Anwar Mhajne

Visiting Scholar
Associate Professor of Political science and International Studies
Anwar Mhajne
amhajne@fas.harvard.edu
Personal Website

Anwar Mhajne is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Stonehill College, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her research focuses on Israeli-Palestinian politics and the impact of technology on human rights, with particular attention to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, surveillance, and disinformation. 

Her work examines how digital technologies reshape warfare, political participation, and everyday life in Israel and Palestine and across the Middle East and North Africa. She investigates how governments and other political actors use these technologies to exercise power, monitor populations, and restrict dissent, as well as how communities use digital platforms to organize and challenge repression. Her research on AI and security addresses questions of civilian protection, accountability, and the human rights implications of technologies that move between military and civilian settings. 

Within Israeli-Palestinian politics, Mhajne studies Palestinian citizens of Israel, political representation, digital repression, and struggles for equality. Feminist approaches inform her research throughout, drawing attention to how gender and other inequalities shape exposure to violence, access to rights, and whose security receives protection. Her current book project examines how gendered disinformation is used to silence critics and reinforce authoritarian power across the region. 

Mhajne is the coeditor of Critical Perspectives on Cybersecurity (Oxford University Press, 2024). Alongside her academic scholarship, she contributes analysis to public and policy debates on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, emerging technologies, security, and human rights. 

Originally from Umm al-Fahm, she works in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. She welcomes inquiries about research collaborations, media interviews, policy discussions, and speaking engagements on Israeli-Palestinian politics, AI and human rights, surveillance, cybersecurity, and gendered disinformation.