Saerom is a PhD candidate in Politics and International Relations funded by CISRUL (University of Aberdeen, UK) and holds an MA in Middle Eastern Politics (Graduate School of International Studies in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea), a BA in Business, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations (Sookmyung Women’s University, South Korea)
After completing her master thesis, “Military Defection and Public Revolts: Egypt Case Study” in 2014, Saerom started PhD research at the University of Aberdeen in October 2015. Her general research interests are political economy, state-society relations, social movements, revolution, political transitions, and ideology in the Middle East.
For her PhD research, Saerom is focusing on contentious politics surrounding the dialectical relations between the independent labor unions and the state in Egypt, and their impacts on the current political and social transitions in Egypt. Regarding this topic, Saerom will specifically ask whether workers are contingent democrats, and when and how certain state policies affect the attitudes of workers as well as their behaviors and vice versa. Among various state strategies to control working class, she is particularly interested in the role of ideological discourse.
Currently, Saerom is also working as a research member in the Arab-Transitions, which is an international research project within the FP7 program of the European Commission.
Publications
Saerom Han (2016) “The Effect of Anti-Terrorism and Social Movements in Egypt”, Journal of Global Faultlines, 3(1), 77-82.