Hoda Elsadda is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University 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. In 1992, she co-founded and co-edited Hagar, an interdisciplinary journal in women’s studies published in Arabic. In 1995, she co-founded and is currently Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Memory Forum (www.wmf.org.eg).
She is member of the Editorial Board of Cairo Papers (2022-); member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory (2019-); 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 Board of Trustees of the Sawiris Cultural Award (2004-); member of the Governing Board of the Arab Reform Initiative, ARI (2015-); member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography (2024-)
She 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 Encyclopaedia of Women in Muslim Cultures (2007-2013); Consultant Editor of the Routledge Encyclopaedia 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); member of the Board of Governance of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Unit at Cairo University (2014-2019); member of the Advisory Group of Countering the Backlash, IDS (2021-2025).
Her research interests are in the areas of gender studies, women’s rights, cultural studies, comparative literature, oral narratives and women’s writings. Her most recent book is: Handbook to Gendering the Cultural Histories of the Modern Arab World, co-editor with Seteney Shami. London: I.B.Tauris (2026).