Safa Joudeh

Safa Joudeh is a teaching fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS University if London, where she delivers teaching on several modules in the interdisciplinary field of global political economy.  Safa is currently a researcher at Mapping Connections: China and Contemporary Development in the Middle East.  Her research interests include global economic governance, Global Production Networks, knowledge transmission, spatial planning, South-South relations and China’s relationship with Africa and the Middle East 

Safa’s research project focuses on the political economy of China’s global infrastructure megaprojects under the Belt and Road Initiative.   Specifically, her research examines the role of connectivity driven infrastructure in China’s rise as a development actor in the Middle East, and the implications of Chinese infrastructure deployment for host countries.  In particular she explores emerging forms of investment and revenue streams associated with China’s maritime and industrial infrastructure development in Egypt and the Arab Gulf, and their associated politics.  The themes covered in Safa’s research project include spatial planning, Global Value Chain industrialisation, land rentierism and China-Middle East relations. 

Safa received her PHD from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. Her doctoral research, at the intersection of critical policy studies, global political economy and critical economic geography, examines the spatial planning policies that are shaping the global economy and the contemporary spatial economic order.  Her thesis focuses specifically on the role of global development models in Chinese policy transfer in the context of China’s Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones in Africa.  Her doctoral research also explores implications of paradigm maintenance in Chinese cooperation zones for understanding the impact of Chinese manufacturing investments on the continent.   

Safa was awarded the Civil Society Scholar Award by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) to complete her PhD research, and received the Political Economy of State Business-Relations and of Growth in the MENA region (Phase II) research grant from the Economic Research Forum to conduct fieldwork in the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Egypt.  Her research interests include Global Production Networks, global economic governance, knowledge transmission, spatial planning, and South-South relations.   

Safa holds an MA in Public Policy from State University of New York at Stonybrook.  She previously worked as a risk analyst advising government and private sector clients on security, political and geopolitical developments impacting investment operations in Egypt and the MENA region.