Illinois Scholars at Risk come from any country around the world. They are scholars, researchers, practitioners, activists, writers, and artists at all stages of their careers who are facing severe threats to their lives, freedoms, and well-being due to their identity, work, activism, or for some other reason. They may not be able to continue their scholarly or artistic pursuits within their own countries due to political turmoil or natural disasters. For example, the 2022-2023 cohort includes scholars from five countries (Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cameroon, Guatemala, and Lebanon).
Illinois Scholars at Risk hold advanced terminal degrees (e.g. Ph.D., MD, JD, etc.) and meet the appropriate academic standards in their respective fields. They join the Illinois Scholars at Risk Program as visiting scholars in an academic unit on campus, and engage in research, teaching, writing, professional development, and/or community outreach in their host units.
Expertise: Illinois Scholar at Risk have expertise in a wide range of fields ranging from the arts, humanities, natural and social sciences, engineering, to law and business. For example, the 2022-2023 cohort includes scholars in physics, agricultural and biological engineering, pathobiology, biochemistry, microbiology, economics, classics, law, Jewish studies and culture, and Middle Eastern studies.
Affiliation: Illinois Scholars at Risk are typically affiliated with the Scholars at Risk (SAR) or the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF). Scholars at risk seeking placement through the ISAR Program are strongly encouraged to contact the Scholars at Risk Network and apply for the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund to maximize their opportunities for successful placement.
2024-2025 ISAR Scholars
Tetyana Dubovyk
Country of Origin: Ukraine
Degree: Ph.D., Economics
Expertise: Macroeconomics, public economics
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Pavlo Dziuba
Country of Origin: Ukraine
Degree: Ph.D., Economics
Expertise: International portfolio investing, international finance, international economics
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Recognized by Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network
Elena Kopteva
Country of Origin: Ukraine
Degree: Ph.D., Physics
Expertise: General Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Physics, The Grainger College of Engineering
Recognized by Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network
Maxim Krupskiy
Country of Origin: Russia
Degree: Ph.D., Philosophy, Specialist, Law
Expertise: Legislation on Foreign Agents, Human Rights, Resilient Democracy
Illinois Host Unit: College of Law, Department of Philosophy, and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Illinois Global Institute.
Sami Muslih
Country of Origin: Palestine
Degree: Ph.D., Physics
Expertise: Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Approach of Field Systems, General Relativity, High Energy Physics,
Fractional Calculus and its applications in physics, Hamilton-Jacobi Quantization of constrained systems,
Theoretical Physics, Mathematical Physics.
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Physics, The Grainger College of Engineering
Gloria Porras
Country of Origin: Guatemala
Degree: Master’s Degree In International Law
Expertise: Law, Former Judge on the Constitutional Court of Guatemala
Illinois Host Unit: Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Illinois Global Institute
Recognized by Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network
Eric Zama
Country of Origin: Cameroon
Degree: Ph.D., Environmental Science
Expertise: Environmental Science & Engineering, focusing on biochar and its applications for environmental remediation and soil fertility improvement
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund Fellow
Sofia Saavedra
Country of Origin: Venezuela
Degree: Lic en artes plásticas – visual artist – painting – performance – installation art
Expertise: Art and society, human diversity, identity construction, political expression through art, cultural activism, painting, interdisciplinary art, and research on the intersection of individual and collective identities.
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Theatre, College of Fine & Applied Arts
Nasim Sohail
Country of Origin: Afghanistan
Degree: DVM, MVSc. PhD (Veterinary Microbiology)
Expertise: Antimicrobial resistance, animal and poultry disease, immunology, public health, epidemiology, bacteriology, and mycology
Illinois Host Unit: Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine
Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund Fellow