A conversation about journalism and research in times of uprising and repression on the fourth anniversary of Egypt's Rabaa massacre.
“I do not know if Carlo Ginzburg would agree, but I came to evaluate fear as a precious tool for fieldwork in authoritarian contexts.”
“My presence in a public space holding a notebook let alone a voice recorder or camera would cause immediate suspicion.”
Even within the narrower parameters of public spaces, debates which might lead to issues around accountability and transparency are not hugely popular in the public eye.
Giving birth to a centre for liberal arts in a popular neighborhood of Cairo, which is covered in layers of stories, sounds, movements and smells, was a deliberate choice.
Strangely, although nationalism is a pervasive social phenomenon with immense effects everywhere in the world, it’s not a central preoccupation of sociology or any of the dominant social science disciplines. Interview.
Engaging with Sadek never ceased to be a delight, a charmer who caught you with his sharpness and wit. How often have I wished to freeze that year I spent in Holland. In memoriam.
The euphoric, Bakhtinian, carnivalesque and dramaturgical moment of January 2011, which caught the attention of numerous observers and which lasted for almost four years, seems to have withered away.
