Julia Elyachar

Julia Elyachar is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, affiliated with the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Her work bridges political economy, social theory, and Middle Eastern Studies, with a focus on Egypt and former Yugoslav nations. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has held positions at institutions including UC Irvine and NYU. Elyachar's research examines neoliberalism’s impact on economic practices, social infrastructure, and resistance movements, particularly in Cairo. Her award-winning book Markets of Dispossession critiques development policies that dispossess marginalized communities. She has also explored financialization, Ottoman debt, and embodied sovereignty in post-revolutionary contexts.

• Education: B.A. (Economics) Barnard College; M.A./Ph.D. (Anthropology & Middle Eastern Studies) Harvard University
• Affiliations: Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Near Eastern Studies Department

Her research interests include NGO dynamics, infrastructure theory, and the anthropology of finance. Recent work focuses on colonial legacies in Cairo’s financial systems and post-revolutionary urban politics. Awards include the Sharon Stephens First Book Prize (2007). Elyachar’s interdisciplinary approach integrates ethnography with historical analysis, addressing global economic crises and grassroots resistance strategies.