Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Mode...

Theatrical stages often mirror the intricate evolution of the societies that build them. Professor Carmen Gitre explores the burgeoning performance culture of Cairo between 1867 and 1930. This era witnessed a shift from street storytelling and shadow plays to formal theater house ...  Show more

For centuries, the Arab and Muslim worlds led humanity in scientific discovery, establishing a culture where faith served as an inspiration rather than an obstacle to empirical research. The conversation with astrophysicist Dr. Nidhal Guessoum explores that profound intellectual ...  Show more

Andrew Simon, a historian of media, popular culture, and the Middle East at Dartmouth College, discusses his new book Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2022) , with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. Media of the Masses is an engagi ...  Show more

It is now just over a decade since protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square started Egypt's chapter in the events of the Arab Spring. Much has been made in western criticism of art and culture's role in the revolution, but the everyday cultural production of studio artists, graffiti art ...  Show more

Yasser Elsheshtawy – adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia’s GSAPP and non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington – joins us on the Tasmeem Doha podcast to talk about his keynote speech from the conference “(Re)Constructing Urban Spaces: Unearthin ...  Show more

A captivating conversation with theater director and playwright Laila Soliman about theater, cultural discourse and decolonization across the Arab world. Using three of her major works – Zigzag, La Grande Maison and her first opera Woman at Point Zero – as reference, we discuss w ...  Show more