Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)

Samer Shehata teaches courses on comparative and Middle East politics and political economy, US policy toward the Middle East, Islamist Politics, Egyptian politics and society, culture and politics in the Arab world, and other subjects. During the 2002-03 academic year, Dr. Shehata served as Acting Director of the Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program. Before coming to Georgetown he spent one year as a Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Columbia University and another as Director of Graduate Studies at New York University's Center for Near Eastern Studies. He has also taught at the American University in Cairo. Shehata's research interests include Middle East politics, U.S. foreign policy, Islamist politics, elections under authoritarianism, labor, social class and inequality; "development"; ethnography and the Hajj. His writings have appeared in both academic and policy journals including "The International Journal of Middle East Studies," "Current History," "Middle East Policy," "The Georgetown Journal of International Affiars," MERIP, Arab Reform Bulletin, Slate, Salon, Al Hayat, Al Ahram Weekly and other publications. His PhD dissertation received the Malcolm Kerr Dissertation Award in the social sciences from the Middle East Studies Association of North America and he is the author of "Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt" (SUNY Press: 2009). In the spring of 2002, he developed a popular course (co-taught with Michael Hudson) on "The US, the Middle East, and the War on Terrorism", which he continues to teach.