- Faculty of Arts - Cairo University
- (+2)(0)122 344 1334
- fspc@popular-culture.org
About us
- Overview
- Research Partners
- Sponsors
The massive political upheavals witnessed not only throughout the Arab region, but also in various parts of the world for the past few years have been strongly allied with widespread and dynamic social and cultural transformations. These transformations, as is evident, engage untraditional actors who operate rather independently of state institutions, and who are intent on reclaiming both the public space and their own means of representation, which authoritarian regimes had long confiscated.
One side of this representation is reflected in the field of popular cultural practices, and is manifest in the outpouring of popular and alternative cultural and artistic production, such as citizen journalism, graffiti, community music, street cinema, digital forms of expression, to name only a few. This forum aims at promoting research in the field of popular culture regionally and internationally. For this end, it seeks to create a network that would facilitate the exchange of expertise among scholars in the field of popular culture, and to encourage and sponsor young researchers from Egypt and the Arab region who opt for studying this under-researched field.
Our interdisciplinary approach to the study of popular culture has brought us in constructive collaboration with various research institutions and projects around the world. This collaboration is reflected in the exchange of academic knowledge and practical expertise, which also allows for a strong comparative endeavour to develop. We are in the process of developing our collaboration with research institutes and initiatives that are undertaking the study of popular culture from various scholarly perspectives.
We are collaborating in research with:
– Research Council UK and University of Kent UK. Project: “Citizen Academia Network”.
– Department of Islamic Studies at Centre for Near- and Middle-Eastern Studies at University of Marburg, Germany.Project: “Popular Culture and Post-Islamist Lifestyles Politics”.
– Centre of Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO) Berlin. Project: “Spaces of Participation: Topographies of Political and Social Change in Morocco, Egypt, and Palestine”
This projects is financed through a grant from the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
For details, see
http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/humboldt-alumni-award-initiatives-2013.html