Dina Bishara

Overview

Dina Bishara is Associate Professor of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University. Her research interests include authoritarianism, state-labor relations, social and protest movements, and transitions from authoritarian rule. Her book, Contesting Authoritarianism: Labor Challenges to the State in Egypt, has been published with Cambridge University Press (2018). Her articles have been published in Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Perspectives on Politics and Middle East Law and Governance. She has been awarded research fellowships from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Teaching Statement

My teaching interests include social and protest movements, state labor relations, labor and employment in the Middle East and North Africa, authoritarianism, and Middle East politics. For more information, please visit my website: dinabishara.com

Research Statement

My research explores various aspects of contentious politics under authoritarian rule. It is inspired by the day-to-day workings of authoritarian rule, and the ways in which seemingly stable authoritarian institutions begin to break down. My research interests include authoritarianism, social and protest movements, state-labor relations, and the mobilization of the unemployed.

Publications

Research Bulletins

Dina Bishara, Ian Hartshorn, & Marc Lynch. (2022). Introduction: Labor and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa.

Holger Albrecht, Dina Bishara, Michael Bufano, & Kevin Koehler. (2021). Attitudinal Foundations of Democratic Decline in Tunisia.

Journal Articles

Dina Bishara. (2021). The Generative Power of Protest: Time and Space in Contentious Politics. Comparative Political Studies, 54(10), 1722-1756. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414020970227)
Holger Albrecht, Dina Bishara, Michael Bufano, & Kevin Köhler. (2021). Popular support for military intervention and anti-establishment alternatives in Tunisia: Appraising outsider eclecticism. Mediterranean Politics. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2021.1974691)
Dina Bishara, & Sharan Grewal. (2021). Political not Partisan: The Tunisian General Labor Union under Democracy. Comparative Politics. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16240414667941)
Dina Bishara. (2020). Precarious Collective Action: Unemployed Graduates Associations in the Middle East and North Africa. Comparative Politics, 53(3), 453-476. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.5129/001041521X15960715659660)
Dina Bishara. (2020). Legacy Trade Unions as Brokers of Democratization? Lessons from Tunisia. Comparative Politics, 52(2), 173-195. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.5129/001041520X15657305839654)
Dina Bishara. (2015). The politics of ignoring: Protest dynamics in late Mubarak Egypt. Perspectives on Politics, 13(4), 958--975. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/S153759271500225X)
Holger Albrecht, & Dina Bishara. (2011). Back on horseback: The military and political transformation in Egypt. Middle East Law and Governance, 3(1-2), 13--23. (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1163/187633711X591396)

Book Reviews

Dina Bishara. (2025). MOBILIZING WITHOUT THE MASSES: CONTROL AND CONTENTION IN CHINA., Diana Fu., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2018. 210 pp. $28.99 (paper)..
Dina Bishara. (2019). Kira D. Jumet, Contesting the Repressive State: Why Ordinary Egyptians Protested during the Arab Spring (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). Pp. 296. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9780190688462.

Books

Dina Bishara. (2018). Contesting Authoritarianism: Labor Challenges to the State in Egypt. Cambridge University Press.

Policy Report

Dina Bishara. (2014). Labor movements in Tunisia and Egypt: Drivers vs. objects of change in transition from authoritarian rule.

Book Chapters

Dina Bishara. (2012). The power of workers in Egypt's 2011 uprising. (pp. 83--104). American University in Cairo Press.

Protests in Time and Space: Generating Contention in Authoritarian Regimes. Presented to Yale University, Macmilian Center. Yale University. 2020.
Economic and Social Rights and the Arab Spring: Popular Mobilization in Tunisia. Presented to American Political Science Association . Washington, DC. 2019.
Contesting Authoritarianism: Labor Challenges to the State in Egypt. Presented to Harvard University . Cambridge, MA. 2019.

Honors and Awards

State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, State University of New York. 2023
Best Fieldwork, Middle East and North Africa Politics Section, American Political Science Association. 2022
SERMEISS 2019 Book Prize, Honorable Mention, Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society. 2019

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