CIMARC is co-directed by Professor Noha Mellor and Professor Jon Silverman

Professor Jon Silverman is a former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent and now Professor of Media and Criminal Justice at the University of Bedfordshire. Silverman's research on media content and ethnographic fieldwork has helped government and donors to build bridges between civil society groupings, lawyers, academics and activists, using the (war) crimes reporting as a focus. His research has shown that strengthening the lateral links between media and civil society can be an effective antidote to the arbitrary imposition of power which in turn can lead to the breakdown of order. Silverman's research and expertise in the media and international justice underpinned a unique training programme, developed by the BBC World Service Trust (now re-named BBC Media Action) and the international NGO's Search for Common Ground.

Professor Noha Mellor is Professor of Media at Bedfordshire University, United Kingdom. She taught at several UK universities and previously at Copenhagen University in Denmark.  She is the author of several books about Political Islam, Arab media and culture including Voice of the Muslim Brotherhood (Routledge, 2017), The Egyptian Dream: On Egyptian National Identity and Uprisings (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), Arab Media (Polity, 2011), Pan-Arab Journalists in Transnational media (Hampton Press, 2011), The Making of Arab News (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). In addition, she contributed articles to several mass media outlets including NY Times and Financial Times and Reuters.

In addition, the centre is host to several PhD students including:

• Elizabeth Bailey, Public Health Project Manager at Luton Borough Council and PhD candidate at the University of Bedfordshire. Title of her thesis is : ‘Social media use, online political discussion and emergent UK political movements, 2010-16'.

• Rua Al-sheikh rua.alsheikh@study.beds.ac.uk holds BA in Sociology and Media Studies from Sussex University, and MA in Cultural History, Memory and Identity from Brighton University. She is PhD candidate at the University of Bedfordshire working on a project about the effects of the 2011-Egyptian uprising on Egyptian diaspora communities in the UK in terms of their political participation, sense of belonging and their media use.

• Amir Asadawe holds BSc in Media and Arts department, University of Tripoli, Libya, and MA in Media and Public Relations, Academy of Graduate Studies, Tripoli. He was the editor of Al-Nohy Elrbaa and journalist at Al-sheet in Tripoli until 2005, before he joined the Ministry of Culture and Media until 2008. He was also editor-in-chief at Al Shbab at the National Organization of Libyan Youth from 2006 to 2007. Amir is currently studying for the degree of PhD at the University of Bedfordshire working on a project about the Libyan audience's perception of local vs transnational television channels in the wake of the Libyan uprising in 2011.

• Kholoud Mansour Al-Juiad holds BA in Psychology, King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia) and MA in Mass Communications, University of Bedfordshire, UK. She is a lecturer at Northern Borders University, Saudi Arabia (on leave). Her PhD project deals with the challenges for female journalists in mainstream Saudi media.

• Namir al-Nuaimi holds BA and MA in Media and Communication, Kingston University, UK. The topic of his PhD project regards the status of women's rights after the recent Arab Spring in Egypt. Namir enjoys learning about politics and advocating for human rights, which is why his thesis topic is about women's rights in Egypt after the Arab Spring through discourse analysis of Egyptian media with different ideological perspectives. It also involves interviewing participants in the Arab Spring to get a more in-depth perspective of such discourse. 

Previous PhD candidates who have completed their PhD studies with us since 2015 include: 

• Dr Lisa Thomas (project title: The UK media-state nexus in the context of post-9/11 terrorism policy)
• Dr Abdulaziz Sharbatly (project title: Social Media - a new virtual civil society in Egypt?)
• Dr Mohamed Abunajela (project title: Al-Jazeera Arabic Satellite Television: A Platform for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt?)
• Dr Abou Bhakarr M Binneh-Kamara (project title: Media Reporting of War Crimes Trials and Civil Society Responses in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone)