Biography
Aisha Bilkhair is a columnist, lecturer and Research Advisor at the National Archives, Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Abu Dhabi. She is an expert in oral history, ethnographic studies and the African Diaspora. Her chief research interests are cross-cultural studies, women, youth and the transformation of identity.
Her biweekly column and published articles span topics from cross-cultural dialogue to the evolution of women’s education in the United Arab Emirates. She is the first Arab woman to represent Asia, including the Middle East, in the International Oral History Association (IOHA) and the first UAE national appointed as a country liaison in the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM). She is a graduate of the UAE Government Leadership Program, Executive Leaders.
She is a member of several international associations and committees, among them the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation Committee, American Oral History Association, GCC Society for History and Archaeology, and Arab History Society.
Bilkhair was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (2006) and holds a bachelor’s degree in filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute (1985), a master’s degree in ethnic studies from San Francisco State University (1995) and a PhD in Arab Gulf studies from the University of Exeter (2004).
Born in 1959 in Dubai, Bilkhair currently lives and works in Abu Dhabi.
SAF participation:
March Meeting 2019
