POLIS Academic
Dr Maha Abdelrahman
Associate of the Centre
Maha Abdelrahman is a lecturer in Development Studies. She acquired her BA in Anthropology and MA in Sociology from the American University in Cairo before taking her PhD in Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. Her research interests cover a wide range of aspects of development, sociology and politics, including the State, civil society, NGOs, social change, political Islam, democracy and opposition politics, and human rights – all within the context of the Middle East. Her book, Civil Society Exposed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt, (I.B. Tauris, London, St. Martins Press, New York, 2004), examines civil society both as a controversial theoretical construction and as a politically contested terrain. This book, and other publications which have resulted from this research interest, investigate civil society by analyzing the concept and its usage in an examination of its potential for facilitating significant institutional political transformation in the Middle East. Among her current research is: rising forms of political opposition and protest movements in the Middle East, in particular new alliances being formed from disparate, historically antagonistic, political groups.
Her research documents and analyses the development of this cooperation within a framework of New Social Movements and transnational civil society.
Maha Abdelrahman has taught on a number of topics such as: Arab and Middle East Politics and Sociology, Social Movements, Development theories and approaches, Development Agencies, Institutions and Development, Globalization, and the State and Systems of Social Stratification.
Selected publications
- Civil Society Exposed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt, I.B. Tauris, London, St. Martins Press, New York, 2004)
- NGOs and the Dynamics of the Egyptian Labour Market Development in Practice 17(1) 2007, pp.78-84
- The Nationalization of the Human Rights Debate in Egypt Nations and Nationalism 13(2) 2007, pp.285-300
- Cultural Dynamics in Contemporary Egypt (co-editor), Cairo Papers in Social Science 27(1/2) The American University in Cairo Press (2006)
- Divine Consumption: Islam and Consumerism in Egypt’ in Cultural Dynamics in Contemporary Egypt.
- The Politics of “un-Civil” Society in Egypt’, Review of African Political Economy, 29(91):21-36, (2002).
- The Left and Political Islam in Egypt’, ISIM Review, (June 2004).
- With the Islamists? Sometimes…With the State? Never!’ The British Journal of Middle East Studies (forthcoming).
- E-mail: mma49@cam.ac.uk
- Tel:
- Address: POLIS
Research Interests:
Rising forms of political opposition and protest movements in the Middle East, in particular new alliances being formed from disparate, historically antagonistic, political groups.
Teaching Responsibilities