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. 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.
In 1997, she co-founded and is currently Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Memory Forum (www.wmf.org.eg). She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies JMEWS; member of the International Advisory Board of al-Raida; member of the Arab Families Working Group; member of the Board of Trustees of the Sawiris Cultural Award; member of the Advisory committee of the Human Rights Council in Geneva; founding member of Madad, a cultural initiative to support artistic and creative expressions; member of the board of the Cultural Development Fund in Egypt; member of the Advisory board of the National Council of Translation in Egypt; member of Board of Advisors of International IDEA; member of the Advisory Committee of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI).
She was President of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS); 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; 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, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES) (2005-2009); and member of the Judges Committee for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (2012). 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: Gender, Nation and the Arabic Novel: Egypt: 1892-2008 (Edinburgh University Press and Syracuse University Press, 2012).