Sumaiya Salim Said Al-Wahaibi
Visiting Scholar
Affiliation: University of Copenhagen
Education: MA in Women’s and Gender Studies, Hull University, UK; MA in International Relations, Lodz University, Poland; PhD in Politics, University of Otago, New Zealand
Research Areas: Gender and law in the Gulf, legal ethnography, feminist legal mobilization, media and discourse analysis, state–society relations, Gulf foreign policy, historical ethnography, and women’s economic and political participation
About Sumaiya
Dr. Sumaiya Al-Wahaibi is a Co-Investigator on the ERC-funded project Gulf Feminisms at the University of Copenhagen. Her research examines the intersections of gender, law, and politics in the Gulf states, with particular attention to women’s mobilization of the law, media representations, and the evolving social contracts of the region. She brings over a decade of fieldwork experience across Oman and the wider GCC, employing methods such as ethnography, elite interviews, and media framing analysis. Prior to her academic career, she worked with UNFPA, UNICEF, and UNESCO HQ, where she gained expertise in gender, governance, and institutional reform. She has also taught politics at the University of Otago, New Zealand.
Publications
Al-Wahaibi, Sumaiya, Bader Al-Saif, and Hanaa Almoaibed, eds. Women in the GCC: Negotiating Leadership, Power, and Change. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025 (forthcoming).