UMass Boston

Gender and development; governance; human rights; militarization and post-conflict settings; HIV/AIDS; feminist theories and methodologies; the Middle East and Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, and Egypt

PhD, Government, Development Studies Stream, University of Manchester, UK
MA, Political Science, American University in Cairo, Egypt
BA (Hon.), Political Science, University of Khartoum, Sudan

Nada Mustafa Ali is a scholar, practitioner and an activist whose scholarship spans the fields of comparative politics,  women's, gender, and feminist studies, development studies, and African and Middle Eastern studies. She has written extensively in both English and Arabic. She is the author of Gender, Race and Sudan Exile Politics, and of numerous book chapters, journal articles, and academic and policy reports. Nada is a Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute, and an Advisory Board Member of the African Feminist Initiative.

Before joining the Faculty of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, Nada has taught at several universities including the New School for Social Research and Clark University. She has been a visiting scholar or research fellow at the Five College Women's Studies Research Center, the International Centre for Research on Women, and at African Studies at Fordham University. She has given talks and lectures in numerous universities and policy and activist in and outside the United States.

In addition to her academic career, Nada has worked as a researcher or consultant at a number of international and grassroots organizations and UN agencies. She has worked as the Women's Program Coordinator at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies in Egypt, and as the Africa Women's Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch. She has consulted for a range of organizations and agencies including UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA, US Institute of Peace, the Small Arms Survey, Al-Manar, and the South Sudan Women's Empowerment Network.

Current Research
Gender, Conflict, and the politics of Peacebuilding in Sudan and South Sudan
Gender Social Media, Social Movements and Social Change
Gender and HIV/AIDS

Selected Recent Publications
Gender, Race and Sudan's Exile Politics: Do We All Belong to this Country? (Lexington Books, 2015).

Sudanese Women's Groups on Facebook and #Civil Disobedience: Nairat or Thairat? (Radiant or Revolutionary?). African Studies Review, (62(2), 2019. 103-126.

Women, Gender, and Human Rights. In Srikanth, R and Chowdhury, E. (eds.) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human Rights. (Routledge, 2019).

Courses Taught at UMass Boston
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department
Introduction to Human Rights
Gender, Development and Globalization
Gender in Global Context
Research Seminar
Women, Culture and Identity
Women in African Cultures
Advanced Topics in Human Rights

Honors College
Global Health and Inequalities
Gender, Conflict and Refugees

School for Global Inclusion and Social Development
International Organizations and Social Development MA/PhD level'

McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
Gender and Human Security PhD level.

Courses Taught Elsewhere
Undergraduate
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Gender and Conflict: Women, Peach and Security in the Middle East and Africa
Refugees and 'Forced' Migration

MA Level
Advanced Issues in International Development: International Feminist Thinking and Action
Development Theory
Gender, Politics and Development in Africa
Theorizing Women, Gender and Development
Feminist Qualitative Research Methods