Annual History Seminar

Each spring semester, the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations hosts an annual history seminar. Established in the early nineties, the seminars initially served the department’s graduate students, but have since expanded to include young historians from national universities throughout Egypt. Today, attendance at the annual history seminar at AUC regularly includes graduate students from universities in Alexandria, Benha, Zagazig, Mansura, and Suhag. The annual history seminar also attracts European, American and Japanese scholars residing in Cairo, and who are keen on expanding their research and knowledge.

Over the years, the annual history seminar has become one of Cairo’s cultural landmarks, and a prominent forum providing young scholars with inspiring intellectual and social discourse. During the three-day seminar, young scholars have a chance to present and receive feedback on their research, engage in discussions with faculty from various universities within Egypt and abroad, and expand their intellectual horizons. The seminar encourages a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of Egyptian and Arab history through a focus on literary analysis and revisions of social, economic and cultural histories.

For the upcoming round of the Annual History Seminar (22-24 March 2012) click here

Previous sessions have focused on the following topics:

• A Reconsideration of the Economic History of the Middle East, co-organized with the European Science Foundation (February, March and May 1997)
• Reconsiderations in the Economic History of the Middle East, co-organized with European Science Foundation, The Individual and Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World (February, March, May and June 1998)
• Making a Living: Between the Possible and the Impossible (26-28 February 1999)
• Control, Mobility and Self-Fulfillment: Learning and Culture in Egypt since the Middle Ages (13-15 April 2000)
• Khassa and ‘Amma: Elite and Commoners in Egyptian History (14-16 March 2002)
• The Marginalized in History and Society (20-22 February 2003)
• Families and Households in History (18-20 March 2004)
• The Uses of Waqf: Pious Endowments, Founders and Beneficiaries (17-19 March 2005)
• Food for Thought: Cuisine, Culture, Politics and Society (20-22 March 2008)
• Reading and Books in Arab History (26-28March 2009)
• The Historian’s Craft: Official and Popular Historical Narratives of Egypt and the Arab world since the Middle Ages [Session In Memory of Mohamed Hakim (1962-2007)]( 18-20 March 2010)
• Craftsmen and Labour in Medieval and Modern Egyptian History [Session In Memory of Professor Raouf Abbas (1939-2008)] (24-26 March 2011)

Publications

Some of the papers presented at previous sessions have been published in:

Nelly Hanna (ed.), The State and its Servants: Administration in Egypt from Ottoman Times to the Present (AUC Press, 1995).

Nelly Hanna (ed.), Money, Land and Trade : An Economic History of the Muslim Mediterranean (I.B. Tauris, 2002).

Pascale Ghazaleh (ed.), Held in Trust: Waqf in the Islamic World (AUC Press, 2011).