Hoda Elsadda is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University, a feminist, and an activist for women’s rights. She previously held a Chair in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Manchester University, and was Co-Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World in the UK. She was Carnegie Visiting Scholar at Georgetown University in 2014-2015, and Visiting Scholar at the Asfari Institute at the American University of Beirut in 2017-2018. In 1992, she co-founded and co-edited Hagar, an interdisciplinary journal in women’s studies published in Arabic. She was member of the 50-committee that drafted the Egyptian constitution endorsed in a referendum in 2014 and was coordinator of the Freedoms and Rights Committee in the constitutional assembly.

She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies JMEWS (2015-); member of the editorial board of Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World (2017-);  member of the International Advisory Board of the Asfari Institute at the American University in Beirut (2017-); member of the International Advisory Board of al-Raida (2011-); member of the Arab Families Working Group (2002-); member of the Board of Trustees of the Sawiris Cultural Award (2004-); founding member of Madad, a cultural initiative to support artistic and creative expressions; and member of the Advisory Committee of the Arab Reform Initiative, ARI (2015-).Elsadda was President of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) (2012); Associate editor of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies JMEWS (2012-2014); member of the Advisory committee of the Human Rights Council in Geneva (2014-2016); member of the Board of Advisors of International IDEA (2014-2017); member of the Board of Directors of The Global Fund for Women (2009-2015); member of the Advisory Board of the Durham Modern Languages Series (2009-2012); Associate Editor of the Online Edition of the Encyclopedia of Women in Muslim Cultures (2007-2013); Consultant Editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Second Edition (2006-2009); member of the British Academy, The Middle East Panel (2008-2011); member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies IJMES (2005-2009); member of the Judges Committee for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (2012); member of the board of the Cultural Development Fund in Egypt (2014-2016); and member of the Advisory board of the National Council of Translation in Egypt (2014-2016).

Her research interests are in the areas of gender studies, women’s rights, cultural studies, comparative literature, oral narratives and women’s writings. Elsadda is known for many book chapters, articles, and other projects, but her most recent book is A Legacy of Struggle and Institution Building: From the Archive of the Egyptian Feminist Movement, published in 2018 and co-authored with Maissan Hassan.

Dr. El Khawaga’s areas of research include the dynamics of knowledge production in the Arab region, and higher education policies more broadly. Dina’s academic work is focusing on new social movements, law and society and sociology of activism. She has acted as advisor to governmental and non-governmental institutions on civil society, the media industry, right to information, and higher education. Before joining AUB, she served as the programs director at the Arab Reform Initiative for four years. Prior to that, she worked at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. Earlier, she was the Director of the Arab Regional Office of the Open Society Foundations (2011-12) in Amman and the Higher Education Program Officer at the Cairo Office of the Ford Foundation (2005-11).

Dr. El Khawaga received her BA in political science from Cairo University, her MA in Sociology of Development from the Sorbonne in Paris, and her doctorate from the Institut d'études politiques, also in Paris.

She is the Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut, a co-sponsor and partner of Status/الوضع.

Dr. Lama Kahhal is currently an assistant professor at the Faculty of Information in the Lebanese University. She received her doctorate in Journalism and Media Studies from Sorbonne Nouvelle University - Paris. Prior to receiving her PhD, Dr. Kahhal earned a master's in journalism from Michel de Montaigne University. She has been a contributing writer to Assafir Newspaper in Beirut for more than a decade and she also works to publish the journal of Communication and Information from the Research Center at the Lebanese University.

Deema Kaedbey is a writer and researcher from Lebanon. She is the co-founder and co-director of a feminist organization based in Beirut, known as the Knowledge Workshop. She is also a member of Sawt al-Niswa, a feminist artist/activist collective. She has a Ph.D. in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.