Dr. M. (Malika) Ouacha

Dr. Malika Ouacha (she/her) is a lecturer and researcher on diasporic and bi-cultural volunteering and philanthropy at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. She is an internationally trained cultural anthropologist holding a MA in Social Anthropology from the Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, Morocco and a MSc Social and Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of non-Western societies from the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. She holds a PhD in Management from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, where she lectures and coordinates the BSc course Personal Development II, supervises MSc-students as coach and co-reader, and devotes her research on diaspora and bi-cultural volunteering and philanthropy in the country of origin yet done by diaspora and bi-cultural philanthropists who live in the country of residence.

Through her topic she aims to contribute to the intercultural dialogue in academia and practice. She focusses on philanthropic and voluntary behavior of diaspora and bi-cultural philanthropists and volunteers (think of refugees, economical immigrants, and those who are raised in two (or more) ethnical environments). Her research is done in national contexts in which diaspora and bi-cultural philanthropists and volunteers are active, their personal motives (intergenerational philanthropic traditions, pain-driven philanthropy, sense of belonging) and the possible effects of diaspora and bi-cultural philanthropy and volunteering (in both the country of residence and the country of origin). One may think of the effects of (what may seem as) post-colonial behavior, philanthropic activism, de-colonialization of philanthropy and development aid in crisis-situations.

Malika is a board-member of the World Opera Lab Netherlands and Yep Africa Foundation, and as a visiting lecturer at several international universities she teaches courses such Decolonizing Philanthropy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Radboud University Nijmegen, and others.