MEET THE TEAM

The 2017/2018 editorial team of STORIES@SOAS.

Mel Plant

Editor-in-Chief

Mel Plant is Editor-in-Chief of STORIES@SOAS. She was previously Editor-in-Chief of The SOAS Spirit and is co-founder of STORIES. Mel is in the last year of her BA in Arabic and Turkish at SOAS. When not stressing over translations in either language, she works as a freelance journalist. As a freelancer, Mel has written for Middle East Eye, The National, Al-Monitor, News Deeply, and Roads & Kingdoms. She is currently a Community Fellow at Syria Deeply and was previously an intern for Agos, an Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper. After graduating, she hopes to one day actually become fluent in Arabic and Turkish and continue working as a reporter in Turkey, Jordan, or elsewhere in the region.

Ella Linskens

Essays Editor

Ella is the Essays section editor and co-founder of STORIES. Having worked on publications before, including the SOAS Spirit, she was eager to create a platform that told stories in the detail that they deserve. As someone who regularly overshares the most intimate details about her life the Essays section seemed like the right fit. Currently a 4th year BA Arabic student with her eye on a Masters in either Literature or Translation, she is kept up at night thinking about how we exist in the world and how we can write about that.

Atika Dawood

Features Editor

Atika is a SOAS finalist, features editor for STORIES, and was previously a features writer for the SOAS Spirit. Having recently shimmied back to London after 9 months spent attempting to speak Arabic in Palestine, she is now trying to remember the English equivalent to more meaning-rich Arabic words and attempting to figure out her post-university life before she reaches it. The tea drinking, to-do list functioning student is hoping you will find her, a few years from now, in the same situation: glasses wearing, brain wracking, article editing… Tea gone cold… ing. Maybe somewhere in the Middle East.

Timothy Romain

Cultures Editor

Timothy Romain is the Culture Editor for STORIES. He is currently taking an MA in The Arts of Asia and Africa at SOAS, after having spent two years researching African news and politics for the BBC. He gets his kicks from degenerate art and haughty culture alike, and has written for publications including Vice, What’s on Africa? and The Upcoming. He pens poetry when he has time, and DJs when anyone lets him.

Himasha Weeruppulige

Photography Editor

S. Himasha Weeruppulige is the Photography Editor for STORIES. She is allergic to writing bios (more specifically, her own) — that’s why she is our Photography Editor. Her curiosity in the structures of society have led her to study politics and consecutively undertake a specialisation in law. She has worked as a freelance writer and photographer for The Post Internazionale, Termini TV and other independent cultural events.