Amira Halperin

Dr Amira Halperin is a media and communication scholar, public speaker and former broadcast investigative journalist. Her pioneering research on the Palestinian community in the UK and on Syrian refugees in Canada positions her as a world expert in Middle Eastern refugees, media technologies, and Palestinian affairs. 

Amira is the author of the book ‘The Use of New Media by the Palestinian Diaspora in the United Kingdom’. She is included among the few Israeli scholars to research the UK Palestinian Diaspora. “Amira Halperin embarks on a challenging ethnographic journey of deep digging and persistent exploration of a highly complex topic, involving a highly volatile population, when she sets off to explore the use of new media technologies by members of the Palestinian diaspora in the United Kingdom” (Prof. Sahar Khamis, the book’s preface, 2018).

Currently, she serves as a Senior Research Associate at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) in London. At BICOM, she collaborates with media outlets, Members of Parliament, Lords, government ministers and civil society in the UK and in Israel, to provide research-based insights into Israeli and Palestinian societies and the broader implications of Middle East politics on UK foreign policy. 

She is a member of the ISGAP-Oxford community and a media expert of Forum Dvorah (women in foreign policy and national security). Dr Halperin is the manager of the scientific community of Science Abroad in London.

Based on her lengthy research on global terrorism, she has been invited to testify and deliver talks at political establishments, including the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, the UN, the European Parliament and the Israeli Parliament (the Knesset). 

Dr Halperin has been working in Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Middle East. During this period, she has been engaged in various projects in collaboration with government bodies, NGOs, and cybersecurity companies. Dr Halperin taught and conducted research at the highly renowned University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada and has been affiliated with the UBC Centre for Migration Studies. Amira worked as an Investigative Broadcast Journalist for large media organisations, including BBC TV investigative documentary series ‘Panorama’, where she exposed Hamas funding in the UK. She holds an MA in International Journalism and a PhD in Communication and Media from the University of Westminster, UK.