Dr Rana Arafat

Overview

Dr. Rana Arafat is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Digital Journalism in the department of journalism at City, University of London. She is the current Director of Learning and Teaching for the Journalism Department. She is a 2025–2026 Faculty Associate at the Public Tech Media Lab, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA, and a 2025 Fellow at the Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication. She holds a PhD degree in journalism and political communication from the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) at Universita della Svizzera italiana in Switzerland (Summa cum laude, highest distinction). She is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the 2025 AEJMC Outstanding Early-Career Women Scholar Award, the 2022 AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award, the 2022 SGKM Best Dissertation Award by the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research, and the 2021 Best Dissertation Award presented by the Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division (ACSJ) in the International Communication Association (ICA). 

Before joining City University of London, she was appointed as a teaching and research assistant at the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society in Università della Svizzera italiana where she was responsible for co-teaching and co-supervising MA students’ projects. From 2013 to 2017, she worked as an assistant lecturer of journalism at the department of media in the College of Language and Communication (CLC) at the Arab Academy of Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, a leading educational institution in Egypt.

Her research agenda focuses on examining activist/advocacy journalism, conflict reporting, and journalism innovations including news gamification and the adoption of automation and AI technologies in newsrooms. Her research appears in top peer-reviewed journals including Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Studies in Communication Sciences, Convergence, and others. She is the current Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Chair of the Broadcast and Mobile Journalism (BAMJ) Division in AEJMC

Along with her solid academic track, Dr. Arafat has an eight-year experience as a journalist in many local and international newspapers and magazines. From 2012 to 2013, she worked as a full-time environment and culture reporter in Egypt Independent newspaper where she was responsible for writing daily articles about the Egyptian contemporary art scene, the latest literary works, and the important cultural events in the Arab region. From 2014 to 2018, she worked as a part-time society, arts, and culture reporter in Daily News Egypt newspaper where she was committed to writing about the latest trends in the Egyptian society's culture, lifestyle, and civil society initiatives. On the international level, she wrote for the print and online editions of the German Orange magazine, the Finnish Ilta-Sanomat newspaper, and the Swiss Saint-Gallen symposium magazine and she occasionally write for the European Journalism Observatory operated by City, University of London.

Academic Awards

•  Aug. 2026       1st Place Teaching Award, the 2026 AEJMC Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century competition, NOND and Scholastic Divisions, New Orleans, USA

•  June 2026      The 2026 Best Article Award, Intercultural Communication Division, the International Communication Association (ICA), Cape Town, South Africa

• June 2026       The 2026 Outstanding Article Award, Ethnicity and Race in Communication (ERIC) Division, the International Communication Association (ICA), Cape Town, South Africa

• July 2025       The 2025 AEJMC Linda Shockley Award for Excellence in Teaching (Champions of Editing), Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, San Francisco, USA.

• June. 2025    The 2025 Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Outstanding Early Career Woman Scholar Award, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), San Francisco, USA. 

• Mar. 2023     Transformational Research Award (Honorable Mention), the Social Justice + Media Symposium, Nevada, USA.

• Aug. 2022     AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Detroit, Michigan, USA.

• May 2022      Wolfgang Donsbach Outstanding Journal Article of the Year Award, Journalism Studies Division, the International Communication Association (ICA), Paris, France. 

• May 2022       Top Poster Award, Journalism Studies Division, the International Communication Association (ICA), France

• Apr. 2022        SACM Best Dissertation Award. The Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research, Switzerland

• May 2021        ACSJ Best Dissertation Award. Activism, Communication and Social Justice Division, the International Communication Association (ICA). 

• Aug. 2021        Top Faculty Paper (Second Place). Newspaper and Online News Division (NOND), Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)

• Apr. 2021         Top Paper Award (PhD Holder), ECREA Migrant Belongings. Digital Practices and the Everyday Conference, Utrecht University

• July 2020        The 2020 Dallas Smythe Prize, International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

• Oct.2019          Best Paper Award (Honorable Mention), European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA): Digital  Fortress Europe: Exploring boundaries between media, migration and Technology Conference, Brussels.

• Dec. 2016        Cairo University's recognition for the significant contribution to the Egyptian media scene.

  Grants and Fellowships

  2017 Recipient of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship to support PhD studies in Switzerland

  2020 Recipient of the Swiss National Science Foundation's (SNFS) Early Postdoc Mobility grant to fund postdoctoral studies in

  London.

  2019 Full grant to participate in ECREA Doctoral Summer School for media and communication in Estonia

  2018 Full grant to participate in the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut held by the American Lebanese University in

  Beirut

  2015 Full grant to participate in the Foreign Correspondents' Program organized by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Journalism and Political Communication, Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland, 2017 - 2021
• Master's degree in International Journalism, Cairo University, Egypt, 2013 - 2016

Postgraduate training

• Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, City, University of London, London, United Kingdom, 2021 - 2022

Languages

Arabic and English

Publications by category