About

The Hillary Clinton Center for Women’s Empowerment (HCC) was founded in 1999 on the occasion of the then-First Lady’s commencement speech to Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. 

Since its establishment 18 years ago, the HCC has become the foremost foremost English-language center for grassroots outreach and interdisciplinary scholarship on gender and women’s rights issues in North Africa. Our scholars and scholarship focus on the contemporary and historical forces that shape current gender discourses in the region, and our outreach works to empower semi-literate women in the Middle Atlas region.

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Our Team

Dr. Doris Gray: Director of the HCC; Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at AUI; author of Between Feminism and Islamism: A Third Way for Gender Justice in Morocco

Dr. Katja Zvan-Elliott: Associate Director of the HCC; Assistant Professor with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at AUI at AUI; author of Modernizing Patriarchy: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Morocco

Dr. Driss Maghraoui: Associate Professor with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at AUI

Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi: Assistant Professor with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at AUI (currently on leave at Smith College in Massachusetts, USA)

Dr. Bozena Welborne is the HCC’s scholar in residence for Fall 2017. Dr. Welborne teaches at Smith College and is also a contributing scholar to the Women’s Rights in the Middle East Program at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Her current research considers the impact of financial globalization on women’s empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa. Welborne is also a lead author on the forthcoming book The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States (Cornell University Press).

Rachid Daoudi joined the HCC as a Project Officer in July 2017. Rachid, who has a Master’s degree in Communication from Moulay Ismail University, Meknès, has worked at AUI for over a decade and currently coordinates daily operations of the HCC.

Erin Worden is Presidential Intern. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Erin graduated from Denison University in May 2017 with degrees in English and International Studies. Erin’s undergraduate research and experiences with international development focuses on women’s experiences with forced migration.