In this talk, Nermin Elsherif connects two research projects that were born in different disciplinary contexts both taking place in Egypt between 2016 and 2022. The first is the Other Maps of Egypt a project that was informed by her architectural and urban design training and her curiosity towards oral history. This project took different lives and forms from a written thesis to a series of workshops and installations done with the History Workshops of Egypt. The second is a doctoral project that ambitiously aimed at the beginning to ‘map’ the internet searching for alternative interpretations of the nation’s past at a moment of defeat. Yet, it ended up being a digital ethnographic exploration of the online memorials and echo chambers of statist conservative nostalgia. In this discussion, Nermin reflects on how our research questions and methodological approaches are shaped by our changing political and societal realities, and how an intellectual commitment to specific values can be formed across disciplines and research projects.
Nermin Elsherif is an Assistant Professor of Screen Cultures and Heritage Studies at Utrecht University. Trained in cultural studies, her work focuses on the relationship between the popular and the political. Nermin’s current research explores how nationalist conservative nostalgic discourses paved the way for the return of military authoritarianism in Egypt. In an earlier life, Nermin was - and perhaps still is - an urbanist. She designed spaces, maps, and books. Her interdisciplinary trajectory prompts her to occasionaly cross the lines between media studies and memory studies.
** Kindly note that this event is a non-public event for invited participants only.**
