Rate My Professor Laura Bier

Bier's research centers on the social and cultural history of Egypt in the latter half of the 20th century, with a focus on gender history, domestic technology, and food politics. She authored the book Revolutionary Womanhood: Feminisms, Modernity and the State in Nasser’s Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2011), republished by the American University in Cairo Press (2012). Her peer-reviewed articles include “Making Arab Socialism Palatable: Gender and the Politics of Food in Nasser’s Egypt” (Journal of North African Studies, 2025), “The Pleasures of Domesticity: Household Appliances, Gender and the Democratization of Well Being in Nasser’s Egypt” (Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2023), “The Family is a Factory: Gender, Citizenship and the Regulation of Reproduction in Post-War Egypt” (Feminist Studies, 2010), and “Modernity and the Other Woman: Depictions of Foreign Women in the Egyptian Women’s Press, 1952-1967” (Gender & History, 2004). She has contributed book chapters to volumes on Middle East studies and the Bandung Conference. Bier has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright Scholar Grant to Egypt (2012), Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (2000), USIA Fulbright Grant (1999), and Georgia Tech’s Provost Teaching and Learning Fellowship (2020-2022). She has delivered invited lectures at institutions such as Emory University and the American University in Cairo, and served as Program Committee Chair for the Middle East Studies Association (2023-24), Director of Undergraduate Studies (2020-2022), and faculty advisor for student organizations. Her current projects examine women in the Arab Spring and the history of domestic technology and food in Egypt.