Albana Dwonch, Ph.D.

Albana S. Dwonch teaches for the Political Science and International Studies Departments at Gonzaga University. A former journalist, she moved from the Balkans (Albania) to the Middle East where she lived and worked over a decade as an International Humanitarian Worker. During her work in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Syria she focused on youth development issues and humanitarian emergency crises. Challenged and inspired by these global encounters and intercultural experiences, she joined the University of Washington, where she earned her interdisciplinary PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Studies. She strives to combine her practitioner and scholarly perspectives in her teaching and writing endeavors.