Event

This event has passed. A recording of the first part and subsequent Q&A can be found here: Adventures in the Archives: Part I.

Join us on Thursday, September 30th, 2021 by Zoom, at 11am EDT, for the first of a two-part series of the Modern Egyptian Studies Forum, called “Adventures in the Archives.” Building on the momentum of our events this past Spring, we will meet again while trying something new: a panel discussion about Egyptian archival and library sources, including practical tips, resources, and political implications of access. Three scholars will join us: Lucia Carminati, Michael Akladios, and Roberta (“Robin”) Dougherty.  To receive the Zoom link for this event, you must pre-register.

Lucia Carminati of Texas Tech University will discuss Dar al-Watha’iq in Cairo. She will draw upon her 2019 article from the journal Rethinking History, entitled, “Dead Ends in and out of the Archive: an Ethnography of Dar al-Watha’iq al-Qawmiyya, the Egyptian National Archive.” If you would like to read Lucia’s article in advance, here is the DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2018.1494933

Michael Akladios, from the University of Toronto, Mississauga, will discuss the organization that he has founded in Toronto, called Egypt Migrations, which evolved from an earlier venture known as the Coptic Canadian History Project. As a not-for-profit educational, community outreach, and archival organization, Egypt Migrations includes a digital repository to preserve and promote the history and memory of Egypt’s migrant populations, through the collection of oral histories and other materials. See https://egyptmigrations.com

Roberta (“Robin”) Dougherty is the Librarian for Middle East Studies & Librarian for African Studies (interim) in the Yale University Library. She is also president of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA). She will discuss current trends, opportunities, and limitations of access vis-à-vis printed and digital library resources. For this event, Robin will focus on Egypt and especially Arabic materials, though she collects sources for Yale in Turkish, Persian, and other languages as well.

After these short presentations, we will open the floor. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask the panelists questions or to share practical advice regarding research on Egypt, or information on new and exciting, or known but underused sources.

The Modern Egyptian Studies Forum is an online event series and scholarly community dedicated to the study of modern Egypt. Events organized by the Forum have included book talks, thematic conversations, and discussions on archival access, pedagogy, and publishing. It welcomes scholars at various career stages, from graduate students to emeritus professors. For recordings of recent events see Events. Its sponsor is the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) at the University of Pennsylvania.

As always, if there is someone that you think should join us in this event, please write to Weston Bland (wbland@sas.upenn.edu). We will be happy to invite them, if we have not done so already.