Career Connects Family History, Research Interests for Honors Alum

Looking back, Alexei Abrahams ’08 sees a clear line from his family history to his career as an economist studying the Israel-Palestine conflict. He grew up in Ontario and Nova Scotia, but he lived in South Africa from the time he was 9 until he was 15. His father, who is biracial, grew up in South African under apartheid, the system of racial segregation under white minority rule. He became an academic and an anti-apartheid activist and lived in exile in Canada for 32 years.

The family moved to South Africa after apartheid ended in 1994 and President Nelson Mandela invited expatriates to return and help rebuild the country. “From my father’s experience and history, I felt a kind solidarity with the Palestinian struggle,” says Abrahams, a research fellow at Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (Woodrow Wilson School).

Abrahams, a dual math and economics major at Syracuse, was previously a research fellow at the Middle East Initiative (Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center) and the University of California at San Diego’s Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation. He also is a consultant for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.