Whitney J Buchanan

Whitney Buchanan is currently based in Berlin Germany and has worked with activists, NGOs, and INGOs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe and areas of Sub-saharan Africa, since 2009. She is the founder of Middle East Collective, an initiative promoting the understanding of the MENA region and tolerance of Islam, while embracing Muslim communities in the West.

More specifically, Whitney focuses on Muslim-Christian understanding, U.S. policies and relations with the MENA, as well as women’s issues in the United States and throughout the MENA region. She has conducted intensive interviews with prominent activists in the West and MENA, United Nations Women and the International Labour Organization in Egypt, as well as the Arab African International Bank in Germany, amongst others.

Whitney’s degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Anthropology from the University of Tennessee, and a Master of Global Affairs in Global Affairs and International Cooperation from the American University in Cairo. She hopes to advance her career by beginning her PhD studies later in 2018.

Whitney is currently a member of the Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration, Democrats Abroad, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, and the Bied Society. She is the former President of Tennessee’s Gamma Kappa Chapter of Gamma Sigma Sigma Inc., a national community service sorority.

Born in Tennessee, Whitney spent her adolescent years below the Mason-Dixon line, where she began advocating for gender equality and religious tolerance.

Sub-specialties: Christian-Muslim understanding, dialogue building, U.S. policies and relations with the MENA, women’s issues and social justice activism in the United States and throughout the MENA region.