AMNA SHAH Amna’s life is a testament to resilience and dedication as she emerges as a formidable advocate for refugee rights. Hailing from Pakistan, she became a refugee in Malaysia in 2014. Despite the hardships, she achieved a B.Sc. (Hons) Biomedical Science Degree from the University of Nottingham on a scholarship, earning acclaim for her …
Amna, currently residing in Canada, is diligently pursuing a Master of Health Sciences in Medical Genomics at the prestigious University of Toronto. Her active engagement with the Global Tertiary Refugee Student Network underscores her commitment to facilitating higher education access for refugees, while her distinguished role as Director at OUR (Opening Universities for Refugees) exemplifies her dedication to this noble cause.
From 2020 to 2023, Amna served as the Program Coordinator for CERTE Malaysia, contributing significantly to CERTE’s recognition as a Best Practice in the Global Compact on Refugees. During the past five years, she displayed unwavering leadership as a youth advocate at the Dignity for Children Foundation, empowering marginalized youths. Her profound commitment to gender rights is evidenced by her role as the focal point for Women & Girls at Risk, where she effectively raised awareness about sexual and gender-based violence within the refugee community.
Amna’s journey commenced when she sought refuge in Malaysia in 2014, hailing from Pakistan. Despite facing formidable challenges, her remarkable resilience and tenacity propelled her to secure a scholarship to the University of Nottingham, where she attained a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biomedical Science, distinguished by awards such as Best Research Project and Best Research Proposal Pitch. Her academic achievements culminated in her being honoured as the Valedictorian of the class of 2020 at the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Malaysia.
Gül İnanç (Founder) is a diplomatic historian of modern West Asia and has published books and articles on modern Turkish diplomacy, cultural heritage education for peace, religious architecture of Singapore, forced migration in Southeast Asia. Her recent publications include Access to Higher Education: Refugee Stories from Malaysia (co-authored), Routledge, 2018, and Forced Displacement and NGOs in Asia Pacific (co-ed), Routledge, 2022. She is the co-founder of Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies (CAPRS) at University of Auckland, New Zealand and served as the founding co-director between 2020-2023.
She has received the Koh Boon Kwee Scholars Award in August 2016 for inspirational teaching at Nanyang Technological University, NTU, Singapore, where she was affiliated between 2012-2022. She has worked as an expert curriculum developer on UNESCO’s Understanding Shared Histories: A Teaching Package which has been translated into Khmer, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.
She has co-developed educational materials including text books for K12 students on the history and cultural heritage of Cyprus and a Singapore religious heritage game project at the NTU. She is currently based in Savannah, GA and is affiliated to Guilford College, NC as a visiting scholar.