Dr. Samir Sweida-Metwally

| ON THE JOB MARKET 2026-2027

Samir

Sweida-Metwally

Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University Abu Dhabi

Labor Markets, Organizations and Public Policy

Work, Employment and Job Quality | Organizational Decision Making | Advanced Quantitative Methods | Causal Inference and Experimental Research | Survey Design and Data Collection

Research

My research sits at the intersection of labor markets, organizations and public policy. I study how institutions and organizations evaluate competing value claims, how those evaluations shape employment patterns, and how managerial decisions and organizational policies produce those outcomes. Religion provides an important empirical and theoretical lens through which I examine these questions.

My research program has developed from documenting differential labor market and job quality outcomes, to identifying the organizational and managerial mechanisms that produce them, and now to examining how good work should be conceptualized and measured.

Across this program, I generate rigorous evidence to inform organizational and public policy decision making.

My research has been supported by approximately USD 232,665 in competitive doctoral, postdoctoral, and collaborative research funding.

Research Program

Publications

GOOGLE SCHOLAR ↗

CURRENT RESEARCH

Job Market Paper

"Religion at Work: A Theory of Organizational Inequality" [First Author, with Makovi K., and Frimpong, J.A. - PREPARING FOR SUBMISSION]

Under Review

"Workplace Voice and Bullying Disclosure: Race and Gender Differences in Disclosure Behavior" [First Author, with Makovi K., Shepherd H., and Frimpong, J.A.]
"Job Autonomy Disparities Among Muslim Women in the British Labour Market" [First Author, with Cheung, SY.]

Work in Progress

"Manager Responses to Workplace Accommodation Requests: Experimental Evidence on Political Ideology in the United States" [First Author, with Makovi K., and Frimpong, J.A. - DATA ANALYSIS]
"Access, Stability, and Mobility: Muslim Employment Disadvantage in Britain, 2009–2024" [Single Author - DATA ANALYSIS]
"Who Enforces Transparency at Work? Status, Disclosure, and Unequal Production of Workplace Transparency" [Second Author, with Kawashima, T., Makovi K., and Frimpong, J.A. - DATA ANALYSIS]

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2025

"Beyond Racism: Re-centering Religious Hostility in the Conceptualization of Islamophobia", Ethnicities

Policy impact: Research prompted a briefing with Australia’s first Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia and informed higher education guidance for TEQSA, with related work also contributing to a report being submitted to the United Nations.

"French Islamophobia: How Orthopraxy Is Conceptualized as a Public Peril", Religions [Equal contribution with Lienen, C.]
"Islamophobia: The Discursive Apparatus of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, Palestine", Critical Sociology

2022

"Does the Muslim penalty in the British labour market dissipate after accounting for so-called ‘sociocultural attitudes’?", Ethnic and Racial Studies

Press coverage: The Guardian, The National, Arab News, Morocco World News, Daily Sabah, Islam Channel, The Mirage, University of Bristol press release, ‘Read of the Day’ in The Bridge Initiative newsletter (Georgetown University), Muslim Women Network, and an in-depth television interview on Islam Channel.

Policy Engagement and Advisory

Alongside my academic research, I bring substantial international policy and strategic advisory experience.

Australia: Briefed the country’s first Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia and his team on policy-relevant research and contributed to higher education policy work informing the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency; related research will also contribute to a report being submitted to the United Nations.
Qatar: Forthcoming applied research and policy advisory work with a leading public-interest institution, involving original data collection.
United Arab Emirates: Advised government and semi-government stakeholders on economic development, international engagement and Dubai’s strategic positioning in relation to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, including efforts to strengthen cross-country institutional and commercial ties. Also produced economic and policy reports and delivered quarterly briefings to 70+ C-suite executives from multinational companies; earlier international policy and research experience with UNHCR.
United Kingdom: Conducted applied policy research at the Department for Work and Pensions, analyzing administrative data with more than one million observations and translating findings into recommendations for policymakers.
United States: Consulted for Microsoft on organizational practice and religious inclusion.

I continue to advise public sector institutions and multinational corporations, using data science to develop evidence-based policy solutions.

I am trilingual in English, Arabic, and French.