Dr. Sarah El Richani
Sarah El Richani served as Assistant Professor of Mass Communications at The American University in Cairo from 2018-2024 where she lectured at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and supervised several MA students. She was visiting fellow and academic visitor at the Centre for Lebanese Studies and St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford during the academic year 2016-2017. She completed her doctoral studies in 2015 in the field of International Communication and Comparative Media Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany courtesy of a DAAD Scholarship. Sarah obtained her MA from the University of Westminster courtesy of the Quintin Hogg Scholarship and her BA from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon where she received the Penrose Award. She has previously lectured at Qatar University and has carried out consultancies for a number of media development organizations including BBC Media Action, MICT Berlin and the London-based Article 19, among others. She has authored numerous academic papers, essays, book chapters, book reviews and policy papers. Her monograph, Lebanon: anatomy of a media system in perpetual crisis was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016. She is currently co-editing a book on the collapse of Lebanon (Hurst Publishers) and researching polarization in the Arab media through sentiment analysis and topic modelling.
Chronology of Education
- Ph.D. International and Comparative Media Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany, 2015.
Full Scholarship: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
-DSH Exam 3 (Highest mark) German Language Course and Exam, University of Leipzig, 2009.
- M.A Journalism, University of Westminster, UK, 2006.
Quintin Hogg Full Scholarship
- B.A. English Literature, Philosophy Minor, American University of Beirut,
Lebanon, 2005. Penrose Award
- Teaching Diploma, Department of Education, American University of Beirut,
Lebanon, 2005.
Chronology of Employment
January 2018– July 2024. Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass
Communication, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), The American
University in Cairo.
September 2016-December 2017. Visiting Fellow/Academic Visitor at the Centre for Lebanese
Studies, Middle East Centre at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
January 2017 – Present. Expert respondent, Varieties of Democracy Institute, University of
Gothenburg, Sweden.
May 2023 Expert respondent, Measuring Internet Politics, Digital Society Project
March 2016 – September 2016. Researcher on Iraqi media project, Media in Conflict and
Transition, Berlin.
February 2015- September 2015. Researcher and co-author, BBC Media Action Policy Report.
February 2014– February 2015. Adjunct Lecturer, Qatar University, Qatar.
February 2010-June 2010, Adjunct Lecturer, University of Erfurt, Germany
June 2006-September 2008, Article 19, MENA Programme Officer, London and Beirut
Teaching & Mentoring – selected
Course Design: designed and convened a graduate seminar on the Arab Media.
Supervised the theses of three MA students;
Served as examiner on 10 MA theses defenses since 2018;
Convened 7 distinct courses over the past 6 years at the rate of 3/term;
Academic advising for 40 undergraduate students per term;
Numerous teaching enhancement sessions offered by the AUC’s Center for Learning and Teaching
to name a few: AI Pedagogy Workshop, AI and assessments, Fostering inclusive classrooms,
Teaching Enhancement Certificate.
Publications – selected
Scholarly Monographs:
El-Richani, S. (2016) The Lebanese Media: Anatomy of a media system in perpetual crisis. New
York. Palgrave Macmillan
Refereed Journal Articles
El-Richani, S. (Forthcoming/In Draft). “Speech will be the business of men” : Digital violence
targeting Lebanese women journalists.
Wollenberg, A., El Richani, S., & Jekta, M. (2017). In Defense of the Iraqi Media – Between
Fueling Conflict and Healthy Pluralism. Global Media Journal - German Edition, 7(1).
Retrieved from https://globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/article/view/138
Chapters in Scholarly Books
El-Richani, S. (2022). lbnān: shabkt mtʿthra mn l-mṣālḥ s-sīāsīt wāltjārīt in C. Richter & C.
Kozman noẓm wāsā'il l-iʿlām l-ʿrbīt. https://caus.org.lb/product/arab-media/
El-Richani, S. (2021) Lebanon: A Faltering Mesh of Political and Commercial Interests in Arab
Media Systems. Open Book Publishers.
El-Richani, S. (2021). Whither the Lebanese Press: The Trials and Tribulations Facing the
Lebanese Print Media. In Noureddine Miladi, & Noha Mellor. Routledge Handbook on
Arab Media. Routledge.
El-Richani, S. (2022) Le paysage médiatique libanais : une liberté et un pluralisme paradoxaux
in A. Benchetti and D. Marchetti La culture et ses dépendances Les productions
culturelles et leurs circulations au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient. IFPO.
El-Richani, S. (2015). Pierre Daher: Sheikh, baron and mogul of LBC. In N. Sakr, J.
Skovgaard-Petersen & D. Della Ratta (eds.) Arab media moguls. I.B. Tauris.
El-Richani, S. (2015) Qatar: Ein immer noch loyalistisches Mediensystem. In C. Richter & A. El
Difraoui Arabische Medien. Verstehen. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft
El-Richani, S. (2013) The Lebanese broadcasting system; a battle between political parallelism,
commercialisation and de-facto Liberalism. In: Guaaybess, T. (ed.): National Broadcasting and
State Policy in Arab Countries (pp. 68-82).
Book Reviews
El-Richani, S. (Forthcoming). The Digital Double Bind: Change and Stasis in the Middle East.
Progress in Development Studies.
El-Richani, S. (2019). Pretty liar: Television, language, and gender in wartime lebanon. The
Middle East Journal, 73(3), 498-499. Retrieved from
https://login.libproxy.aucegypt.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journ
a ls/pretty-liar-television-language-gender-wartime/docview/2304941893/se-2
El-Richani, S. (2018) A Review of Blogging in Beirut – an ethnography of a digital media practice
by Jurkiewicz, Sarah. Global Media Journal 8(2)
http://globalmediajournal.de/en/2018/12/18/rezension-blogging-in-beirut-an-ethnography-ofa-
digital-media-practice/
Policy papers, essays and articles
El-Richani,S. (2020) Lebanon At a Crossroads ... Again The Cairo Review of Global
Affairs.https://www.thecairoreview.com/covid-19-global-crisis/lebanon-at-a-crossroads-a
gain/
El-Richani, S. (2019) Civil Marriage in Limbo
https://www.thecairoreview.com/tahrir-forum/civil-marriage-in-limbo/
El-Richani, S. (2017, October 23) Interview with Professor Avi Shlaim on Israel’s New Historians,
Hamas and the BDS Movement. Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34642
Buccianti, A. & El-Richani,S. (2015). After the Arab uprisings - prospects for a media that serves
the public. BBC Media Action (Policy Briefing) Retrieved from
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/pdf/policybriefing/after-the-arab-uprisings-sept-2015.
Presentations
Scholarly/Reviewed
El-Richani, S. Speech will be the business of men: Digital violence targeting Lebanese women
journalists. Paper accepted for the AEJMC conference. Washington, D.C., USA. August 2023.
Scholarly/Invitation
El-Richani,S. Erasmus Faculty Exchange, delivered two lectures at the Danish School for
Journalism in both Aarhus and Copenhagen in March 2024.
El-Richani, S. Digital Violence Targeting Women Journalists. Northwestern University in Qatar.
October 2023.
El-Richani, S. Panelist at the Media for Peace Symposium at the Center for Digitization and
Technology Research of the Bundeswehr in Munich, Germany, October 2021.
El-Richani, S. Chapter presentation at Workshop hosted by the Jordan Media Institute and
Freie Universitaet Berlin, November 2019
El-Richani, S. Book talk about my monograph on the Lebanese media at the Lebanese
American University, Lebanon, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Berlin, St. Antony’s College,
University of Oxford and University of Paris 13 from January 2017-May 2018
El-Richani, S. Public‐service broadcasting in the Arab World: prospects and
hurdles- Egyptian Media & Journalism between Change and Continuity, Freie Universität
Berlin. November 2011.
El-Richani, S. “Messages from the Land of Epic Battles: An Assessment of IS’ Media Strategies”-
Lecture at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies- Nanyang Technological University.
January 2011.
Workshops organized
El-Richani, S. convened a workshop on Communicating Contentious Politics at St. Antony’s
College, University of Oxford as part of my fellowship. November 2017
Non-Scholarly/Invitation
El-Richani,S. Panelist on AUC webinar on the coverage of the war on Gaza. November 2023.
El-Richani, S. Sowt Podcast on Coverage of violence against women in Arab Media, March
2023
El-Richani, S. Inaugural JRMC Department Research chat. April 2022
El-Richani, S. Brown Bag lecture: Lebanon in Limbo, AUC, November 2019.
Services– selected
2021- present Editorial Board Member, Cinema and Media Cultures in the Middle East, Peter
Lang Publishing [scholarly academic book series]
Fall 2022- present AUC Member, Student Conduct Board
Fall 2022-present Member, Department Research and Publications Committee
Fall 2019-2021 Chair, Arabic Communications Committee
Fall 2019-Fall 2022 Member, Graduate Affairs Committee
2019-2021 JRMC Department Senator/Senate’s Academic Affairs Committee Member
2018-2019 Member, Faculty Affairs Committee
2020-2022 Member, of three ad-hoc hiring committees
Peer-reviewer average of five manuscripts for top-tier journals and book publishers (Routledge).
Series of media interviews to Al-Ahram Online, AUC Today, and Sowt Podcast.
