Bio

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Adel Abdel Ghafar is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East & Central Asia)  at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. His dissertation is titled A Political Economy of the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and his research involves investigating the social, economic and political roots of the revolution of 2011. He focuses on the last ten years of the Mubarak regime and conducts his research within a political economy framework. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Political Science Department of the American University in Cairo (AUC). 

Adel is a tutor and lecturer at the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney. He teaches several courses on the international relations of the Middle East , politics of development and critical reading and writing. He was the Conference Convenor for the ‘Change and Continuity in the Middle East and Central Asia’ Postgraduate Conference held at the ANU in November 2012 that was opened by Queensland MP and Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.  

Adel took part in the Egyptian Revolution that started in 2011 and was in Tahrir Square from day one, January 25th 2011 until Hosny Mubarak was deposed. He was also a volunteer on one of the first Egyptian medical convoys to enter Benghazi on February 27, 2011 during the Libyan uprising. His experiences in Cairo and Benghazi during January and February 2011 are the basis of a chapter  in From the Masses of the Arab Spring: Personal Stories of the Arab Revolutions, (forthcoming by Columbia University Press in 2012). He has been published in Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and the New York Times amongst other outlets. 

Before pursuing his doctorate, Adel was a banker for several multinational institutions such as HSBC and Citigroup in Australia and Egypt. He holds an MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Sydney (High Distinction with First Class Honors), a Combined Masters of International Business and Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Commerce from Cairo University.

Adel appears regularly on on European, Asian and Australian media to commentate on Egyptian and Middle East politics. He has been awarded the 2012 ANU Vice Chancellor Media Award for ‘Best Emerging Talent’ for contributing to the public debate in Australia on Middle Eastern issues. Below are some selected media engagements:

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