Lamis Abdelaaty Awarded the 2024 Montonna Fund
Lamis Abdelaaty, associate professor of political science and director of undergraduate studies, has received this year鈥檚 award from the Ralph E. Montonna Endowed Fund for the Teaching and Education of Undergraduates.
Awarded by the Maxwell School, the Ralph E. Montonna Endowed Fund is intended to support a professor with notable engagement in undergraduate education. Abdelaaty is the recipient of the fund award for the 2024-25 academic year. She s斐甦s Maria Zhu, assistant professor of economics.
鈥淧rofessor Abdelaaty is a wonderful teacher and mentor, both in and outside the classroom,鈥 says Carol Faulkner, senior associate dean for academic affairs. 鈥淪he is deeply invested in the success of our students, and I鈥檓 thrilled to see her receive this recognition.鈥
Abdelaaty specializes in international refugee politics. She has taught several upper-level courses, including Humanitarian Action in World Politics, Human Rights and Global Affairs, and Refugees in International Politics. She is a senior research associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration.
In 2023 she was named a residential fellow for the journal Migration Politics; she spent a week as a fellow-in-residence at the University of Amsterdam. Also last year, Abdelaaty received a $70,000 grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation to support the research for her second book, 鈥淩efugees in Crisis.鈥 The book will analyze what constitutes a refugee crisis and the factors influencing international responses to crises. Research for the book was also supported with grant funding from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE).
In 2020, Abdelaaty received the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award for Early Career Performance from Syracuse University. In addition, she has received several awards for her first book, 鈥淒iscrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees鈥 (Oxford University Press, 2021), including the Distinguished Book Award from the International Studies Association Ethnicity, Nationalism, & Migration Studies (ENMISA) section. and Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association Migration and Citizenship section. The book examined why countries open their borders to some refugees while blocking others, and why countries give the United Nations control of asylum procedures and refugee camps.
Story by Mikayla Melo
