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Mona Atia

Assistant Professor of Geography and International Affairs

Old Main 216
1922 F Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052

Phone: (202) 994-7757
Fax: (202) 994-2484
E-mail: atia@gwu.edu

Education:

Ph.D., University of Washington

Expertise:

Islam and the Middle East, International Development, Charity and Philanthropy, Transnationalism, Geopolitics

Background:

Mona Atia is Assistant Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University. She received her PhD in Geography at the University of Washington, Seattle, a MSc in Cities, Space and Society from the London School of Economics and a BS in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2006 she was a fellow at the Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo.

Professor Atia's research lies at the intersection of civil society, geopolitics and financial networks in the contemporary Middle East. Using ethnographic methods, she explores how a transnational Islamic revival, growing Islamic banking and finance industry, and intensified security measures have shifted Islamic charitable practices away from direct handouts and towards faith-based development projects. Her research has been supported by the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the Institute of International Education Fulbright Fellowship and the University of Washington Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship. In 2008, her dissertation "Building a House in Heaven: Islamic Charity in Neoliberal Egypt" was awarded the University of Washington Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Her publications include "In Whose Interest? Financial Surveillance and the Circuits of Exception in the War on Terror" published in 2007 in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25(3), and a forthcoming chapter on "The Arab Republic of Egypt" in From Charity to Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy, eds. Barbara Ibrahim and Dina Sherif, American University in Cairo Press. Her work has appeared in several other academic journals including, Environment and Planning A, Geografiska Annaler B, Housing Policy Debate, and Antipode.

Courses Taught:

Geog 148 Economic Geography
Geog 154 Geography of the Middle East and North Africa
Geog 250 Geographical Perspectives on Development

Last update: 09.04.08