Heather McRobie

Her move from Oxford to Montreal, aged 22, was allegedly inspired by her love of the Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.

[7] Whilst at sixth form, in 2003 she organised protests against the Iraq war with her classmate Samir Jeraj, the New Statesman journalist.

She held post-doctoral positions in Tel Aviv[12] and Moscow,[13] before moving to Reykjavík to begin her current work[14] on the Icelandic constitution.

[19] In a wide-ranging journalistic career, she has written for the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the New Statesman, the Times Literary Supplement, Salon, Foreign Policy, and The Globe and Mail, among many other publications.

Her non-academic writing has focused on politics, society, conflict and human rights across the UK, the Balkans, Middle East and former Soviet Union.