Rabab El Mahdi is Associate Professor of Political Science at The American University in Cairo. Her research focuses on the political economy of developmental policies, as well as social movements in the Middle East and North Africa. She is the founding Director of Alternative Policy Solutions, a research center which aims at producing progressive alternatives to neoliberal policies in Egypt and the global South. She previously taught at Yale University and was a recipient of a number of fellowships at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the Rockefeller Bellagio Center Residency.