He received his PhD in Media and Communication Studies from Stockholm University and completed post-master's studies in Artistic Research at the Royal Institute of Art in Sweden. He holds an MA and a BA from the American University of Beirut. Prior to joining NU-Q's faculty, Najem held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at NU-Q, and teaching positions at Stockholm University, Uppsala University and Södertörn University. Chafic's research examines prisoners' illicit media practices and the smuggling and use of digital media technologies in carceral spaces, particularly in Lebanon. His work asks how illicit and improvised media practices emerging under conditions of constraint and precarity mobilise, produce testimony, and negotiate the temporal and visual conditions of political life. His scholarly contributions span media and communication studies and documentary studies, with recent publications in Mobile Media & Communication; Communication, Culture & Critique; MERIP; Media, Culture & Society; and Panoptikum. Alongside his academic research, Chafic has experience in television production and documentary filmmaking, and maintains an active artistic practice.