Edges of Egypt

Edges of Egypt: Hanan Kholoussy, Associate Professor of History, American University in Cairo 

In this talk, Dr. Kholoussy will share her preliminary research on the history of the production and consumption of the modern beach in Egypt where beach tourism has surpassed cultural tourism in the land of the pyramids. The stark strips of sand along the Red and Mediterranean Seas have been transformed into microcosms of the nation where power and resistance are at play much more freely, fluidly, and forcefully beyond the gaze and grasp of the centralized modern state and its urban centers. For Egypt’s local and foreign populations, the beach became a significant space for cultural, sociopolitical, and economic interactions during the nineteenth century to this day. Her talk seeks to trace the history of that process – the how, when, and why of Egypt’s beach development – while asking how our understanding of the modern nation changes when viewed vis-à-vis its edges along the seas.

Hanan Kholoussy is Associate Professor of History at the American University in Cairo. She earned a joint PhD with distinction in history and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies from New York University, and a joint BS/MA degree with honors in foreign service and Arab studies from Georgetown University. She is the author of For Better, For Worse: The Marriage Crisis That Made Modern Egypt, 1898-1936 (Stanford University Press, 2010) and the co-editor, with Kristin Celello, of Domestic Tensions, National Anxieties: Global Perspectives on Marriage, Crisis, and Nation (Oxford University Press, 2016).

Co-sponsored by the Center for African Studies, the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, and the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

VISITOR INFORMATION: This event will be held in room 360 located in the McMurtry Building on Stanford campus at 355 Roth Way. Visitor parking is available nearby at the Roth Way Parking Garage. Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and hop on the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. If you need a disability-related accommodation or wheelchair access information, please contact Julianne Garcia at juggarci [at] stanford.edu (juggarci[at]stanford[dot]edu). This event is open to Stanford affiliates.

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