Sarah Smierciak is currently a lecturer at the University of Oxford, where she completed her PhD in Middle East Studies and researched business-state relations in Egypt. She is fluent in Arabic and completed her field work in Cairo, working to develop a curriculum for orphans and street children in a special school recognized by the United Nations. Smierciak is also a triathlete and has published articles on social justice, as well as serving as a docent on Egyptian art at Chicago’s Field Museum.