Cynthia Nelson was an outstanding professor of anthropology at AUC and the founding director of the Institute of Gender and Women’s Studies. This collection of her essays, which highlight her distinguished scholarly career, is grouped under three main themes: phenomenology and the meaning of religious phenomena in Egypt; women, power, and politics in the Middle East; and the politics and ethics of location. Cynthia Nelson was the editor of the first Cairo Papers monograph in 1977: thirty years later, this issue marks her legacy to the humanistic and social scientific understanding of Egypt, a legacy balanced by the enormous institutional contributions she made to establishing feminist anthropology in Egypt. Cairo Papers Vol. 28, No. 2
Pioneering Feminist Anthropology in Egypt: Selected Writings from Cynthia Nelson
Cairo Papers Vol. 28, No. 2/3
Edited byMartina Rieker
Contributions by
Lila Abu-Lughod
Judith E. Tucker
216 pp.
14X21.5cm
ISBN 9789774160783
For sale worldwide
19.95
Lila Abu-Lughod
Related products
Beyond the Exotic
Women’s Histories in Islamic Societies
Edited by Amira al-Azhary SonbolMost manifestations, research has accepted stereotypical images of Muslim women, treating their outward such as veiling, as passive and oppressive. Muslim women have been depicted as different, and by exoticizing (orientalizing) them—or Islamic society in general—“they” have been dealt with outside of general women’s history and regarded as having little to contribute to the writing of world history or to the life of their sisters worldwide. By approaching widely used sources with different questions and methodologies, and by using new or little-used research (with much primary research), this book redresses these deficiencies. Scholars revisit and reevaluate scripture and scriptural interpretation; church records involving non-Muslim women of the Arab world; archival court records dating from the present back to the Ottoman period; and the oral and material culture and its written record, including art and architecture, oral history, textbooks, Sufi practices, and the politics of dress. By deconstructing the past, these scholars offer fresh perspectives on women’s roles and aspirations in Middle East societies. Contributors: Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Sheila S. Blair, Randi Deguilhem, Mamoun Fandy, Richard Freeland, Fatima Zohra Guechi, Nelly Hanna, Howayda al-Harithy, Mervat F. Hatem, Bernard Heyberger, Valerie J. Hoffman, Haifaa Khalafallah, Ramadan al-Khowli, Patricia Mihaly Nabti, Lisa Pollard, Mona Russell, Elyse Semerdjian, Selçuk Aksin Somel, Amira El-Azhary Sonbol, Denise A. Spellberg, Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Judith E. Tucker, Fariba Zarinebaf, Madeline Zilfi.
...read more
Paperback
562 pp.15.5X23.5cm
19.95
Bedouin, Settlers, and Holiday-Makers
Egypt’s Changing Northwest Coast
Donald P. ColeSoraya Altorki
The arid regions impose strict limits upon human existence and activity. And yet by respecting those limits, the flourishing and stable culture of these regions has for centuries been sustained. In the late twentieth century, however, forces such as modernization, globalization, and the politics and economics of nations became so great that major changes in the old ways had to take place for the sake of survival. Egypt’s northwest coast, where meager coastal rains have supported a sparse but thriving population of Bedouin, saw the arrival of settlers from the Nile Valley, accustomed to a very different way of life and production, and hordes of tourists whose “empty, silent structures” effectively turned the most productive strip of the coastal range into an artificial desert. This study documents the great accommodations that took place to ensure the arid rangelands of the northwest coast continue to be viable for the demands of human existence imposed on them. “A main thesis of this study,” the authors write, “is that change in the northwest coast of Egypt has strong parallels in other arid regions of the wider Arab world; and specific comparisons are made to change underway elsewhere—especially regarding the transformation of Arab nomadic pastoralist production to a new form of ranching, and the related changes of sedentarization and the monetization of most aspects of livelihood.”
...read more
e-book
266 pp.2 maps
14.5X23cm
9.99
This book is only available for purchase from Egypt
Copts at the Crossroads
The Challenges of Building Inclusive Democracy in Egypt
Mariz TadrosIn the light of the escalation of sectarian tensions during and after Mubarak’s reign, the predicament of the Arab world’s largest religious minority, the Copts, has come to the forefront. This book poses such questions as why there has been a mass exodus of Copts from Egypt, and how this relates to other religious minorities in the Arab region; why it is that sectarian violence increased during and after the 2011 Revolution, which epitomized the highest degree of national unity since 1919; and how the new configuration of power has influenced the extent to which a vision of a political order is being based on the principles of inclusive democracy. The book examines the relations among the state, the Church, Coptic citizenry, and civil and political societies against the backdrop of the increasing diversification of actors, the change of political leadership in the country, and the transformations occurring in the region. An informative historical background is provided, and new fieldwork and statistical data inform a thoughtful exploration of what it takes to build an inclusive democracy in post-Mubarak Egypt.
...read more
Paperback
320 pp.15X23cm
24.95
Arab Regional Women’s Studies Workshop
Cairo Papers Vol. 20, No. 3
Cynthia NelsonSoraya Altorki
The proceedings of the Arab Regional Women’s Studies Workshop held at the American University in Cairo in May 1997. Among the theoretical and practical issues discussed are: the importance of introducing gender studies in order to achieve social equality in the Arab World, rethinking political and research priorities in order to give more attention to gender issues, and comparing gender programs in some Arab countries.
...read more
Paperback
148 pp.15X23cm
19.95