Dima Dabbous
Country: 
Lebanon
Associated organisations: 
Educational Institution
Professions: 
Lecturer
Researcher
Field(s) of expertise: 
Arab World
Gender
Media
Woman and Koran
Women's Rights
Areas of Impact: 
Gender Equality

Personal information

Dima Dabbous
Researcher, Expert, Consultant, University Lecturer

Contact information (Work)

Lebanese American University
+961 1 786456

Work history

Previous Professions: 
  • Senior Consultant on Arab Media Laws and Regulations, July 2014-present, UNESCO.
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, June 2014-December 2014, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), Stanford University, California. http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/people/dima-dabbous
  • Assistant Professor, 2013-present, Lebanese American University.
  • Editor-in-Chief, 2007-present, Al-Raida peer-reviewed journal (published by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World at the Lebanese American University).
  • Director, 2005-2013, Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University, Beirut.

Major Achievements

Publications (Books, Articles, Reports, etc.): 

Arabic Version: http://www.arabruleoflaw.org/Files/PDF/Media/Arabic/P2/MediaLebanonRepor...

English Version:http://www.arabruleoflaw.org/Files/Outline/EN_MediaReport_Lebanon.pdf

  • Dabbous-Sensenig, D. (2006). To veil or not to veil: gender and religion on al-Jazeera's islamic law and life. Westminster Papers for Communication and Culture, 3(2), 60-85.https://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/20137/4WPCC-Vo...
  • Dabbous-Sensenig, D. (2006). Ahead of the bandwagon: Lebanon's free media market. In S. Harvey (Ed.), Trading culture: exploring the 'indigenous' and the 'exportable' in film and television culture (pp. 61-75). London: John Libbey.
  • Dabbous-Sensenig, D. (2005, October - November 31-3). Incorporating an Arab-Muslim perspective in the re-assessment of the implementation of the Beijing platform for action. Paper presented at the UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW): Priorities in follow-up to the ten-year review and appraisal of implementation of the Beijing declaration platform for action, New York City, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/meetings/consult/10-review/EP9.pdf.
  • Dabbous-Sensenig, D. (1999). Who is the prettiest one of all? Hollywood cinema, Egyptian cinema, and the recycling of fairy tales: A structural feminist analysis. Al-Raida, 16, (86-87), 40-47. http://iwsawassets.lau.edu.lb/alraida/alraida-86-87.pdf
Major achievements: 
  • Played a major role in designing and developing the newly established Master’s program in Women & Gender Studies at the Lebanese American University.
  • Changed Al-Raida from a magazine into an international refereed women & gender studies journal.
  • Organized the setting up, at the Lebanese American University, of the experimental Global Modules classroom teaching in one of the Women Studies courses (Representation of Women in the Arts & the Media) whereby a network of universities in the US and the Middle East and Africa is created in order to foster direct interaction among students from different parts of the world and help them know directly about other cultures, instead of reading or talking about them. (http://www.globalmodules.net).
Exhibitions, lectures & performances: 

CONFERENCE PAPERS/ PRESENTATIONS HIGHLIGHTS

  • Speaker, "Strengthening Public Service Broadcasting in the MENA region: Stakes, methodology, and assessment", paper presented at the conference titled "Arab Public Broadcasters in a Time of Change" organized by the Mediterranean Observatory of Communication (OMEC) at the Open University of Barcelona and the Institut Panos Paris, Amman, December 9-10, 2011.
  • Speaker, "The challenge of introducing reform in media legislation and practice in Lebanon", session on: "Promoting Media Freedoms Worldwide: Case Studies"organized by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Paris, July 22-25, 2007.
  • Speaker, "Religious discourse and women in al-Jazeera talk shows", session on: "Television in a Global Context: Gender, Religion, Family and Sex" organized by the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Paris, July 22-25, 2007.
  • Speaker, "Speaking in His name? Gender, language, and religion in the Arab media" presented during the conference titled "Between Renewal and Tradition: Shari'a as Discourse", organized by the Research Priority Area Religion in the 21st Century (University of Copenhagen) and the Danish Institute (Damascus), Copenhagen, March, 20-22, 2007.

INVITED LECTURES/INTERNATIONAL

  • Invited lecture, titled “Lebanese Women and Qur’anic Exegesis in the 1920s: the case of Nazira Zeinedine”, College of Arts & Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, November 16, 2012.
  • Panel discussion, “Women Moderating Extremism”, part of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum series, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Boston, January 13, 2010.
  • Panel discussion, “Moderating Extremism: Lebanese Leaders’ Perspective”, The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington D.C., January 21, 2010.
  • Invited lecture titled “Al-Jazeera: Religious Moderation or Extremism?”, The John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute for Inclusive Security, Harvard University, Boston, January 11, 2010.
  • Panel discussion, “Knowledge, Empowerment, Politics: Gender Research and Activism”, part of a conference titled “Gender research and women’s grassroots activism”, Danish-Arab Research Conference, Aalborg University, Denmark, May 13-15, 2009.
  • Invited lecture,“Gender, Language, Media and Religion”, Department of Political Science, Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg, Germany. The lecture was organised by the Politics and Gender-Transnational Research and Teaching Network, as part of the German-Arab University Dialogue, November 21, 2006.

Accomplishments

Distinctions: 
  • Dr. Dima Dabbous was selected by Ambassador Swanee Hunt (director of the Institute for Inclusive Security at Harvard) along with 20 other women from post-conflict countries, including MPs and ministers from Ruwanda and Pakistan, to attend the Executive Program for Women Leaders at Harvard University, January 2010.

Competences & Skills

Field(s) of Expertise: 
  • Media Laws & Regulation in the Arab World
  • Policy Analysis
  • Media Content Analysis (qualitative & quantitative)
  • Women and Qur'an
  • Women and Family Law in the Middle East
  • Gender Studies in the MENA Region
Languages: 
  • Arabic
  • English
  • French
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • German