The importance of cultural understanding for OSINT

Satgin Hamrah is a PhD Candidate in History at Tufts University. Hamrah has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Boston University, where her thesis focused on offensive strategies to protect critical infrastructure against terrorism. She also has a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Southern California, with a focus on international development and state formation of post-Soviet states in the Caspian region during the 1990s with a focus on Azerbaijan. Hamrah was a Doctoral Fellow at The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University between September 2016 and October 2018. She is the founder of the Iran-Iraq War Project. Using an interdisciplinary and transnational analytical approach, Hamrah explores the complexities of religious and ethnic identity, examining how state and non-state political entrepreneurs shape these identities to advance their interests. Her research also investigates the role of identity in shaping conflict and violence on both state and non-state levels, including wars such as the Iran-Iraq War and the Cold War, as well as acts of terrorism. She also explores the nuances of Islamism and sectarianism, alongside the intricate intersections of trauma, memory, identity, and politics. Hamrah’s research examines how these dynamics shape both local and transnational landscapes, as well as their impact across different temporal and geographic scales.