Tamara A. Kool is a Research fellow at Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT. Her research interests pertain to the impact of conflict on society and the potential of social (protection) policy for marginalised communities, with a focus on the Middle East. She recently obtained her PhD on the role of refugee-related policies in shaping inclusion of regional-based refugees in the Jordanian labour market. In addition, she has supported various institutional consultancies in the field of social (protection) policy and humanitarian contexts for UNHCR, WFP, ERF, UNICEF, IOM, ILO and UNU-MERIT; and taught postgraduate courses on social protection and human development. She is also an associated expert with the Social Policy Research Institute (SPRI) and an affiliated researcher at the Refugee Law Initiative (University of London).

Prior to joining UNU-MERIT, she worked as a program officer and independent research consultant for various non-governmental organisations and international platforms, where she contributed to advocacy efforts on gender, peace and security. She obtained her MSc Public Policy and Human Development from Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT (cum laude) where she specialised in social protection and, amongst others a BA in General, Comparative and Intercultural Literature from Leiden University.

Selected publications by Tamara A. Kool