In the summer semester of 2022, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hanan Badr was appointed head of the Division of Societies and Inequality Research at the Department of Communication Studies, which is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the PLUS.

The main fields of research covered include the study of public spheres and inequality at the macro, meso and micro levels, with a focus on globalisation and digitalisation. Topics include global communication, media and postcolonial theories, (digital) communities in polarised societies, activism and social movements, transformation and protest as well as media and migration. Hanan Badr is a member of numerous editorial boards of renowned journals such as Digital Journalism, International Journal of Communication and Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Badr is the elected Vice-Chair of Activism, Communication and Social Justice at the International Communication Association (ICA), the DFG network Cosmopolitan Communication Studies and the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA).

Prior to her appointment in Salzburg, Hanan Badr worked at various institutions such as the  Freie Universität Berlin, the  Gulf University for Sciences and Technology in Kuwait,  Cairo University and  Orient-Institute Beirut / Max Weber Foundation. Badr is also a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress in Washington, USA.

Hanan Badr studied Communication Studies, specialising in journalism and international communication, at Cairo University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. Badr went on to complete her doctorate at the University of Erfurt with a DAAD scholarship in the Department of International Communication and Comparative Media Systems. Hanan Badr was born in Cairo, Egypt.

The following are a selection of Badr’s publications:

• Ganter, S., Badr, H. (2022). Media Governance: A Cosmopolitan Critique.
• Badr, H.,Möller, L.M. (2021) Media and Communication Special Issue: Ten Years after the Arab Uprisings: Beyond Media and Liberation. 9 (4).   https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/275
• Badr, H. (2020) The Egyptian Syndicate and (Digital) Journalism’s Unresolved Boundary Struggle, Digital Journalism, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2020.1799424

Hanan Badr is married and has two children. She particularly likes the collegial atmosphere at the PLUS, students’ openness and the high quality of life in Salzburg.