Dr. Hania Sobhy

+49 (551) 4956 - 137

    • Curriculum Vitae

    Hania Sobhy is Research Fellow at MPI MMG since 2017. She works on education, citizenship and collective action, with special reference to the Middle East. Her current project is a study of teachers, inequality and collective action in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia. Her first book, Schooling the Nation: Education and Everyday Politics in Egypt, was published in 2023 with Cambridge University Press. Her work has appeared in World Development, Mediterranean Politics, Citizenship Studies, Nations and Nationalism, and Globalisation, Societies and Education, among others. She completed her studies in political science and economics at McGill and SOAS, was previously based at IREMAM in Aix-en-Provence (Marie Currie COFUND), Freie Universitaet Berlin (EUME), the Orient-Institut Beirut (Max Weber Stiftung) and was affiliated with IRMC in Tunis, OIB in Beirut and CEDEJ in Cairo for her recent fieldwork. She has worked in international development since 2004 and contributes regularly to the Egyptian Daily al-Shorouk.

    Awards and Media Coverage:

    • 2024 CAE Outstanding Book Award, American Anthropological Association: Honorable Mention
    • 2025 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award, Comparative and International Education Society: Honorable Mention
    • The New York Times (Link to Article)
    • The Guardian (Link to Article)

    Research projects


    Publications

    Monographs

    Sobhy, H. (2023). Schooling the Nation: Education and Everyday Politics in Egypt (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108956031

    Special Issues

    Sobhy, H., & Abdalla, N. (2024). Lived citizenship and the Arab Uprisings: Everyday politics, mobilization and belonging. Citizenship Studies (Bd. 28, S. 565–689). London: Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2024.2435114

    Journal Articles

    Sobhy, H. (2025). We don’t have diversity here, but inequality, that’s in the design of the education system: Tunisian teachers, diversification and the defunding of education. global-e. Series: Diversifying Global Education, 16(1). Link

    Sobhy, H. (2024). Campaigning for the revolution: Freedom, social justice and citizenship imaginaries in the Egyptian uprising. Mediterranean Politics, publise online, pp. 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2024.2431775

    Sobhy, H. (2024). Equity, the transnational and the global learning crisis. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2024.2359268

    Sobhy, H., & Abdalla, N. (2024). Lived citizenship and the Arab Uprisings: Everyday politics, mobilization and belonging. Citizenship Studies, 28(6), 565-594. doi:10.1080/13621025.2024.2435114

    Sobhy, H. (2024). When do teachers strike: Between strong Unions, divergent preferences and political opportunity in Tunisia. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1-16. doi:10.1080/14767724.2024.2319306.

    Sobhy, H. (2021). The Lived Social Contract in Schools: From protection to the production of hegemony. World Development, 137, 104986. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.104986

    Sobhy, H. (2021). Priorities of Educational Investment between Digital Learning and School Infrastructure. Al-Malaf Al-Masry, (79), 5–9.

    Sobhy, H. (2016). Educational Crises and the Evolving Social Contract with the Middle Classes. Majalat al-Dimuqratiyya.

    Sobhy, H. (2015). Secular Façade, Neoliberal Islamisation: Textbook Nationalism from Mubarak to Sisi. Nations and Nationalism, 21(4), 805–824. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12147

    Sobhy, H. (2012). The de-facto privatization of secondary education in Egypt: A study of private tutoring in technical and general schools. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 42(1), 47–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2011.629042

    Sobhy, H. (2007). Reading Reform into the Past: Power and Islamist Articulations of Muslim History. Quest Journal, (4).

    Contributions to a Collected Edition

    Sobhy, H. (2019). Old and New Education in Egypt: Pre-University Education Policies and their Impact on Social Justice. In M. El-Agati (Ed.), Public Policies and Social Justice in Egypt. Beirut: Arab Forum for Alternatives.

    Sobhy, H. (2017). Recent Policy Directions in Egyptian Education: Privatization, Curriculum Reform and Teacher Salaries. In Civil Society and Public Policy Formation: Strategies from Morocco and Egypt (pp. 34–43). Arab Reform Initiative. Retrieved from https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/storage.arab-reform.net/ari/2017/07/10173603/arab_reform_initiative_201707-Civil_Society_and_Public_Policy_Formation_English.pdf

    Sobhy, H. (2009). Amr Khaled and Young Muslim Elites: Islamism and the Consolidation of Mainstream Muslim Piety in Egypt. In D. Singerman (Ed.), Cairo Contested: Governance, Urban Space, and Global Modernity (pp. 415-454). American University in Cairo Press. https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774162886.003.0017

    Working Paper

    Sobhy, H. (2020). Violence, Class and Masculinity in Egypt: Gendered Punishment in Cairene Schools. MMG Working Papers, 20(03), 9–34. Link

    Online Article

    Sobhy, H. (2015). After the Paris attacks, what role for reforming education in the Middle East? [Online article]. openDemocracy. Retrieved from openDemocracy website: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/after-paris-attacks-what-role-for-reforming-education-in-middle-east/

    Sobhy, H. (2015). “A collapse of formal schooling in Egypt”: Interview with Hania Sobhy (S. Rentsch) [Hypotheses - Online article]. Retrieved from https://ies.hypotheses.org/815#more-815

    Sobhy, H. (2015). To Get Rid of Extremism in Egyptian Education, Understand Its Roots [Online article]. Al-Fanar Media. Retrieved from Al-Fanar Media website: https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2015/11/to-get-rid-of-extremism-in-egyptian-education-understand-its-roots/

    Sobhy, H. (2015). Article: Mafish Ta‘lim: Why Egypt Ranked Last on Education [The OIBlog from Beirut and Cairo]. Retrieved 18. Oktober 2023, from OIB_upclose website: https://oib.hypotheses.org/745

    Policy Reports

    Sobhy, H. (2023). Reforms for Another Planet: The Global Learning Crisis, Political Drivers and Expert Views on Egypt’s Edu 2.0. Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-2023/PE06

    Sobhy, H. (2019). Expensive Classrooms, Poor Learning: The Imperatives of Reforming School Construction in Egypt (S. 6–32) [Policy paper]. Cairo: Alternative Policy Solutions - American University in Cairo. Retrieved from Alternative Policy Solutions - American University in Cairo website: https://api-aps.aucegypt.edu//uploads/articlesAttachments/1697360010pdfEN_School%20Construction_Policy_Final_Web.pdf

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