Rieker received her PhD from Temple University in 1997. She served as associate dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities from 2005-2009. She has been directing the Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies since 2006. As director of the Institute she is involved in the following: 

Graduate Curriculum Development 

Design and administration of one of the three first graduate gender studies programs currently affiliated with universities in the Middle East/North Africa region. Developed three distinct regionally specific MA areas of concentration: Gender and Justice in the Global South, Gender and Development in the Middle East, Gender and Women’s Studies in the Middle East/ North Africa.

IGWS Research Development 
Design and administration of a three-year research project on Gender and Region funded by the Ford Foundation. Emerging out of the project’s traveling workshops, four pilot research projects are scheduled to be concluded by the end of 2010: Gender, Violence, Urban Space (Cairo, Mumbai); Labor, Gender, Migration (Morocco, Senegal, Egypt); Gender, Poverty, Economy (Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, India); Women's Rights: The Human Rights  versus Civic Rights Framework (Egypt, India). A fifth pilot project titled Sexuality as Development is currently under consideration. 

IGWS Network Development 
Extensive experience in developing and facilitating south-south academic research networks through regional workshop series.  A neoliberal lifeworlds workshop series is currently in its third year with work on a publication currently underway.

Urban Poverty Research Network 
Founder and co-coordinator (with Kamran Asdar Ali) of the Shehr Comparative Urban Landscapes Research Network. Founded in 2003 with a focus on issues of urban poverty in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, the network to date has held 10 workshops (Khartoum, Karachi, Cairo, Lahore, Istanbul) bringing together scholars, researchers and activists from the three regions.  Workshop results are published in a variety of academic fori.