Amal Adel Abdrabo

Oumou Dilly Postdoc Fellow (Feb-Jun 2019)
Oumou Dilly Postdoc Fellow (Sep 2017-Feb 2018)

Amal Adel Abdrabo is a Sociology/Anthropology Lecturer (PhD) at the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, at Alexandria University, Egypt. She is a graduate of Alexandria University and earned her first MA in 2011 with a thesis entitled "Social Movements and Human Rights: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Anti-Globalization Discourse in the Egyptian Society between 2001 to 2010." She joined the American University in Cairo with a Building the Next Generation Fellowship (BNGS-phase II) from 2014-2016, where she earned her second MA degree on a project in anthropology dealing with Palestinian Refugees in Egypt entitled "We live like Khayalat (scarecrows): An ethnography of a Palestinian village in Egypt." Simultaneously, she was working on her doctorate thesis at Alexandria University. In January 2017, she earned her PhD degree in sociology from the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, with a doctorate thesis entitled "Social Dimensions of Knowledge-based Development in Egypt: An Evaluation study of a Sample of Knowledge Precincts."

During the spring semester 2019, she is a visiting postdoctoral scholar with an Oumou Dilly fellowship at the Center for African Studies at Basel. She had the same position from September 2017 to February 2018.

Fields of Specialization in Research

Amal is committed to make research relevant to the current development challenges that different African countries face. She is also keen to tackle the methodological challenges within the social sciences. Her research interests cover qualitative research methods, development and migration studies, visual anthropology, and urban sociology. Amal published and co-authored many academic papers in both Arabic and English covering the previously mentioned fields of research.

Activities at ZASB

Giving an MA Seminar “On the Crossing of Invisible Boundaries: Northern African Perspectives on the Intangible Aspects of Migration,” at Zentrum für Afrikastudien, Basel Universität, Switzerland (Spring 2019). https://vorlesungsverzeichnis.unibas.ch/de/semester-planung?id=239901
Giving a PhD Workshop on “North Africa: New Forms of Social Movements, Social Non-Movements, and Social Non-Actors,” to take place on Saturday the 4^th of May 2019, at Zentrum für Afrikastudien, Basel Universität, Switzerland. <link en phd graduate-events event-details-phd news graduate-workshop-north-africa-new-forms-of-social-movements-social-non-movements-and-social-non>zasb.unibas.ch/en/phd/graduate-events/event-details-phd/news/graduate-workshop-north-africa-new-forms-of-social-movements-social-non-movements-and-social-non/
Gave a workshop under the theme: Urban Transformations and Cultural Practices. "Urban Transformations and Cultural Practices - Letters to the Governor; Death, Mobility, and Claims of the City". Seminar für Nahoststudien, Universität Basel, Switzerland. Thursday, 7 December 2017. A Workshop with Dr. Amal Abdrabo (Alexandria University, Egypt). <link events event-details article workshop-urban-transformations-and-cultural-practices-with-dr-amal-abdrabo>zasb.unibas.ch/events/event-details/article/11873/workshop-urban-transformations-and-cultural-practices-with-dr-amal-abdrabo/

Research Projects

"Human-spatial Interaction and Meaning-making Practices; Forced Mobility, Food Culture, and the Creation of New Spaces in Africa." A cross-cultural cooperative research proposal with: Valentin Bognan Koné from University Félix Houphouët-Boigny/ Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire, started in 2017.
"At the Thresholds of Life and Afterlife; the creation of Liminal Spaces of Participation at the City of Alexandria." An ongoing research project running individually, started in 2018.

Publications

Amal Adel Abdrabo. “Institutional Ethnography and Exploring the Social; An Empirical approach to study the Egyptian Knowledge Precincts”. In: The Social Sciences and Humanities Conference, Seventh Round. The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS). Doha, Qatar. 23-25 March 2019. Under the theme of Challenges of Research Methodologies in The Social Sciences and Humanities.
Amal Adel Abdrabo. “The Right to the City: the visuality of liminal spaces of participation in Urban Africa”. In: Panel Anth41:Materiality and spirit: exploring visuality, citizenship and power in urban Africa," Convenors: Naluwembe Binaisa (University College London) and Ndidi Dike, Lagos. The 8th European Conference on African Studies ECAS2019 "Africa: Connections and Disruptions," in Edinburgh University- UK, on June 11-14 2019 along with the Research Network of African Studies Centres in Europe AEGIS. https://www.nomadit.co.uk/conference/ecas2019/paper/48763
Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus , Amal Adel Abdrabo , and Stevens Aguto Odongoh (Editors). Memory, Conflicts, Disasters, and the Geopolitics of the Displaced. IGI Global - Disseminator of Knowledge. Pennsylvania, USA. April 2019 (Forthcoming).
Amal Adel Abdrabo. "Public Writings Phenomenon between Graffiti Art and Graffiti Vandalism; a Study of the Case of Faculty of Education Alexandria University." The 20^th Scientific Conference of the Egyptian Society for Scientific Education entitled "Environmental and Scientific Culture - Prospects and Challenges." Sponsored by the Egyptian Association for Scientific Education (ESSE) and the Culture Committee of the Supreme Council of Culture, Cairo, 25-26 June 2018. (In Arabic).
Amal Adel Abdrabo. "Egypt's Knowledge-Based Development: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Possibilities." In: Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East. Editor: Ali A. Alraouf. IGI Global - Disseminator of Knowledge. Pennsylvania, USA. January 2018 (In English)https://www.igi-global.com/book/knowledge-based-urban-development-middle/181456
Amal Abdrabo. "Fostering Knowledge-based Development in Africa; the case of Egypt". Accepted paper in: The 7^th European Conference on African Studies ECAS 2017 with the theme: Urban Africa -Urban Africans: New encounters of the rural and the urban. Panel: (A 14) Smart Cities as National and Regional Growth Poles in Africa. Basel University- Switzerland, 29th June-1st July, 2017. (In English). http://www.nomadit.co.uk/ecas/ecas2017/panels.php5?PanelID=4925
Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus , Amal Adel Abdrabo , and Stevens Aguto Odongoh. "Displacement and the Creation of in/visible Boundaries: Memory beyond Borders and Citizenship." An abstract presented to the 6th bi-annual PACSA meeting, 28-30 August 2017, Amsterdam. (In English). http://pacsa-web.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/PACSA2017-panel-overview.pdf

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