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Maha Bali

  • Position: Professor of Practice
  • Department: Center for Learning and Teaching
  • Email: [email protected]
Brief Biography

Maha Bali is a professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at The American University in Cairo (AUC). She has a PhD in education from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. She co-founded virtually connecting, a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences. Also, Bali is a co-facilitator of Equity Unbound; an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has also branched into academic community activities. Such activities are Continuity with CareSocially Just Academia, a collaboration with OneHE: Community-building Resources and MYFest, an innovative three-month professional learning journey. 

Research Interest
  • Critical Thinking, Critical Pedagogy
  • Higher Education
  • Faculty Development
  • Educational technology, eLearning, Digital Pedagogy
  • MOOCs, Open Education
  • Intercultural Learning
  • Community-based Learning
  • Citizenship Education
Teaching Interests
  • Teacher Education
  • Educational Technology
  • Educational Game Design
  • Digital Literacies and Citizenship
  • Intercultural Learning
  • English as a Second Language

Select peer-reviewed publications

Forthcoming Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Bali, M. (forthcoming). Inequalities in Digital Literacies. In B. Alexander, S. Becker, M. Cummis and C Hall Giesinger (eds) Digital Literacy in Higher Education, Part II: A New Media Horizon Project Strategic Brief. Volume 3.4, August 2017. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
  • Bali, M., & Mostafa, H. (forthcoming). Listen Carefully and You Will Hear: Using Creative Multimodal Assessments to Promote Student Expression. In S. Khadka & J. C. Lee (eds). Designing and Implementing Multimodal Curricula and Programs. Routledge.
  • Bali, M., & Sharma, S. (in press). Envisioning Postcolonial MOOCs: critiques and ways forward. In M. Kent and R. J. Bennett (eds). Massive Open Online Courses and Higher Education: Where to Next?
  • Bali, M., & Sharma, S. (in press). The unbearable whiteness of the digital. In D. Kim and J. Stommel (eds). Disrupting the Digital Humanities.

Non-peer-reviewed in an Academic Journal (selection)

Select trade journal publications & conference presentations

Keynotes and Invited Talks

  • Bali, M. (2016, November 30). OPEN SCHOLARSHIP AND OPEN PEDAGOGY FOR THE EGYPTIAN ACADEMIC. OpenMed event. Cairo University.
  • Bali, M. (2016, May 26). Virtual Collaborative Scholarship for Development (Featured Speaker Spotlight talk). eLearning Africa, Cairo, Egypt. Presentation available at: (2016, May 26). 
  • Bali, M., & Groom, J. (2016, May 26). Should EdTech have an ethos? Teaching technologies in a post-Snowden age (Featured presentation). AMICAL 2016, American University of Rome, Rome, Italy. Slides and video available.
  • Bali, M. (2015, September). Problematizing educational standards. Invited presentation at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. (slides)
  • Bali, M. (2015). Why & How to Flip the ClassroomNational Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation for Education Conference (invited presentation), Cairo University, Cairo, May 25, 2015.
  • Bali, M. (2015). How Open Education is Transforming Lifelong Learning. Faculty of Pharmacy Cairo University Scientific Meeting (invited presentation), Cairo University, Cairo. April 25, 2015.
  • Invited panelist, Edraak Launch ceremony, Amman, Jordan, May 2014.
  • Invited to give a seminar on Critical Citizenship for Critical Times, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, January, 2014.
  • PhD in Education, University of Sheffield, UK, 2013
  • MEd in eLearning, University of Sheffield, UK, 2006
  • BSc in Computer Science, American University in Cairo, Egypt, 2001