Melania Brito-Clavijo is a predoctoral researcher affiliated with the ISOR group (Sociology of Religion) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, within the doctoral program in Sociology, and with the International Relations and History program at Leiden University, under co-supervision. She also collaborates with the TRANSMENA group (UAB), focused on the study of elites and transnational actors in the MENA region.

His research is situated at the intersection of religion and foreign policy, with special attention to official Islam as a technology of power and ideological resource for the legitimization of authoritarian regimes in the MENA region. His thesis analyzes the deployment of Moroccan religious diplomacy in West Africa, understood as a strategy of external projection that articulates narratives of “spiritual security” and shared Islamic heritage to reinforce Morocco's regional leadership.

He has worked as a research project officer in the H2020 CONNEKT project of the IEMed, on the factors of radicalization in the MENA region and the Balkans. Other lines of research that interest him include the processes of (de)radicalization, the reintegration of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), hate speech in general and towards Muslim communities, or sacred music festivals as a tool of cultural and religious diplomacy, among others.

He has a master's degree in Contemporary Arab and Islamic Studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid, and another in International Relations from the Barcelona Institute of International Studies.