Alaa Bakeer

Biography

Alaa Bakeer currently serves as the Director of the Technical Office of the Museums Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA), where she oversees strategic coordination, policy development, and follow-up of national museum projects across Egypt, in addition to coordinating and monitoring external and loan exhibitions. In this capacity, she works closely with the leadership of the Museums Sector to support decision-making processes, prepare sectoral reports, review museum-related proposals, and ensure the alignment of technical, administrative, and developmental initiatives with the ministry’s broader vision.

Alaa is also a PhD researcher specialising in Islamic Art and Archaeology, with academic interests focusing on material culture, scientific approaches to Islamic artefacts, and the integration of heritage research into museum practice. She published her first academic paper on Silver Hallmarks as Archaeological Presumptions for Dating and Attributing Silver Artifacts, which she presented at the International Conference of Arab Archaeologists in 2018. She continues to work on research projects that contribute to the growing field of Islamic archaeology and museology.

Before assuming her current post, Alaa served as Head of the Education Department at the Royal Carriages Museum, where she designed creative educational programmes and developed learning strategies aimed at strengthening public engagement, particularly for children and families. She organised workshops, lectures, guided tours, community events and thematic museum activities to build stronger connections between visitors and the museum’s collections. Her responsibilities also included organising exhibitions, coordinating with the scientific research department, supporting the museum’s marketing efforts, preparing monthly achievement reports, and maintaining the museum’s digital outreach.

Alaa began her career as a curator at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, where she joined the International Training Programme (ITP) in 2014. At the time, the museum was undergoing extensive restoration following the January 2014 explosion. Her participation in the ITP allowed her to gain valuable experience in museum display, conservation storage, digital databasing, and fundraising—knowledge that contributed to the museum’s redevelopment as a world-class institution.

She has participated in several international professional programmes, including a museology scholarship in Germany organised by the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (2015), and the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting (Phoenix, Arizona, 2018), She also oversaw the follow-up of the Supreme Council of Antiquities’ exhibitions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2022 and 2025.

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2014, Alaa was based in the Department of Egypt and Sudan and her partner placement was spent at Birmingham Museums Trust.

In 2014 participants were asked to prepare a project outlining an exhibition proposal based on the Asahi Shimbun Displays – a temporary exhibition in Room 3 at the British Museum.  Alaa’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Revealing the Mystery of Amulets in the Islamic World.

Alaa’s place on the programme was generously supported by the Barakat Trust.