Fatma Sayed Adjunct Instructor of Political Science
Ph.D., Political and Social Science, The European University Institute in
Florence
M.P.A., Master of
Public Administration (specializing in Urban Environmental Policies and International
Organizations & Comparative
Administration), The American University in Cairo
B.A., Mass Communication, School of Management from The American University In
Cairo
Biographical Information
Dr.
Sayed is a specialist in development assistance, policy analysis,
governance in the Euro-Mediterranean region and welfare and social
policies. She is an international consultant to UNDESA (United Nations'
Department of Economic and Social Development) on governance and innovation in
public administration in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Dr. Sayed obtained her PhD in Political and
Social Sciences from the European University Institute and her BA in Mass Communication
from the American University in Cairo; and a Master in Public
Administration MPA from the same University in February 1999. She authored several publications on
governance, education reform, development assistance, public policy reforms,
and innovation in public administration.
Current Research Interests
As
an international consultant to UNDESA, Dr. Sayed, has been conducting some
major studies on innovation in governance and produced case studies on
innovation in public administration, under the
Programme for the Promotion of Exchange
of Administrative Innovation between Europe
and the Mediterranean Region. She also
co-edited a key report on Governance in the Mediterranean Region (covering all
MENA and the Eastern Balkan Countries).
Dr.
Sayed is a founding member and member of the Steering Committee of Innovmed The
Network of Innovators in Governance in the Mediterranean Region, launched by
UNDESA in collaboration with Formez
(Italian Government Agency for Training and Research) and The World Bank
Institute. Besides, she is a
member of the Polibius research team under the European Thematic
Network in Public Administration working on higher education in the field
of governance in the Euro-Mediterranean Region; and a founding member of the
Arab Forum for Basic Education Reform (established by the Lebanese Association
for Education Studies and the Kuwaiti Society for Advancing Arab Childhood).
Publications
"The Contested Terrain of Educational Reform in Egypt" in World Yearbook of Education 2010: Education and the Arab ‘World':
Political Projects, Struggles, and Geometries of Power; André Mazawi and Ronald Sultana. (ed.), Routledge Publications, London, 2009.
Governance and Political Stability: the Cases of
Egypt, Lebanon and Palestinian Territories; Adriana Alberti and Fatma Sayed (ed.) VDM
publishing, work in Progress.
Governance in the Middle East, North Africa and the
Western Balkans: Challenges and Priorities in Reforming Public Administration
in the Mediterranean Region,
Alberti, Adriana; Fala, Laila and Fatma Sayed (ed.) United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York, 2008. http://www.unpan.org/innovmed/documents/challenges_priorities.pdf
"Challenges and Priorities in Reforming
Governance and Public Administration in
the Middle East, North Africa and Western Balkans", EGPA Conference on
Public Administration and the Management of Diversity, INAP,
Madrid,http://egpa2007.inap.map.es/egpa2007/workshops/WSI/WSI_AlbertiSayed.pdf, September 2007.
Transforming Education in Egypt: Western Influence and
Domestic Policy Reform, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 2006.
"Security, Donors, and Education Policy in Egypt",Mediterranean Quarterly, Duke University
Press, Volume 16, Number 2, Spring 2005.
"Educational Reform Within Contexts of Conspiracy Fear
and the Absence of Participation", in Reform of General
Education in Arab Countries, Adnan El-Amine (ed.); UNESCO Regional Bureau
for Education in the Arab States:Beirut,
2005.
"Inventory of Academic Resources in the field of Governance and
Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region: The Case of Egypt,"The
European Public Administration Network- Polibius Project, December 2005.
"Democratizing Development:
Integrating Local Communities in the Provision of Basic Education in Egypt;" Journal
of African Administrative Studies; CAFRAD; issue No. 65, July 2005.
Innovation
in Public Administration: The Case of Egypt;
UNDESA Programme for the Promotion of
Exchange of Administrative Innovation
between Europe and the Mediterranean Region; Naples' Meeting of Experts;
unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN015904.pdf; May 2004.
International
Organizations and Domestic Policy Reform: The Case of Basic Education in Egypt
in the 1990s; The European University Institute; Political and Social
Science Department; Ph.D. Thesis; June 2004.
Course Descriptions
Comparative Middle East
Politics (POL 372): The course
offers students an overview of contemporary Middle East
politics with a comparative perspective, and
covers the period starting from the fall of the Ottoman
Empire at the close of World War I. It emphasizes the historical,
political and economic roots of contemporary events. The course martial and class discussions focus
on the processes of state building and struggles for self-determination across
the region and look into the domestic, regional, and international factors
shaping the foreign policies of the Middle East
states. The Middle
East is taken to comprise Iran, Israel, Turkey and the Arab states, but
discussions will also cover countries that take part of the "Greater Middle
East" such as Afghanistan,
Pakistan
and Somalia.
Students
will be encouraged to keep an eye on current political developments in the
region and actively follow up the news coverage about the Middle
East.
Method and
Objectives: The aim is
for students to become familiar with the region as a whole, and to better
understand selected case studies that present the constitutive elements listed
above. The course material focuses mostly on Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, but participants will also
gain some knowledge about less covered areas and countries of the region. Participants will acquire a clearer
understanding of the origins of the conflicts that constantly undermine the
stability of the region. Moreover, the participants should acquire through this
course a more nuanced and complete understanding of the Middle
East, its states, its political cultures and its peoples. On top
of assigned readings, the course will also be based on taught lectures, the
analysis of a variety of audiovisual documents and open discussion with participants.
Students will
explore and debate on many issues about the politics of the region (or the
implications that politics in the region may have on the rest of the world, in
particular the USA and Europe), For that matter, students will be required to get
acquainted with the BBC World
Service website whose coverage of the Middle East should provide a good
starting point for this part of the class (available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/default.stm, or http://news.bbc.co.uk. It will
be very interesting to also look at the websites of Al-Jazeera (http://english.aljazeera.net/),
Al-Masry-al-Youm (Egyptian Daily newspaper's English version on line (http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en) and
the Haaretz (Israeli Daily newspaper's English version on line (http://www.haaretz.com/).
