, a belly rub will suffice.