Noran Fouad

Noran is a Lecturer in Digital Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University. She teaches and researches topics at the intersection of technology, security, and governance, with a particular focus on cybersecurity. Noran started her academic career working as an Assistant Lecturer of Political Science at Cairo University. After finishing her PhD in International Relations at the University of Sussex, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, where she co-designed executive education courses on digital governance and cybersecurity.

What’s the most exciting thing about your current work?

Teaching has always been my biggest passion and the most rewarding part of my academic career. It is in the classrooms with students that I see the true essence of academia and its role in directly contributing to people’s intellectual capacities and personal growth. What I find most exciting about my current post is that I am able to teach topics at the intersection of technology/cybersecurity and international relations, without having to prioritise one over the other. This interdisciplinarity is a fundamental part of my research and I am excited to be able to introduce it in my teaching too.  

What are the main opportunities working in your field? What about the challenges?

 In the fields of cybersecurity and digital politics, there are great opportunities for exploring new intellectual territories and for inter-disciplinary research collaborations. These fields are growing fast, and there are multiple new programmes, research institutions, funding opportunities that are designed around them, which I find very promising. However, as an academic working in this field, it is not enough to have an exciting research idea to pursue it. You sometimes have to balance your research interests with institutional expectations and career progression strategies. Also, given the empirical nature of these fields, there is not enough space for research questions that do not have immediate policy relevance or ones that do not attend to current events. I find this challenging because of my fascination with theory and philosophy, which I try to integrate in my research.

What’s the best advice you could give your younger self?

I would tell her to believe in herself more and not to hold herself back thinking she is not good enough. Particularly when it comes to networking opportunities, I would tell her to get herself out more and be confident in what she brings to the table. I would also tell her that changing paths is not a failure. Your idea of a dream career, field, destination, or life may change overtime, but what you have done to pursue them is never wasted. Embrace change and go after what makes you happy and fulfilled, and don’t get fixated on rigid plans.