Massimo Ramaioli is Assistant Professor and Coordinator in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. Previously, he was Assistant Dean, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and Assistant Professor, Social Development and Policy Program at Habib University (HU) in Karachi, Pakistan. He studied at the University of Pavia, Italy, earning a BA in Social Sciences for Cooperation and Development and an MA in African and Asian Studies. He obtained an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and then received a PhD in Political Science from Syracuse University. His main research interests are contentious politics, political Islam, Gramscian theory and International Relations theory. Before joining HU, he taught for two years at the Center for International Exchange and Education in Amman, and studied Arabic in Tunis, Damascus, Beirut and Fes. He is a regular contributor for Nuovo Mondo Economico, an online publication of the Centro Studi Einaudi of Turin, Italy, and a research fellow at the German Institute of Global Area Studies of Hamburg, Germany.