Date: October 6, 2013
We have started collaboration with Citizen Academia Network (CAN) UK, which is part of Research Council UK’s project: Global Uncertainties: Security for all in a Changing World. Particularly within this framework, we are collaborating with the programme “Imagining the Common Ground” coordinated by Dr. Caroline Rooney of the University of Kent UK (School of English)
http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/research/commonground/index.html
One of the first results of this collaboration will be our upcoming joint workshop in May 2014. For more details, please refer to “Upcoming Events”
We have started collaboration with Citizen Media Initiative at University of Manchester, coordinated by Dr. Mona Baker, School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures.
Several members of our team participated in the international workshop “Popular Culture and Resistance in the Middle East” organised by Centre for Near-and Middle Eastern Studies at University of Marburg- Germany (December 6-7, 2103).
The workshop explored contesting conceptions of ‘popular culture’ as well as strategies and methodologies derived from various disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, history, media studies, politics, among others. The workshop was convened by Pierre Hecker, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and author of Turkish Metal: Music, Meaning, and Morality in a Muslim Society.
The first workshop organized by Forum for the Study of Popular Culture (FSPC) was held between May 10th-11th 2014. The workshop focused on Egypt and the Arab region, exploring the conflict between state/official institutions and emerging new actors who seek to disrupt established social and political hierarchies.
The keynote speech was delivered by Tariq Ali, writer and filmmaker, whose talk tackled the issue of democracy and contemporary capitalism. A wide array of scholars from different parts of the world presented at the workshop, tackling issues of citizenship, mobility, transformation, everyday cultural practices and the re-appropriation of space, among other topics.
The workshop was concluded by a special session featuring Egyptian artist Mustafa Said. Said presented about Arabic music between the past and the present and followed this by a solo oud performance.
The workshop took place at the British Council in Egypt. It was sponsored by Forum for the Study of Popular Culture, Global Uncertainties Program, a Research Councils-sponsored program in the United Kingdom, and the British Council in Egypt.
Between February 21st to 23rd, Azzurra Sarnataro, PhD researcher at La Sapienza University of Rome gave a workshop titled “Methodologies of Research in the Social Sciences”. The workshop was hosted by the British Council in Egypt and was given to junior researchers in the Spaces of Participation Program as well as other interested researchers. The workshop covered a variety of topics and issues related to social sciences research such as definitions of social sciences (sociology, anthropology and ethnology) qualitative and quantitative research methods, how to choose between them and the specific steps to be followed when conducting such research. The workshop was concluded with reflections on the specific research projects that the juniors were conducting. The Forum would like to thank Azzurra Sarnataro for her efforts and the British Council in Egypt for hosting this important 3-day event.
Dr. Anne Grune, researcher and lecturer of Comparative Cultural and Media Studies at Erfurt University in Germany gave a 3-day workshop on research in media and communication to the junior researchers at the Spaces of Participation Program. Special thanks to the Women and Memory Forum in Egypt for hosting this event between March 2nd to March 4th.
The workshop covered a variety of topics related to qualitative research in the media, including the basics of this kind of research, data collection and analysis in the field of media, ethical concerns and issues and the role of the researcher. The final session of the workshop was an open discussion of each individual researcher’s project and how it could benefit from principles of qualitative research.
FSPC would like to thank Dr. Grune for her efforts and looks forward to more meaningful future cooperation.