While a post-Brexit United Kingdom continues to struggle with xenophobia and anxieties about the Arab/Muslim diaspora, a new hero has emerged in the country’s most popular sport. He’s wildly talented, he’s from Egypt, and he’s Muslim. Known as “The Pharaoh”, “The Egyptian King”, and even the “Egyptian Messi”, 25-year-old Mohamed …
Read More »BOOK EXCERPT | Online Activism in the Middle East: Political Power and Authoritarian Governments from Egypt to Kuwait
25 January—Tahrir Square Freedom—Facebook Does the Internet facilitate social and political change, or even democratization, in the Middle East? The subject of this inquiry is the use of online platforms among activists in the Middle East, and the importance of such platforms in effecting change. The topic has received wide …
Read More »Media and Politics: An Arab Media & Society Symposium
The Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted a symposium on “Media and Politics” on Wednesday, May 24, 2017. The symposium, which brought together professors specialized in multiple scholarly disciplines, senior journalists, …
Read More »DMC TV Network Takes Over
DMC TV network started broadcasting its long list of television programs and series in Egypt on January 14, establishing itself as a major player in the Arab media landscape. So far, little information has been made available clarifying leadership structure and budget, however based on the quality and diversity of programming, …
Read More »FILM REVIEW | Revolution from a Farmer’s Perch – A Review of I Am The People
Anna Rousillion’s feature documentary I Am the People follows Farraj and his family through four tumultuous years in Egyptian history, beginning just before revolution and chronicling their lives in its aftermath. Farraj, the film’s protagonist, is a wiry farmer in the southern province of Luxor, who earns a living tilling …
Read More »State Control Over Film Production in Egypt
This essay is part of an ethnographic study of Egyptian film production conducted between August 2013 and September 2015. The study is centered on participant observation within two main film companies, New Century Film Production and Al-Batrik Art Production, in addition to interviews conducted with key actors in the industry …
Read More »Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt
On November 21, 2016, the Middle East Centre of St Antony’s College, Oxford hosted the roundtable and launch of Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt: Media, Intellectuals and Society (London: I.B.Tauris, 2016) with myself and Morgan Clarke (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford) who is a social anthropologist …
Read More »Revolutionary Art or “Revolutonizing Art”? Making Art on the Streets of Cairo
In an article published on December 17, 2014, Surti Singh, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo (AUC), wrote that “a new set of questions is crystallizing about the role of art in contemporary Egypt” and posed the following questions: “Can art still preserve the revolutionary …
Read More »FILM REVIEW | Pressurized Conflict Laid Bare in Clash
Eshtebak (Clash) defies convenient stereotypes of heroes and villains. There are no comfortable answers, and there is no feel-good storyline; it is unapologetically raw and gritty. Clash compels audiences to doubt their perceptions of conflict and political antagonism, a vexing challenge for an Egyptian public accustomed to propagandist narratives on …
Read More »Egypt Court Postpones Rabaa Dispersal Trial
August 9, 2016—The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned the “Rabaa Dispersal” trial until September 6 during today’s court session. Among the nearly 740 defendants are Egyptian photographer Shawkan and important Muslim Brotherhood figures.
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