Amal Nazzal
Amal Nazzal
Amal Nazzal is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics at Birzeit University. She holds a Ph.D. in organizational studies, where she was awarded the PhD Studentship in Organizational Studies to complete her PhD at the University of Exeter in 2013. Her research interests include decolonized organizational mechanisms and dynamics in organizations, indigenous theory in OS, indigenous organizing (Sumud), intersectionality, feminist organizing, social capital, social networking theory, and new social media in organizations. She is also interested in new research methods such as digital ethnography and social media content analysis. In 2024, Dr. Amal was awarded the George Antonius Fellowship at St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford for her research about the structural and organizational transformations of the Palestinian organizational modes and modalities through the “NGOization” processes in the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Palestine.
Dr. Nazzal is interested in supervising Masters and Ph.D. students taking a critical and/or interpretive perspective, which is driven by a critical and/or decolonial research agenda where a critical analysis of the colonial dimensions in our theories is the heartbeat of the research. She is interested in supervising students who are interested in contextualizing and indigenizing theories to better explore institutional and organizational structure, organizational agency, and social media mobilization while using new research methods such as digital ethnography and social media content analysis.
She is an advisory board member at the Institute of Women Studies (IWS), BDS movement, and Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Business Research and Human Relations, International Journal of Communication, and has written opinion pieces for Al-Shabaka, Metras, Institute for Palestine Studies, the Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh, Middle East Monitor, Mondoweiss, and Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. She has also participated in several webinars, such as; Palestinian Digital Rights, The Epistemicide of the Palestinian Knowledge in the AUB, The Colonial Economy of Israel: Militarization and Cyberization, and others.
She has a Bachelor’s (2010) and a first Masters Degrees (2012) from Birzeit University, and a second Master’s Degree (2013) and a Ph.D. degree in organizational studies from University in Exeter (2017).
Research Interests
Voluntary organizations (e.g. social movements, interest groups, charities), decolonized organizational mechanisms and dynamics in organizations, indigenous theory in OS, indigenous organizing (Sumud), social networking theory, and new social media in organizations. Her research is also interested in intersectionality theory, feminist organizing, in addition to the relevance of movement activism and grassroots mobilization inside organizations.
Researches in Academic/Peer Reviewed Journals (Q1)
1- Hasan, D., Nazzal, A., Zidani, S. (2025). Beating Algorithmic Discrimination: Maneuvering Digital Surveillance to Indigenize the Narrative, International Journal of Communication, 19: 1936–1958.
2- Nazzal, A. (2024) Professionalize the Personal: Online Professional Identity Using
Impression Management Among Junior Employees, International Journal of Communication, 18: 4187-4208.
3- Nazzal, A., Stringfellow, L., & Maclean, M. (2023) Webs of oppression: An intersectional
analysis of inequalities facing women activists in Palestine. Human Relations, 77(2): 265-295.
4- Thompson, A., Stringfellow, L., Maclean, M., & Nazzal, A (2021) Ethical Considerations and
Challenges for Using Digital Ethnography to Research Vulnerable Populations, Journal of
Business Research, 124: 676-683.
Refereed News Articles
Nazzal, A. (2021) The challenge, and opportunity, of boycott campaigns in the occupied lands of Palestine, Mondoweiss [Online] Available at: https://mondoweiss.net/author/amal-nazzal/
Nazzal, A. (2021) When Online Research Can Do Harm, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society [Online] Available at: https://www.hiig.de/en/when-online-research-can-do-harm/
Nazzal, A. (2021) The fight to boycott Israel – inside occupied Palestine #PalestineEconomicWeek, Huck [Online] Available at: https://www.huckmag.com/perspectives/activism-2/the-fight-to-boycott-israel-inside-occupied-palestine/
Nazzal, A. (2021) How does changing the "profile" picture become a political act? Metras [Online/Arabic] Available at: كيف أصبح تغيير صورة "البروفايل" عملاً سياسياً؟
Nazzal, A. (2021) Is boycotting effective? 5 responses to the skeptics Metras [Online/Arabic] Available at: هل المُقاطعة ناجعة؟ 5 ردودٍ على المُشكّكين
Nazzal, A. (2020) YouTube’s Violation of Palestinian Digital Rights: What Needs to be Done, Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network [Online] Available at: https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/youtubes-violation-of-palestinian-digital-rights-what-needs-to-be-done/
Nazzal, A. (2020) Are YouTube’s Policies Biased Towards Palestinians? The Arab Center for
the Advancement of Social Media [Online] Available at: https://7amleh.org/storage/Youtube_0420_English%20(4).pdf
Nazzal, A. (2020) Distance learning partially serves, and its tools remain limited. Institute for Palestine Studies [Online/Arabic] Available at: https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/1649901
Nazzal, A. (2015) is it a new intifada? Leave it to the Palestinians to answer, Middle East Monitor [Online] Available at: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/21562-is-it-a-new-intifada-leave-it-to-the-palestinians-to-answer.
Master Supervision
Currently supervising Dana Hasan who is exploring “The Dynamics of Liquid Surveillance: The Case Study of Instagram towards Palestinians during Sheikh Jarrah”.
Successfully supervised Shurooq Morrar who studied “Social Media Mobilization in Time of Crisis: Palestinian Employment in Lebanon”.
Dr. Amal Nazzal would be interested in supervising Master’s thesis taking a critical and/or interpretive perspective which is driven by constructing realities, and the perceptions of agents and social actors, through incorporating different interpretive methods, such as in-depth interviewing, oral histories, participant observation. She is interested in organizational dynamics, identities, and fields. She is also interested in supervising students who are aiming to explore social networks, social capital, and social media mobilization, while using new research methods such as digital ethnography and social media content analysis.
Conference Proceedings
Nazzal, A. (2023) The NGOization Game: Paradoxical Spectrum of Feminist/De-feminist Organizing Feminist in NGOs, 39th Colloquium EGOS 2023, University of Cagliari, Italy.
Nazzal, A. (2019) Intersectional Analysis of Inequalities Facing Women Activists in Palestine, 35th EGOS Colloquium, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Nazzal, A. (2017) Organizational Mechanism and Dynamics of Motivated Youth Movements in Palestine: A Bourdieusian Perspective, 33rd EGOS Colloquium, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nazzal, A. (2016) Organizational Mechanism and Dynamics of Motivated Youth Movements in Palestine: A Bourdieusian Perspective, 32nd EGOS Colloquium, University of Naples Federico, Naples, Italy.
Nazzal, A. (2015) Theoretical and Conceptual Framework of Socio-Cultural Organizations: A Bourdieusian Perspective, SSIS Postgraduate Conference in Politics & IR, University of Exeter.
Nazzal, A. (2015) Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of Theorising a Bourdieusian Perspective, PGR Conference for Organization Studies, University of Exeter.
Nazzal, A. (2014) Social Movements within Organizations: Concepts and Thoughts, Alternatives Futures and Popular Protest – Social Movement Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester.
