Research Team

I have a number of individuals working with me on various projects and research. Below you will find more information on my current team members. 

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Lauren Judge

Lauren manages Dr. Momani's research portfolio. She is a PhD Candidate, specializing in Human Geography. She obtained her Master of Arts in Public History from the University of Waterloo (2005), and her Bachelor of Arts in History and Humanities (double major with Honours) from York University (2003).

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Dr. Shelly Ghai Bajaj

Postdoctoral Fellow, Mis/Disinformation and Ethnocultural Communities

Shelly Ghai Bajaj (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 2022) is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Bessma Momani on projects relating to identity, democracy, disinformation, and social media. 

She studies comparative politics of both developing and advanced industrial democracies and is interested in the politics of identity and ethnonationalist mobilization, political parties and party strategy, the use of social media by political actors, and South Asian politics. She is also interested in qualitative research methodologies, content analysis, and comparative historical analysis. Her work on Hindu nationalism and electoral politics has been published in Asian Survey (2017) and in an edited volume on Politics and the Religious Imagination (Routledge, 2010).