Digital Commons Network^™

Which Tools Can Aid The Management Of Intangible Cultural Heritage In Community Based Heritage Organizations In Cairo? A Case Study Of Shubra’S Archive, Mienke Zwemstra

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of cultural heritage management in Cairo, focusing particularly on intangible heritage and the potential benefits of digital tools in this field. It highlights the marginalization of community-based organizations in the broader narrative of heritage management in Cairo, along with the limited alignment and collaboration between local, national and international heritage institutions. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted at the Shubra’s Archive (SARD), this study identifies the challenges faced by such organizations, including the reliance on volunteers and international funding for mission implementation. It emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and collaboration with municipal and national …

Language And Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Egypt’S Housing Narratives, Maram Gamal

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of housing in Egypt is an evolving historical phenomenon intricately tied to the Egyptian identity, and deeply embedded in the social and political fabric. Common language shapes actual realities and it forms an integral part of the cultural parameters. This research is a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the housing narrative across four consecutive ruling regimes with distinct political orientations. It deploys a two-stage CDA approach. The first stage involves ideological codification of the narrative to chronologically organize them into their ideological orientations and categories. The second stage historicizes data via a dual approach, namely integrating Norman Fairclough's …

Moving Through The Violence: Yemeni Migrants And The Reconstruction Of Lifeworlds In Cairo, Jonathan Hearn

Theses and Dissertations

This Master’s thesis is based on an ethnographic study, following the lives of a small number of Yemeni people rebuilding their lives in Cairo. Their displacement is the consequence of many factors not least the outbreak of war in 2014. In response to this, I ask: In the midst of ongoing conflict, how do Yemeni migrants go about reconstructing their lifeworlds in Cairo? That is, to ask how are Yemeni migrants in Cairo responding to the violent disruption of their social realities and what sense are they making of the consequences. The reorganisation of social realities disrupted by conflict means …

Experiences Of Female Academic Leaders In Higher Education: A Case Study In Cairo, Amina Sabour

Theses and Dissertations

Such as in many contexts, the gender gap in higher education leadership persists universally. Women are still underrepresented despite the contributions they demonstrate in leading higher education institutions. This study aims to contribute to the area of research in this regard by exploring the experiences of female academic leaders in Cairo, Egypt. It specifically highlights the challenges these women face, and how they manage to overcome it. Using a qualitative approach to deeply explore the phenomenon, ten interviews were conducted with female leaders at the American University in Cairo. Looking through the lens of intersectional feminism, under the umbrella of …

Embodying Abortion: Approaches To Sexual And Reproductive Experiences Of The Cairene Youth., Ruth Morales Cosano

Theses and Dissertations

Whilst abortion in Egypt has been sorely neglected in academic literature, and highly criminalized by state institutions, women in Egypt have by no means ceased to perform it and, what is more, upon reasons that exceed any institutional or legal reasoning. The thesis stems from the need to give voice and continuity to the experiences of women who abort in Cairo. Given the almost complete lack of material showcasing this reality, this research project investigates the meaning-making process of abortion among Cairo's middle and upper classes. Understanding this construction requires studying abortion in its embeddedness in the material, social, and …

The Making And Unmaking Of Urban Citizenship In The Maspero Triangle, Nadine Abd El Razek

Theses and Dissertations

Cairo is undergoing a moment of sharpened exclusion and inclusion, with the city’s residents of informal settlements disproportionately experiencing displacement and abrupt interruptions to their social fabric to make way for investment opportunities. In pursuit of achieving the status of a global city, the Egyptian state has effectively widened its practice of structural violence, in order to accumulate capital through dispossession. In the process of doing so, the state has problematized the contested status of urban citizenship, disenfranchising the urban dwellers of Cairo from their right to the city. Following the temporal shifts in the negotiation for urban citizenship, the …

Urban Resettlement Policies In Cairo: A Case Study Of Manshaiat Nasser And Asmarat City, Roshan Abouzied

Theses and Dissertations

Egypt has a long history of urban development efforts. These efforts have provided substantial solutions in providing the urban population with adequate housing opportunities, especially those living in slum areas. However, these policies have not offered optimal solutions for all residents of informal areas, and recently governments have resorted to evictions and resettlement as one of the main strategies for removing unsafe informal areas. These strategies have had a diversity of consequences on the urban planning of cities like Cairo and repercussions on community dynamics and community social fabric. Accordingly, this thesis demonstrates the impact and reflects the consequences of …

One Space Can Put Her In A Different Place - How Do We Inhabit Spaces Differently?, Farida Youssef

Theses and Dissertations

In Egypt, a male-dominated society, women are forced to constantly negotiate with patriarchal systems. Dichotomies and paradoxes between principles governing different gendered roles, religion and cultural codes and westernization and commercialization have been continuously shaping Egyptian women’s status over the past decades. This is exhibited in public spaces, where women’s current preferences, perceptions and behavior emphasize the dominance of one gender over the other. This research aims for a better understanding of space inhabitance through a gendered lens. It questions the roles the society and the urban spaces play in the daily lives of women through examining women’s perception of …

Carving Spaces Of An Otherwise Within Urban Uncertainties On Sudanese People On The Move Creating Own Possibilities In Cairo, Iman Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

With the increased urbanization of the world since the 1940s, people continue to be increasingly moving to cities. People are attracted to the city to access services and opportunities. However, the increased presence of persons on the move in the city comes with heightened bordering, augmented policing, and the involvement of more actors in the governance of people on the move. Against this, there are debates around understanding the urban space, its risks, and opportunities for all people dealing with it, including those on the move. This thesis thus looks at the urban space in Cairo that is uncertain, wherein …

The Social World(S) Of The Scooter: Two-Wheeled Mobilities In Cairo And Alexandria, Ahmed El Serougui

Theses and Dissertations

My research project looks at the scooter as a particular type of two-wheeled motorcycle, which has shot into prominence as a specific mode of transportation used by middle class women and men in the past few years and has been notably visible in prominent Egyptian cities. This research is based on a multi-sited ethnography in Alexandria and Cairo, tracing the scooter through the urban landscape in time and space, addressing first questions related to navigating the city in times of pandemic and what kind of theory could be produced from these ordinary cities in such an extraordinary time.

This research …

Living With And Through Artificially Intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants: Subservience, Simultaneity And Surveillance In Late-Capitalist Cairo, Habiba Ahmed Elsayed

Theses and Dissertations

The global technological field has witnessed a computing shift - from focusing on human-device use to focusing on human-device ambient and social interaction. This shift is notably accompanied by a societal one that increases desire and dependency on everyday smart technologies powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. One of such growing AI-enabled technologies is the virtual personal assistant (VPA). In this project, I draw on my filed-work with my four interlocuters in Cairo with their respective VPAs, Siri and Alexa. In analyzing my experiences and observations, I focus on three main themes: subservience, simultaneity and surveillance. Examining the role …

Mustaqillat: Navigating Women's Mobilities In Post-2011 Egypt, Ghadeer Ahmed Eldamaty

Theses and Dissertations

Following the Egyptian revolution of January, the 25th, 2011, the term women's independence, istiqlal ijtma'ay, has been widely used by young Egyptian women. A mustaqilla (independent woman) identifies herself as a woman who is socio-economically independent from her family, lives on her own, and works to support herself. This thesis is concerned with the emergence of independent women, mustaqillat, as a social phenomenon, and questions how the phenomenon of istiqlal is constructed. What are its socio-economic dimensions, and associated meanings? Based on an ethnographic fieldwork with a group of Egyptian women who identify themselves as mustaqillat, this thesis focuses on …

Women, Architecture And Representation In Mamluk Cairo, Amina Karam

Theses and Dissertations

Of the hundreds of documented religious monuments of Mamluk Cairo, known for its intense and often competitive building activity, about twenty are known to be associated with women, at least ten of which still exist in some form. This thesis discusses women's participation in the Mamluk culture of patronage and construction, looking at monuments associated with women not only as a body of work but as the architecture of individual players within the larger building context of Mamluk Cairo. Relying on architectural evidence as well as topographical literature and historical sources, this thesis offers a chronological narrative of women's architecture, …

Dawsha W Al-Qāhirah: Listening To Power And Possibilities In Cairo’S Everyday, Noor Salama

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the notion of 'dawsha' (an Arabic word, indicating noise or sound out of place) as an order-word that stratifies social worlds in Cairo and marks and crystallises differences within aural taxonomies along various axes of difference and marginalisation. It also investigates dawsha as a space and a site for resistance, and for the making and unmaking of relationships in contemporary Cairo.

Unequal Citizens: Cairo Between Gated And Informal, Hend Ibrahim Muhammed Aly

Theses and Dissertations

The conception of citizenship which accompanied the emergence of the nation-state, in essence, relates to ‘a territorially bounded population with a specific set of rights and duties.’ Such a conception of citizenship assumes that all the members of the nation have exactly the same set of rights and duties. I am interested in studying Cairo. Unfortunately, it is particularly far from this normative definition of citizenship, as its citizens are not equal. For that reason, I am keen on studying citizenship in practice, as a relation between citizens and state. I argue that state practices, represented in urban planning, are …

Unequal Citizens: Cairo Between Gated And Informal, Hend Ibrahim Muhammed Aly

Theses and Dissertations

The conception of citizenship which accompanied the emergence of the nation-state, in essence, relates to ‘a territorially bounded population with a specific set of rights and duties.’ Such a conception of citizenship assumes that all the members of the nation have exactly the same set of rights and duties. I am interested in studying Cairo. Unfortunately, it is particularly far from this normative definition of citizenship, as its citizens are not equal. For that reason, I am keen on studying citizenship in practice, as a relation between citizens and state. I argue that state practices, represented in urban planning, are …

Living A Bare Life: Assembling The Everyday Of Migrant Domestic Work In Cairo, Sabrina Lilleby

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic study of work in Cairo argues that the laboring lives of migrant domestic workers in this locality are both similar and different to that of other spatial locations. Con- trary to the re-hashed representation in media, this text shows that migrant domestic workers in the Arabic speaking world are not what is often referred to as modern day slaves. Instead, I show how these workers shape and are shaped in accordance with a neoliberal govermentali- ty, through their techniques of managing their affects, bodies and actions. However, regard- less of the increasing focus on training subjects before entering …

Rethinking Cairo’S Elevated Urban Highways: Scoping Impacts And Potentials, Nermin Dessouky

Theses and Dissertations

Urban policies of the last 50 years in Egypt focused on extending and developing road networks to the extent that Egyptians used to describe it as the era of roads and bridges. From such policy came an introduction of a big number of elevated urban highways that cuts through Cairo’s urban fabric to ensure the flow of the city. Elevated urban highways are often perceived as a tool for mobility, but it introduces much more complicated impacts on the urban fabric and the communities that they pass through. While the international literature has long pointed out such impacts there is …

Farm To Fork: Cairo’S Food Supply And Distribution During The Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517), Anthony Teke Quickel

Theses and Dissertations

The wealth of Cairo’s markets throughout the Mamlūk period is well attested in the sources. From roving peddlers to stationary markets, the city’s food supply was a testament to Egypt’s agricultural bounty. This study attempts to understand the food economy that provisioned these food markets. In doing so, Egypt’s agricultural production, its transportation network, distribution system, and Cairo’s markets are discussed with a focus towards understanding both the nature of the many aspects of the Mamūk food economy as well as the changes occurring within it. In providing an overall description of the mechanisms by which the Mamlūk food economy …

Whose Downtown Is It Anyways? The Urban Transformation Of Downtown Cairo Between State And Non-State Actors, Hajer Awatta

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine how the influential state and non-state stakeholders interact, conflict and collectively shape the urban transformation of downtown Cairo. The stakeholder analysis revealed interesting positions and power levels of the influential stakeholders impacting urban transformation in downtown. It also illustrated alliances and dependencies between entities within the same stakeholder group and between state and non-state stakeholders. Collaborations between influential stakeholders in the private sector interested in establishing lobby groups to further their interests in downtown. Despite the commonalities between the interests of the state and private investors, the state prefers to maintain development …

Trickle Down This Effect: Negotiations Of Culture, Care, And Freedom In Contemporary Cairo International Schools, Anne Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to analyze the contradictions and practices of a neoliberal ethical project among a privileged class in contemporary Cairo. The growing presence and availability of international schools in Cairo has reconfigured particular aspects of culture, care, and freedom for elite subjects over the past forty years. The main research question is: how are globalized notions of well being, self-realization, and personal fulfillment transmitted through the work of neoliberal discourse and staff at international schools in Cairo. It has been identified in this thesis that certain forms of care and responsibility are tightly bound and shaped by a neoliberal …

Ngo Outreach To Priority Refugee Population Demographics In Cairo, Joelle Petrus

Theses and Dissertations

Cairo is considered to have among the highest populations of refugees in an urban setting in the world. This urban setting presents a unique set of challenges particularly when delivering services and programs to a population with heightened vulnerability who are not easy to locate within the greater population of Cairo. In this context it is of great utility to strengthen outreach programs whose aim is to strengthen the connection between service receiver (refugees) and the service provider (the organization.) Another challenge to delivering services and programs to refugees is the greater diversity or heterogeneity of the population itself. However, …