Osama Khaled Shaheen

Doctoral researcher at CMI and UiB, focusing on return, digital memory, and reconciliation in Syria.

Osama Khaled Shaheen is a PhD researcher at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI). His research focuses on post-conflict Syria, with particular attention to displacement, return, digital memory, informal justice, and community reintegration following the fall of the Assad regime. He is part of the research project Conditions for Stability and Sustainable Returns in Syria (StaR), a multidisciplinary project examining the social and political conditions for sustainable return and recovery in Syria.

Before joining CMI, Shaheen worked as a journalist at Bergens Tidende (BT) and founded DER, a bilingual Norwegian-Arabic magazine publishing long-form journalism and analysis on migration, identity, democracy, and the Middle East. 

Originally Palestinian and born in Damascus, Syria, Shaheen arrived in Norway as a refugee following the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. He was educated as a dentist before pursuing a career in journalism and later academia.

His current research examines how digital memory practices and informal justice mechanisms shape return, reconciliation, and social trust in post-Assad Syria.