2025 Award Recipient | Zaynab El Bernoussi (Z)
Lecture: From the Global South to the World: Tracking Dignity Demands and the International Political Economy
In this lecture, Z traces her career as a researcher from the global South working on the global South. She focuses on her two major works: her first book on dignity demands, and her second book on the international political economy (IPE).
Fifteen years ago, Z took a particular interest in protests in Egypt. Based on interviews with participants in the 2011 protests and analysis of the art forms that emerged during protests, Z explored understandings of the concept of dignity, showing how protestors conceived of dignity in their organization of protest and uprising, and their memories of dignity in the aftermath of the protests, revisiting these claims in the years subsequent to the uprising.
The primary goal of her second book was to provide an alternative or complementary reading of IPE derived from the experiences of the periphery. The book opens with a standard introduction, offering an intellectual history of key IPE concepts, including state, firm, capital, power, labor, globalization, and finance. Aiming to de-Westernize and decentralize the production of knowledge, the book introduces students to the discipline and phenomenon of IPE with a genuinely global perspective.
Biography
Zaynab El Bernoussi is a scholar specializing in dignity politics, international relations, and the international political economy. She holds a Master in Finance (MiF) from Instituto de Empresa, a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain.
Before assuming her current role as Associate Professor of Political Science at The Africa Institute, she held various academic positions. Notably, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). El Bernoussi also held roles at Al Akhawayn University and the International University of Rabat. In addition, she conducted research as a visiting scholar at esteemed institutions like the Smith College and Harvard University.
El Bernoussi is an active contributor to academia and international relations. She currently serves as the Chair of the Theory Section at the International Studies Association (ISA). Her contributions have been recognized through prestigious grants, including Fulbright awards in 2009-2011 and 2017, as well as Carnegie awards in 2014 and 2022. In 2015, El Bernoussi received the Arab Prize from the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) for her article titled "Postcolonial Politics of Dignity: From the 1956 Suez Canal Nationalization to the 2011 Revolution in Egypt." She is also on the editorial board of the journal PS: Political Science & Politics. Her book, Dignity in the Egyptian Revolution, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. Her second book, International Political Economy and the Global South: Perspectives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, co-authored with Adriana María Garriga-López, Giuliano Martiniello, and Bashir Saade, is forthcoming in June 2025 with Routledge.
