Linda Herrera
Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
Contact
332 Education Building
(mail code 708)
Champaign (UIUC Campus Mail), IL 61820
Topics
Biography
Linda Herrera (PhD Columbia University, MA American University in Cairo, BA University of California at Berkeley) is a social anthropologist with regional expertise in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Prior to joining the Global Studies in Education program in the College of Education at UIUC in 2011, she was Senior Lecturer at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam where she was convenor of the Children and Youth Studies specializaiton. Prior to that, she lived in Egypt for 17 years where she worked in educational research, international development, and social science capacity building. Her books include, Educating Egypt, Global Middle East, Revoultion in the Age of Social Media, Wired Citizenship, Being Young and Muslilm, and Cultures of Arab Schooling.
Key Professional Appointments
- Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Professor, European Union Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Professor, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- Consultancy, Advisor, 2020 - 2023
- Consultancy, Director, 2019 - 2020
Education
MA, Anthropology/Sociology, American University in Cairo
PhD, Comparative and International Education, Columbia University
BA, Middle East Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Links
Research & Service
Linda Herrera is a social anthropologist with regional expertise in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with longstanding interests in education and power, youth and citizenship, and international development and critical democracy. In the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings, she became concerned with questions about youth precarity and livelihoods, the social effects of digital transformation, and education reform in a changing global order.
Publications
Herrera, L. (2022). Educating Egypt: Civic Values and Ideological Struggles. (1 ed.) American University in Cairo Press. link >
Bayat, A., & Herrera, L. (2021). Global Middle East. In A. Bayat, & L. Herrera (Eds.), Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century (pp. 3-21). (The Global Square; Vol. 3). University of California Press. link >
Bayat, A., & Herrera, L. (Eds.) (2021). Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century. (The Global Square; Vol. 3). University of California Press. link >
Bayat, A., & Herrera, L. (2021). Preface. In Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century (pp. xi-xii). University of California Press.
Herrera, L. (2021). Cosmopolitan Middle East? An Interview with Seyla Benhabib. In A. Bayat, & L. Herrera (Eds.), Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century (pp. 319-330). (The Global Square; Vol. 3). University of California Press. link >
Herrera, L. (2018). Media and the Arab Family. In S. Joseph (Ed.), Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews (pp. 437-448). (Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East). Syracuse University Press. link >
Herrera, L. (2018). Review: P. Freire's Pedagogy of the Heart. International Review of Education, 64(5), 697-699. link >
Destremau, B., Giacaman, R., Harb, M., Herrera, L., Mexi, M., Mitwalli, S., Murphy, E. C., Rabaia, Y., Welchman, L., & Zambelli, E. (2017). The dilemmas of the European Union's open access to data policy. The Lancet, 390(10090), 122-123. link >
Herrera, L. (2017). It's Time to Talk about Youth in the Middle East as The Precariat. Middle East - Topics & Arguments, 9, 35-44. link >
Herrera, L. (2017). Paulo Freire for the ages. International Review of Education, 63(1), 129-131. link >
Gebremariam, E. B., & Herrera, L. (2016). On silencing the next generation: Legacies of the 1974 Ethiopian revolution on youth political engagement. Northeast African Studies, 16(1), 141-166. link >
Herrera, L., & Mansour, A-R. (2015). Arab Youth: Disruptive Generation of the Twenty-first Century? In A. Ghazal, & J. Hanssen (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History Oxford University Press. link >
Herrera, L. (2015). Citizenship under Surveillance: Dealing with the Digital Age. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 47(2), 354-356. link >
Herrera, L., & Sakr, R. (2014). Foreword. In Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (pp. 11-12). Taylor and Francis. link >
Herrera, L., & Sakr, R. (2014). Introduction: Wired and revolutionary in the Middle East and North Africa. In L. Herrera, & R. Sakr (Eds.), Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (pp. 1-16). Routledge. link >
Herrera, L. (2014). Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet. Verso.
Herrera, L., & Sakr, R. (2014). Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East. (Critical Youth Studies). Routledge. link >
Herrera, L. (2014). Youth and citizenship in the digital age: A view from Egypt. In L. Herrera, & R. Sakr (Eds.), Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (pp. 19-38). Routledge. link >
Herrera, L., & Mayo, P. (2013). Digital youth, Arab revolution and the challenge of education and work: 2011. In L. Schultz, & T. Kajner (Eds.), Engaged Scholarship: The Politics of Engagement and Disengagement (pp. 155-162). (Comparative and International Education). Sense Publishers. link >
Herrera, L. (2012). Colonial Education Systems, Influence on Middle Eastern Educational Development. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education (pp. 404-405). SAGE Publishing. link >
Herrera, L. A., & Ballivian, R. R. (2012). Schools of the Street: Hip-hop as Youth Pedagogy in Bolivia. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 4(1), 172-184.
Herrera, L., & Mayo, P. (2012). The Arab Spring, Digital Youth and the Challenges of Education and Work. Holy Land Studies, 11(1), 71-78. link >
Herrera, L. (2012). Youth and citizenship in the digital age: A view from Egypt. Harvard Educational Review, 82(3), 333-352. link >
Herrera, L., & Peters, M. A. (2011). The educational and political significance of the new social media: A dialogue with Linda Herrera and Michael A. Peters. E-Learning and Digital Media, 8(4), 364-374. link >
Bayat, A., & Herrera, L. (2010). Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North. Oxford University Press. link >
Bayat, A., & Herrera, L. (2010). Introduction: Being Young and Muslim in Neoliberal Times. In L. Herrera, & A. Bayat (Eds.), Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North Oxford University Press. link >
Herrera, L., & Bayat, A. (2010). Conclusion: Knowing Muslim Youth. In L. Herrera, & A. Bayat (Eds.), Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North Oxford University Press. link >
Herrera, L. (2010). Education and Ethnography: Insiders, Outsiders, and Gatekeepers. In A. E. Mazawi, & R. G. Sultana (Eds.), Education and the Arab 'World': Political Projects, Struggles, and Geometries of Power (World Yearbook of Education; Vol. 2010). Routledge. link >
Herrera, L. (2010). Young Egyptians' Quest for Jobs and Justice. In Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North Oxford University Press. link >
Herrera, L. (2009). Pensée 1: Youth and Generational Renewal in the Middle East. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41(3), 368-371. link >
Herrera, L. A. (2008). A song for humanistic education: Pedagogy and politics in the Middle East. Teachers College Record, 110(2), 352-376.
Herrera, L. (2008). Education and Empire: Democratic Reform in the Arab World? International Journal of Educational Reform, 17(4), 355-374. link >
Chhachhi, A., & Herrera, L. (2007). Empire, geopolitics and development. Development and Change, 38(6), 1021-1040. link >
Herrera, L., & Torres, C. A. (Eds.) (2006). Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt. SUNY Press.
Herrera, L. (2006). Higher Education in the Arab World. In J. J. F. Forest, & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), International Handbook of Higher Education (pp. 409-421). Springer. link >
Herrera, L., & Torres, C. A. (2006). Introduction: Possibilities for Critical Education in the Arab World. In L. Herrera, & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt SUNY Press.
Herrera, L. (2006). Islamization and Education: Between Politics, Profit, and Pluralism. In L. Herrera, & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt SUNY Press.
Herrera, L. (2006). The Colors of Change: Participation and Praxis in Egyptian Education. In L. Herrera, & C. A. Torres (Eds.), Cultures of Arab Schooling: Critical Ethnographies from Egypt SUNY Press.
Herrera, L. (2006). What's New about Youth? Development and Change, 37(6), 1425-1434. link >
Herrera, L. (2004). Education, Islam, and Modernity: Beyond Westernization and Centralization. Comparative Education Review, 48(3), 318-326.
Herrera, L. (2003). Participation in school upgrading: Gender, class and (in)action in Egypt. International Journal of Educational Development, 23(2), 187-199. link >
Herrera, L. (2002). Islamization and Education in Egypt: Between Politics, Culture, and the Market. In J. L. Esposito, & F. Burgat (Eds.), Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in Europe and the Middle East (pp. 167-192). Hurst Publishers.
Herrera, L. (2002). 'The soul of a nation' - 'Abdallah Nadim and education reform in Egypt (1845-1896). Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, 7(1), 1-24.
Herrera, L. (2001). Downveiling: Gender and the Contest over Culture in Cairo. Middle East Report, 31(219), 16-19. link >
Presentations
Invited talk, The Distance Learning Revolution Since Covid-19: Questions for Critical Development from Egypt, 2021
Invited talk, "Accelerating Learning in the Middle East and Africa: A Call to Action and Opportunities for Regional Collaboration.", 2020
Courses
EPOL 523: Global Issues in Learning (EPOL 523) Investigates how culture has been taken up in theories that try to explain differences in educational outcomes between nations, within classrooms, and across schools. Through readings drawn from cultural psychology, but also including sociology, anthropology, and education, students will examine how globalization has shaped the discourse about the relationships between culture, learning, and academic achievement.
EPOL 525: Global Youth and Citizenship (EPOL 525) Discusses youth and citizenship in a global context. Covers the social construction of children and youth, the sociology of global generations, education and social media, and new youth movements in the digital age. Draws on a diversity of case studies from North America, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Latin America.
EPOL 526: Education and Power in Middle East (EPOL 526) Survey of education in Middle East and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present. Course deals with education in relation to colonialism, nationalism, economic development, imperialism, war and geopolitics, youth politics, Islam, and Arab uprisings. Takes a multidisciplinary perspective that draws on social history, anthropology, sociology, political economy, gender studies and international development.
EPOL 590: Advanced Graduate Seminar (EPOL 590) Seminar in educational policy studies; sections offered in the following fields: (a) history of education; (b) philosophy of education; (c) comparative education; (d) social foundations of education; (e) philosophy of educational research; and (f) historical methods in education.
EPS 391: Thesis (EPS 391) Prerequisite: Senior standing.
EPS 533: Global Youth and Citizenship (EPS 533) Discusses youth and citizenship in a global context. Covers the social construction of children and youth, the sociology of global generations, education and social media, and new youth movements in the digital age. Draws on a diversity of case studies from North America, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Latin America. Same as EPOL 525. 4 graduate hours. No professional credit.
EPS 553: Global Issues in Learning (EPS 553) Same as EPOL 523 and EPSY 553. See EPOL 523.
EPS 590: Advanced Graduate Seminar (EPS 590) Seminar in educational policy studies; sections offered in the following fields: (a) history of education; (b) philosophy of education; (c) comparative education; (d) social foundations of education; (e) philosophy of educational research; and (f) historical methods in education.
EPSY 553: Global Issues in Learning (EPSY 553) Same as EPOL 523 and EPS 553. See EPOL 523.