Dr. Reem El Mutwalli, Founder, The Zay Initiative in conversation with Nicole Al Rais, Researcher, and Content Creator Nicole Al Rais is a researcher and content creator who grew up in a small rural town within San Diego, California. Her early years inspired an appreciation for community, and a yearning to learn more about alternative and inclusive ways to foster such. This led to her educational, work, and cultural experiences in various cities around the world – including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Barcelona, Rome, Sicily, and Cusco. These globalized experiences inspired Nicole to study how globalization affects culture, and if the local and global cultures can find a respectful intermedium. This inquisition correlates with dynamics in her personal life, as she lives in Dubai and is married into an Emirati family.

Nicole is a recent graduate of Paris Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, completing a Masters in Applied Sociology Research. Her research specialises in cultural consumption, with an emphasis on globalisation’s effect on traditional Emirati dress on which this talk is based.