Maha Shehade Switat (she/her) is a scholar and activist specializing in labor rights, equality, and justice, with degrees in Sociology, Law, and Communication. As a sociologist and ethnographer, her research focuses on the mechanisms of inequality in legal processes and the labor market, as well as perceptions of justice.
Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology Department at Harvard University and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Maha earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Haifa, where her dissertation explored the dynamics and interactions leading to settlements in labor legal processes and their impact on equality and justice, particularly among gender and ethnic minorities. Her Master’s thesis in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Haifa examined the influence of ethnic identity on emotion management strategies in ethnically mixed workplaces among Palestinian citizens of Israel.
For more than a decade, Switat has combined her academic career with extensive experience as a practitioner advocating for workers’ rights and promoting gender and ethnic equality and social justice. She has also been an active member of statutory committees focused on gender-based analysis of governmental plans and budgets and promoting gender equality.