Biography

Nagla Rizk is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the American University in Cairo's School of Business. Nagla’s area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on governance of responsible data and Artificial Intelligence, fair work in the platform economy, innovation, gender and inclusion in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Her authored works include “Artificial Intelligence and Inequality in the Middle East” in the Oxford Handbook of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2020) and the “Sate of Open Data in the Middle East and North Africa” in The State of Open Data, Histories and Horizons (2019)

Nagla leads the MENA Hub for Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network, the North Africa hub of the Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR), and the Egypt team within the Fairwork project, led by the Oxford Internet Institute.

She is a faculty associate at Harvard’s Bekman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Affiliate Faculty at Harvard Law School’s CopyrightX course and an Affiliated Fellow of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. She is also Associate Member at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society. She founded the Open Data for Development Node for the Middle East and North Africa.

Rizk is member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association, a founding member of the Access to Knowledge Global Academy and member of the steering committee of the Open African Innovation Research Project (Open A.I.R). She wrote the National Strategy for Free and Open Source Software in Egypt.

Nagla is a member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Global Index on Responsible Artificial Intelligence and the Global Academic Network of the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP). She has a record of membership in several other international committees and organizations. Examples include the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, the Paris Peace Forum Digital Rights in Society Working Group on Algorithmic Governance, the Scientific Advisory Committee of Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network, the Open for Good Alliance, Inclusive AI commons. and the Data Governance Working Group of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI).

Nagla also has a record of policy impact in Egypt in the area of open source technologies, regulation of ride sharing and advocacy for the right to information. She sits on the Technical Secretariat of Egypt’s National Council for Artificial Intelligence and is a major contributor to Egypt’s AI Strategy. She also served as the Knowledge Economy Expert for Egypt’s Vision 2030 Development Strategy.

Nagla served as visiting Professor at Columbia University, Yale Law School and the University of Toronto, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. At AUC, she served as the Chair of the Department of Economics and the School of Business Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. She received her PhD in economics from McMaster University in Canada, and her MA and BA in economics from AUC.