Dr. Hania Sobhy

Hania Sobhy is a Research Fellow at MPI MMG since 2017. She works on education, citizenship and contentious politics, with special reference to the Middle East. Her current project is a study of teachers, diversity 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, Compare, 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 is affiliated with IRMC in Tunis, OIB in Beirut and CEDEJ in Cairo for her current fieldwork. She has worked in education development since 2004 and contributes to the Egyptian Daily al-Shorouk.

Research projects

• Teacher Trajectories, Diversity and Collective Action
• Lived Citizenship and Uprising in the Middle East

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

Journal Articles

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. (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: Public Policies and Social Justice in Egypt.

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

Newspaper Articles

Sobhy, H. (2023). «جوايا نور». ورسائل التنوع والتحفيز [Messages of diversity and motivation]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Yee, V. (2023). In Egypt, Public Classrooms Are Empty as Private Tutors Get Rich. The New York Times. Abgerufen von Link

Sobhy, H. (2019). al-Ustath wal-hayawan [The Teacher and the Animal]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2019). Ma’sat al-tablit wa-mu‘dilat al tatwir [The Tablet Crisis and the Dilemmas of Reform]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). ‘An al-khibrat al-ajnabiyya wal-Ijabiyat wal-damanat [On Foreign Expertise, Positives and Guarantees]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). A-islah bidun mu’alimin. [Reform without Teachers]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). Al-durus al-khususiya: hal sayaqdi ‘alaiha nitham al-ta‘lim al jadid? [Private Lessons: Will the New Education System Eliminate Them?]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). Hal Nahtaj lil-lugha al-arabiyya? [Do We Need Arabic?]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). Hal sananjah bil-tuknulujia? [Will We Make it with Technology?]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2018). Manahij al-ta‘lim al-jadida bayn al-inbihar wal-ihbat [The New Curricula between Awe and Frustration]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2017). Qararat tatwir al-ta‘lim al-wa’ida. tasa’ulat jawhariya [The Promising Education Reform Decisions. Critical Questions]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2016). Hal majlis al-nuwwab musta‘id li-ikhtibar qanun al-ta‘lim al-jadid? [Is parliament ready for the test of a new education law?]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2016). Thawrat al-umahat li-tahsin manahij al-ta‘lim [Mothers’ revolution for curriculum reform]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2015). Al-juthur al-‘amiqa lil-tataruf fil-ta‘lim al-misri [The deep roots of extremism in Egyptian education]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Sobhy, H. (2015). Ma ba‘d al-hathf wal-idafa: kayfa nada‘ manahij did al-tataruf? [Beyond cutting and pasting: How can we develop anti-extremist curricula?]. Al-Shorouk Newspaper. Link

Diab, K. (2011). Egyptian schools are breeding grounds for rebellion. The Guardian. Abgerufen von Link