Speaker: Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi, NYU-Abu Dhabi

About the talk:

Hosted by the South Asia From Asia Initiative, in this talk Dr. El Bernoussi will share her research on the global halal economy focuses on select halal markets, which are significant in size and their aspiration of leading halal certification and related quality standardization in the past few years. For each case, Dr. El Bernoussi systematically looks at whether China is a significant partner in the halal market and projections regarding their influence. The expansion of the halal certification process in these countries also presents a trend that is now increasingly observable in major regional markets of halal, i.e., MENA, EU and ASEAN. The paper first presents a general review of literature in social studies of halal markets and international relations of the global South relevant to the topic of the research, notably with the growing influence of China. Then, the methods section provides an overview of the actors interviewed to learn about halal certification and quality standardization, and the questions that framed the discussions and exchange with them. Lastly, the findings and analysis section concentrates on three key arguments: 1) the halal protocols suffer from a double illness: firms find them burdensome and halal certification bodies (HCBs) from different countries tend to distrust each other; 2) despite being the symbolic center of the Muslim world, MENA countries seem to lag behind in terms of heralding global efforts to unify the global halal economy; 3) even if the global halal market lacks unity in terms of its framing, its growth is triggering important advancements in terms of standardization and quality control that institutionalize consumption and production ethics and professionalize the halal market.

About the speaker:

Dr. Zaynab El Bernoussi is a scholar of dignity politics, international relations, and the global political economy. She is a visiting assistant professor of social research and public policy at New York University of Abu Dhabi. She holds a master’s in finance from Instituto de Empresa, an MPA in economic development from Columbia University, and a PhD in political and social sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain. She was a doctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a visiting scholar at Smith College and Harvard University. She is part of the executive committee of the Global South Caucus of the International Studies Association (ISA). She was a recipient of the Arab Prize in 2015 by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) for her article, “Postcolonial Politics of Dignity,” she published her first book with Cambridge University Press in 2021, and she has a forthcoming book under contract with Routledge expected in 2024. Her work focuses on South-South cooperation and human and economic development programs. In particular, she looks at Sino-Arab bilateral relations as they contribute to the halal economy. Dr. El Bernoussi did fieldwork on halal certification processes at the IMANOR in Rabat, Morocco, the Halal Academy in Cordoba, Spain, the BPJPH in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Halal Catering in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to China’s role in the halal economy, she also looks at China’s control of maritime ports in the MENA. Her website is: drzelb.wordpress.com