Description:

In light of the severe crackdown in Egypt on press freedom, academic inquiry and research in general, this talk will shed light on the institutional, legal and political backdrop of this crackdown. It will also discuss the difficulties and dangers confronting academic research, with particular emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research. Finally, the talk will argue why free inquiry and academic freedom are essential for the stability and prosperity of Egypt.

Khaled Fahmy is Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge. His research interests lie in the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East. He has written on military history, history of law (shari’a), history of medicine and of public hygiene – all with an emphasis on 19th-century Egypt. His books include In Quest of Justice: Islamic Law and Forensic Medicine in Modern Egypt (2018), Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt (2008), Muhammad Ali Pasha and His Sabil (2005), The Body and Modernity: Essays in the History of Medicine and Law in Modern Egypt (in Arabic, 2004), and All the Pasha’s Men: Mehmed Ali, His Army and the Making of Modern Egypt (1997).

This event is free of charge and open to the public.