Amal Adel Abdrabo

Amal Adel Abdrabo

Amal Adel Abdrabo, lecturer in sociology and anthropology at Alexandria University in Egypt, joined the Center for African Studies at Basel University in Switzerland on a six-month postdoc fellowship funded by the Fondation Oumou Dilly (September 2017- February 2018). She is a graduate of Alexandria University in Egypt. Her MA degree, in 2011, was about „Social Movements and Human Rights: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Anti-globalization Discourse in the Egyptian Society between 2001 to 2010“. She is a former fellow of Building the Next Generation Fellowship (BNGS) at the American University in Cairo (2014-2016) where she worked on a project in anthropology dealing with Palestinian Refugees in Egypt.

In 2017, she earned her PhD degree in sociology from Alexandria University. Her doctorate thesis is entitled „Social Dimensions of Knowledge-based Development in Egypt: an Evaluation study of a Sample of Knowledge Precincts.“ Amal is committed to make research relevant to the current development challenges that face different African countries. Her research interests cover qualitative research methods, development studies, politics of knowledge, urban sociology, anthropology of development, and migration studies. Amal has published and co-authored many academic papers in both Arabic and English. She has a special interest in recent developmental trends in Egypt, particularly in the conditions for transforming it into a knowledge-based society. Her current research project is about the creation of liminal spaces of participation in the city of Alexandria under the running project „Liminal spaces as sites of socio-cultural transformation and knowledge production in the Arab World“ with Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Berlin and funded by Volkswagen Foundation (January 2018- 2020).