Vivian Ibrahim completed her PhD in 2009 in the History of the Modern Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She holds a BA in History from King's College London (2002) and a MSc in the History of International Relations (2003) from the London School of Economics. Ibrahim held a one-year post-doctoral research position examining European-Muslim identities at University College Cork, Ireland. She is also currently affiliated as a research associate at the London Middle East Institute (LMEI).

Ibrahim is the author of The Copts of Egypt: Challenges of Modernisation and Identity, (I.B. Tauris, 2010) which was reviewed by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros-Boutros Ghali, as an "eloquent insight into the complexity and controversial dynamics of Egyptian inter-communal relations." She is also the co-editor of Political Leaderships, Nations and Charisma (Routledge, 2012). Other recent publications include articles in The Arab Reform Bulletin (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Fair Observer.

Her main research interests include religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, nationalism and political Islam. Ibrahim's current research project is a micro-history of Egyptian political landscape in the 1940s. She is also interested in the contemporary Middle East, regularly commentating on the Arab uprisings on the BBC and other networks.

Classes taught at the University of Mississippi include:

Undergraduate:
Inst 209: Middle Eastern Studies
Inst 315: Topics in International Studies: Revolutions in the Middle East
His 381: The Middle East since 1914
His 399: Religion and Society in the Twentieth Century Middle East

Graduate:
His 685: Readings in Egyptian History and Middle Eastern Nationalism