About EBHRC

EBHRC was established in early 2004 with the goal of creating a repository of primary recordings of first hand accounts to Egypt’s contemporary history with special emphasis on economic and business history. In a country rich in events and history and comparably poor in transparency and in accessibility of records, the centre perceived its task as capturing the untold history, the stories and narratives locked up in the memories of people.

The process of retrieving such memories has been both stimulating and enriching. Our technique, goals and methodology of operation has gone through a number of transformations as the list of our interviewees grew bigger and bigger; it is as if we have opened Pandora’s Box. 

 Long passed are the times when we struggled to locate a single interviewee or approach a certain candidate, since our first interview, one has led to the other, and every issue tackled unraveled dozens more behind it. We started out solely focusing on Egypt’s industrial experience from 1952-1991 and ended up tackling topics such as foreign minorities in Egypt, Family businesses, perceptions of public policy, Egyptian intellectuals and economists and much more.

Our main priorities remain the collection of primary records through conducting oral history interviews as well as the dissemination of such records through a number of venues most importantly our quarterly periodical, The Chronicles.

"The center’s oral history projects have provided all students of Egyptian history with an invaluable resource.” Prof.  Ellis Goldberg, UW,  The Chronicles, July 2006.

“Oral history may be richer source material than accessible written documents but its sources are human – and mortal. It is a delicate but unavoidable fact that the guardians of precious accounts of economic and business endeavors are in many cases in the twilight of their lives.” Mostafa Hefny, The Chronicles January 2006.

“People’s memories is the reservoir for our quest to revisit historical incidents and narrate similar historical stories and questions. Some of these memories expose a history on the margin of mainstream literature.” Dina Khalifa, The Chronicles January 2006

Our Mission Statement

History

Founding Team