Nevine Nizar Zakaria Hasan

Biography

Nevine Nizar Zakaria is a museum professional and academic lecturer with over 20 years of experience in the museum field. She currently holds the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Museology and Cultural Studies at Würzburg University in Germany (2021-2024). Her research projects on cultural accessibility and social inclusion in museums have been instrumental in driving change in the museums of Egypt to embrace the concerns of human rights, social inclusion, and the diversity of communities and become more inclusive spaces for everyone.

Prior to her Post-Doctoral Fellowship, she worked as Assistant to the Minister of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) for the Development of Visitors Services at Museums and Archaeological Sites (2021) and Assistance to the MoTA’s Minister for Museum Exhibition Affairs (2018-2021) where she provided support and technical advice for upgrading the MoTA’s museums and improving their displays. She supervised both permanent and temporary exhibitions and took an active role in implementing various museum projects at MoTA. These included the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), Egypt’s Capital Museum (ECM), Sharm El-Sheikh Museum, and Hurghada Museum, among others. Additionally, she had a significant impact on the field by creating policies, guidelines for visitor accommodations, terminological lexicons, and a House -Style for MoTA’s museums for the first time.

Starting her career as a researcher at the Centre of Documentation and Studies on Ancient Egypt in 2001. She later became a curator at the Archaeological Studies and Exhibitions Content Department of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) from 2004 to 2011, where she contributed to research and curatorial briefs that outlined the key stories as a framework for the chronological history of the GEM. In 2012, she became the Head of the Text Writing Team, while in 2015, she was promoted to the Director of the Museum Exhibition and Research Department of the GEM, overseeing curatorial tasks, exhibition galleries, and the database’s archeological contents. In 2016, she supervised the institutional development plan for the Gayer-Anderson Museum and increased its engagement with the community. Despite juggling a professional career in the museum field since 2001, she successfully earned both her MA and Ph.D. in Egyptology.

Having represented Egypt in international conferences across the United States and Europe, Nevine gained hands-on experience and was exposed to best practices in museology and cultural heritage.

Since 2015, she has been a lecturer at several universities, including Helwan University (Egypt), Würzburg and Brandenburg of Technology Universities (Germany), and Sharjah University (UAE), where her expertise and knowledge support teaching the museology curriculums.

Her current publication works are two distinguished research projects with Routledge publisher. These include a chapter in the “Routledge Handbook of Museum and Heritage Education,” part of the Routledge Handbooks on Museums, Galleries, and Heritage series, and two chapters in “The Accessibility Spectrum: Moving from Access to Inclusion within Museums.”

At the British Museum
During her time on the International Training Programme in 2012, Nevine was based in the Department of Egypt and Sudan and her partner placement was spent at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Newcastle.

In 2012 an element of the programme was a series of presentations, in which participants presented a 10-minute illustrated talk, prompted by the task to consider a new display at the British Museum. Nevine’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Nursing Mothers: A Visual Guide from Ancient Egypt.

Nevine’s place on the ITP was generously supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.

Legacy Projects
In April 2018 Nevine attended an Egyptian ITP Fellow reunion held at the British Embassy in Cairo.

In November 2015 Nevine attended the ITP Mumbai Workshop Creating Museums of World Stories. The workshop was held at CSMVS and was attended by many ITP fellows from different years and countries, UK partners and British Museum Colleagues.

ITP Newsletter Publications
ITP Newsletter Issue 1 (2013), Bulletin Board
ITP Newsletter Issue 1 (2013), Museum profiles: The Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo
ITP Newsletter Issue 2 (2015), Collections in focus: Writing palette of Tutankhamun
ITP Newsletter Issue 2 (2015), Legacy projects and cascade training: The essence of ITP
ITP Newsletter Issue 9 (2022) The Hindu Palace and the Exhibition of Heliopolis, City of the Sun