Sahar Khamis

Dr. Sahar Khamis is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is an expert on Arab and Muslim media, and the former Head of the Mass Communication Department in Qatar University. Dr. Khamis holds a PhD in mass media and cultural studies from the University of Manchester in England. She is a former Mellon Islamic Studies Initiative Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. She is the co-author of the books Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and Egyptian Revolution 2.0: Political Blogging, Civic Engagement and Citizen Journalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). She is the co-editor of the book Arab Women’s Activism and Socio-Political Transformation: Unfinished Gendered Revolutions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She authored and co-authored numerous book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers, regionally and internationally, in both English and Arabic. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious academic and professional awards and a member of the editorial boards of several journals in the field of communication, in general, and the field of Arab and Muslim media, in particular. Dr. Khamis is a media commentator and analyst, a public speaker, a radio host, and a former human rights commissioner.

Education

PhD, Mass Media and Cultural Studies, University of Manchester

Areas of Expertise

Webinars + Invited Talks

Presenter at University of Oxford, St. Anthony’s College, Middle East Center webinar, “Counter-Revolutions Vs. Counter-Marginalization Movements: (Re)Visiting the Online Tug-of-War a Decade After the Arab Spring,” March 5,  2021.

ISPU Webinar, “#WisdomWednesday Episode 1: Dr. Sahar Khamis,” April 1, 2020.

Recent Media Appearances

“Arab Women’s Activism and Socio-Political Transformation: Unfinished Gendered Revolutions” book interview, Jadaliyya, January 6, 2021.

“Gender activism, Arab women, and COVID-19.” Status Hour Podcast, aired November 3, 2021.

“Muslim American Women: Between Pandemic and Politics.” Islamic Horizons, July/August issue, pg. 32-33, 2021.

“Women and Covid-19 in the Middle East: One Year Onward.” Middle East Focus, aired April 30, 2021 via Middle East Institute.

“The Arab Spring 10 Years On.” Middle East Focus, aired March 1, 2021 via Middle East Institute.

“The global rise of Islamophobia.” Scope with Waqar Rizfi, aired March 6, 2021 on Indus News TV.

“Biden Revokes Muslim Ban,” Scope with Waqar Rizvi, aired January 22, 2021 on Indus News TV.

“Media Use and Its Anomalies a Decade after the Arab Spring,” Arab Center Washington DC, December 18, 2020.

Jessica Weiss, “Sifting Through The Deluge Of COVID-19 Information: Sahar Khamis, Associate Professor of Communication, Stresses the Need for Media Literacy in Times of Crisis,” University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU), April 13, 2020.

“Big brother: Internet age surveillance and censorship in the Middle East,” Middle East Institute (MEI), March 30, 2020.

“Faith in a Time of Fear: Spirituality and Coping with the Coronavirus Crisis,” U.S. Arab Radio, March 27, 2020.

“Paranoia, conflict and resilience: The Middle East at war with the Coronavirus,” The New Arab Voice, March 24, 2020.

“The rise of White Supremacist propaganda in the U.S.,” Scope with Waqar Rizvi, aired February 15, 2020 on Indus News TV.

“U.S. Senators Propose Sanctions on Turkey,” aired October 9, 2019 on TRT World.

“Why are people protesting against President Sisi in Egypt?,” aired September 30, 2019 on TRT World.

“A powerful technique to stop Islamophobia,” The Zada Show, May 1, 2019.

“Terrorism in the Media,” DC Direct, aired March 22, 2019 on TRT World.

Selected Publications

S. Khamis. “Between Conflicts, Politics, and COVID-19: Challenges for Arab Journalists,” Arab Center Washington DC, December 30, 2021.

S. Khamis. “No matter who’s in the White House, Washington’s grand strategy enshrines Egypt’s status quo,” The New Arab, December 15, 2021.

S. Khamis. “Agreements and Tensions in US-Egyptian Relations,” Arab Center Washington DC, December 2, 2021.

S. Khamis. “Sahar Khamis on Shifting Tides for Arabs and Muslims in the U.S.” Arab Media & Society, March 10, 2021.

S. Khamis, “The unfinished gender equality revolution of the Arab Spring,” The New Arab, March 8^th, 2021.

S. Khamis, “Info-Deficiency in an Infodemic: The Gender Digital Gap, Arab Women and the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Arab Media & Society, September 29, 2020.

S. Khamis, “Egypt’s puzzling dilemma: Escalating challenges and obstructed mobilization,” Arab Center Washington DC, February 20, 2020.

S. Khamis, “Arab women in the ‘Post-Arab Spring era’: Triumphs and tribulations,” Inside Arabia, December 11, 2019.

S. Khamis, “The Twitter spy scandal: Context, parallels, threats and responsibilities,” Gulf International Forum, December 9, 2019.

S. Khamis, “The Arab media landscape one year after Khashoggi: Louder opposition, more repression, and zero accountability,” Inside Arabia, October 29, 2019.

S. Khamis, “It is crucial to accept women’s right to be at the table,” The News International, September 22, 2019.

S. Khamis, “American-Muslims’ E-Jihad: Trumping Islamophobia in the Trump era,” CyberOrient 12, no. 1 (2018).

S. Khamis, “Five questions about Arab women’s activism five years after the Arab Spring,” CyberOrient 10, no. 1 (2016).

D. Anagondahalli and S. Khamis, “Mubarak framed! Humor and political activism before and during the Egyptian revolution,” Arab Media & Society 19 (Fall 2014).

S. Khamis, “Arab women’s changing identities, activisms and resistances in a rapidly changing region,” CyberOrient 8, no. 1 (2014).

M. El-Nawawy and S. Khamis, “Blogging against violations of human rights in Egypt: An analysis of five political blogs,” International Journal of Communication 8 (2014): 962–82.

S. Khamis, P. B. Gold, and K. Vaughn, “Beyond Egypt’s ‘Facebook revolution’ and Syria’s ‘YouTube uprising’: Comparing political contexts, actors and communication strategies,” Arab Media & Society 15 (Spring 2012).

M. El-Nawawy and S. Khamis, “Political activism 2.0: Comparing the role of social media in Egypt’s ‘Facebook revolution’ and Iran’s ‘Twitter uprising,’” CyberOrient 6, no. 1 (2012).

M. El-Nawawy and S. Khamis, “Cyberactivists paving the way for the Arab spring: Voices from Egypt, Tunisia and Libya,” CyberOrient 6, no. 2 (2012).

S. Khamis, “The transformative Egyptian media landscape: Changes, challenges and comparative perspectives,” International Journal of Communication 5 (2011): 1159–77.

S. Khamis and K. Vaughn, “Cyberactivism in the Egyptian revolution: How civic engagement and citizen journalism tilted the balance,” Arab Media & Society 13 (Summer 2011).

S. Khamis, “New media and social change in rural Egypt,” Arab Media & Society 11 (Winter 2010).

S. Khamis, “Multiple meanings, identities, and resistances: Egyptian rural women’s readings of televised family planning campaigns,” International Journal of Communication 3 (2009) 443–90.