Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Washington DC 20057-1020
Tel: (202) 687-0350
Email: sss32@georgetown.edu
Samer S. Shehata is an Assistant Professor of Arab Politics at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He teaches courses on Arab and Middle East politics, Islamist politics, comparative politics, U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, Egyptian politics, culture and politics in the Arab world, and other subjects. He served as the Acting Director of the Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program during the 2002-2003 academic year.
Before coming to Georgetown Dr. Shehata spent one year as a Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Columbia University and another as Director of Graduate Studies at New York University’s Center for Near Eastern Studies. He received a PhD from the Politics Department at Princeton University in 2000. Dr. Shehata has also taught at Columbia University, New York University, and the American University in Cairo.
Shehata’s research interests include Middle East politics, Islamist politics and movements, U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, the political economy of the Middle East, social class and labor, “development”, authoritarian elections, Egyptian politics, ethnography, and the Hajj. He has published widely in both academic and policy journals. His articles have appeared in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Current History, MERIP, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Middle East Policy, Folklore and as book chapters and encyclopedia articles. His analysis and op-ed pieces have been published in the Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, Salon, Slate, Arab Reform Bulletin, Al Hayat, Al Ahram Weekly and other publications.
His most recent book, Islamist Politics in the Middle East: Movements and Change
(Routledge Press), was published in June 2012 and is an edited volume that addresses a number of central questions in the study of Islamist politics in the Middle East.
His book, Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt, was published 
in 2009 by the State University of New York Press (SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East). Watch Dr. Shehata speak about his book here and listen to a second interview here. The first chapter of his book is available here.
The American University in Cairo Press published a Middle East edition of 
Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt in 2010, which also includes a new afterword analyzing the tsunami of labor and economic protests which began in Egypt in 2004. The afterword is available here.
In the spring of 2002, he developed a popular course (co-taught with Professor Michael Hudson) entitled “The US, the Middle East, and the War on Terrorism,” which continues to be taught at Georgetown University. The course has been featured on the BBC Newsnight, Fox News and NPR’s ‘All Things Considered.’
Dr. Shehata has been interviewed for commentary by a wide range of media including CNN, BBC, Lehrer News Hour, NPR, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, FOX, C-Span, CBC, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Al Arabiyya, Egyptian Satellite TV, Middle East Broadcasting Company (MBC), New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, Guardian, Le Monde, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Many of his media appearances are available for viewing here.
Dr. Shehata has received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Ford Foundation’s Middle East Research Competition, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Research Center in Egypt, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Carnegie Corporation.