Sena El Banna
PhD Candidate and Associate Fellow
General inquiries and research email:
Teaching Email:
Room: E2.03
Advice and Feedback Hours:
Friday, 10:30-12:30 term time only.
Profile
I am a third-year PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies (PAIS) department. I hold a Sociology MA from Cambridge University (2011), a Politics MA and a diploma in Public Policy and Administration from the American University in Cairo (2012). I have a strong background in Islamic Studies, raised in Al-Azhar Institute and with independent scholars. My professional experience includes university teaching, qualitative research for NGOs, and research management roles.
Research
My PhD research explores how gender, migration, and political repression intersect in the case of Egyptian Islamist and ex-Islamist women involved in the Arab Spring. I use personal narrative interviews (PNIs) to examine how women influence the broader Islamist gender script and inform feminist discourse on women in the Middle East. My work is grounded in feminist epistemologies and draws on postcolonial and relational feminist frameworks.
The study addresses gaps in Islamist and feminist literature that often overlook their lived experiences, priorities, and interests.
More broadly, I am interested in migration and identity, Middle East politics, Feminist theories and methodologies, and the intersection of Islamic and modern laws.
Teaching
- POL 131 World Politics (2024/2025)
- POL 131 World Politics (2025/2026)
Previous Teaching Experience
- Cairo University, Egypt (Sep 2009 – Nov 2016)- Political Thought and Political Theory in Arabic and English.
- American University in Cairo, Egypt (Feb 2014 – May 2014) Lecturer in Sociology
- Online Arab Academies (Jan 2018 – 2022)
Awards and Scholarships
- PAIS Departmental Studentship for Doctoral Candidates (2023-2027), University of Warwick
- Ford Foundation Scholarship for Young Scholars (2016)
- Gates Cambridge Gates BP Scholarship (2010-2011)
- Next Generation of Scholars Fellowship Program (2009-2012)
Publications
- El Banna, Sanaa (2012). Divided, They Win? A Case Study of the New Political Generation in Egypt after 25th January 2011. The American University in Cairo Digital Archive and Research Repository (DAR).
- El Banna, Sanaa (2014). Resource Mobilization in Gulen-inspired Hizmet: A New Type of Social Movement. Blue Dome Press, USA. ISBN: 978935295440 Media
- Seasonal column writer in Gerçek Hayat Magazine (Turkish) | Al Araby Al Jadeed (Arabic)
Conferences
'Women’s Role in Transforming Islamist Ideas and Practices of Gender: A Comparative Study of Egypt and Exile'. Presented at BISA–PGN Postgraduate Network Conference, Edinburgh, 8–9 May 2025.
'Reconfiguring Gender: Women’s Evolving Understanding and Practice in Egypt and Exile'. Presented at BRISMES Annual Conference, Newcastle University, 1–3 July 2025
'Rethinking Islamist Occidentalism: Cross-Ideological Encounters of Exiled Egyptian Islamist Women'. Will be presented at MESA 59th Annual Meeting, Westin Washington, DC Downtown, 22–25 November 2025.
Accepted to ISA 2026 67th Annual Convention 'Back to the Fundamentals:
Rethinking Knowledges, Practices, and Imaginaries and the World' March 22nd - 25th, 2026, Columbus, Ohio, USA