Adel Abdel Ghafar

Adel Abdel Ghafar is a PhD Scholar at the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. His dissertation is titled 'A Political Economy of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution' and his research involves investigating the social, economic and political roots of the revolution of 2011.

He is also a lecturer and a tutor at the Australian National University, Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney. He teaches several units on the international relations of the Middle East , politics of development and critical reading and writing.

Adel took part in the Egyptian Revolution 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, New York Times and Jadaliyya amongst others publications. He has appeared on German, French and Australian TV and radio to commentate on Egyptian and Middle East politics.

Before pursuing his PhD, Adel was a banker for several multinational institutions such as HSBC and Citigroup. 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.