Darmame, Khadija / Ross, Eric

Khadija Darmame is an assistant professor of Geography at the School of Humanities and Social Science, Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane. She has more than 20 years of professional and academic experience working on MENA region development challenges, with a focus on local development, public policy, reform of urban services, and civil society involvement. She developed a solid multi-disciplinary background in the field as well as a deep familiarity with Arab/European contexts. Dr. Darmame is also involved in establishing academic and consulting networks in the MENA region, Europe and Gulf. She works to connect various development cooperation organizations and academic institutions in the area of socio-empirical research linked to human development. Darmame has published articles in academic journals such as Habitat International, and has authored chapters in four edited volumes with such publishers as Cambridge University Press.

Eric Ross is an urban and cultural geographer whose research focuses on Muslim Africa. He holds a B.Sc and an M.Sc in Geography from Université du Québec à Montréal, and a Ph.D in Islamic Studies from McGill University. Ross has conducted research on Sufism and urbanization in Senegal as well as on cultural heritage and development in Morocco. Ross has published articles in academic journals such as Urban Studies and Planning Perspectives, has authored chapters in 15 edited volumes with such publishers as E.J. Brill, Routledge, de Gruyter, and Karthala. Among these are Land issues for Urban Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa (edited by Robert Home) published by Springer. Ross also co-authored Grid Planning in the Urban Design Practices of Senegal, also published by Springer, and has written entries for specialized encyclopedias. Ross has been teaching a variety of geography and methodology courses at Al Akhawayn University since 1998.