2024 - 25 | Dr Mostafa Abdelaal

Dr Mostafa Abdelaal is an Assistant Professor of African History specializing in Economic History at the Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University. He is also the co-coordinator of the Economic History working group at Young Scholar Initiative (YSI-INET) . Currently, he is a visiting fellow collaborating with Dr David Damtar at the African Studies Centre,  under the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) Visiting Fellowship programme.

Dr Abdelaal’s research examines the socio-economic impacts of extractive industries on African communities, with a particular focus on the precarity of mining towns in the Copperbelt region. His PhD research at the University of Cambridge investigated state resources and modern manufacturing in Zambia. Dr Abdelaal has extensive experience as an editor and researcher and currently serves as the Managing Editor of Ifriqyiät, an academic series. His work has been presented internationally, including at the Economic History Society Annual Conference at Oxford.

During his Oxford fellowship, Dr Abdelaal’s project, “Extractive Industries, Modern Manufacturing, and the Unsettled Communities in Zambia, 1924–1992,” will use archival sources to analyse the historical challenges of industrial diversification in Zambia. His work seeks to provide insights into resource management and community integration in mining regions, contributing to policies that support stable, inclusive development in Africa’s resource-rich areas.