Dalia Abdelhady

GRM 2012 Workshop: Women and Globalization in the GCC: Negotiating States, Agency and Social Change

Senior Research Fellow - Centre for Middle Eastern Studies Lund University

Dalia Abdelhady is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at Lund University in Sweden where she is also the Academic Coordinator for the Women for Sustainable Growth Initiative hosted in collaboration with Yale University in the US and Zayed University in the UAE. The general theme in Dr. Abdelhady’s work deals with the ways globalization shapes the lives of individuals in various ways. One line of research looks at immigration as an important aspect of globalization. Looking at Arab immigrants and their children in Europe and North America, she investigates the complex ways immigrants integrate to their new societies, maintain ties to their homelands and construct global solidarities and cosmopolitan identities. Most recently, her book The Lebanese Diaspora: The Arab Immigrant Experience in Montreal, New York and Paris was published by NYU Press. A second line of research investigates the impact of globalization on gender dynamics in the Arab World with particular emphasis on the Gulf region. Studying women’s public roles, Dr. Abdelhady highlights the interplay of Islam, local traditions and global cultural ideals in shaping women’s experiences in the region. Pursuing this line of research, Dr. Abdelhady is the guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies on Women and Social Change in the GCC, forthcoming in the spring of 2013.