Refugee Scholars at Vassar
Funmilola A. Ayeni (Visiting Assistant Professor)
Funmilola A. Ayeni is a microbiologist who was hosted at Vassar College through the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education, and Vassar College as a Visiting Assistant Professor from Spring 2020 through Spring 2021. During those three semesters, Ayeni taught four biology courses (Orthodox vs. Traditional Medicine, Beneficial Microbes (offered twice), and Traditional Medicine Systems), mentored students in independent lab research each semester, and co-authored a book with seven Vassar students titled Global Trends in Orthodox and Traditional Treatment of Selected Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases. Ayeni is currently an Assistant Professor at Simmons University.
Ayham Dalal (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Spring 2021)
Ayham Dalal is an architect, urbanist, artist, and scholar based in Berlin. He obtained a PhD in architecture with distinction from TU Berlin. He is currently associated with the project “Architectures of Asylum” at the CRC “Re-Figuration of Spaces” and is working on his first monograph “Dwelling and the End of Shelter.” Dalal taught a remote course, Refugees and Urban Space, at Vassar in Spring 2021. Read more about that course here.
Hourie Tafech (Dissertation Fellow)
Hourie Tafech is a doctoral student at Rutgers University-Newark’s Division of Global Affairs program currently studying refugee entrepreneurship. Tafech co-taught a course with Vassar professor Maria Höhn (learn more here) in Fall 2020 as a Dissertation Fellow hosted by the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education. A second-generation Palestinian refugee, Tafech is the co-founder of Spark-15, the first youth refugee-led organization in Europe, and a 2020 recipient of the Margaret McNamara Education Grant.