Faculty Book Chapters

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  Refashioning the Shari‘a Courts in the Semi-colonial Period

  Hanan Kholoussy

  This paper uses the recently unearthed Egyptian court registers of the revamped Islamic religious (shari‘a) legal system to explore the ways in which men and women understood their legal rights and duties in marriage, divorce, and the family during a wave of legal reforms between 1897 and 1931. It examines a sample of personal status cases filed in the Cairo Shari‘a Court in order to situate them within the widespread press debates over the role the completely reorganized and revamped—albeit more bureaucratized and hierarchical—Islamic courts should play. This paper argues that they resulted in a comprehensive transformation that centralized, formalized, and enlarged the role these courts played in the familial and national lives of Egyptians. This paper not only reflects on the use of shari‘a records as a source for both legal and social history but also argues that scholars of the courts must transcend the theoretical and methodological divide between academic works that rely primarily on periodicals, and hence marginalize the illiterate masses, and those that make use of court records and rarely situate their litigants and personnel beyond the walls of the courtroom. By merging court records with press sources, this paper aims to produce a more nuanced conceptualization of early twentieth-century Egyptian history while also demonstrating discrepancies as well as convergences between legal practices and social perceptions of marriage and family, on the one hand, and the law, the courts, and the state, on the other hand.

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  Advertising in the Age of Ad-Blockers

  Hesham O. Dinana

  In the new VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world that consumers live in, there are new rules that will reshape all elements of advertising. Many shifts need to be studied and analyzed. These include issues such as consumer migration to the new on-line digital platforms, the changing consumer viewing behaviors, and interaction with content. Advertisers as well as advertising agencies are reshaping their business models and their understanding of the industry future. This chapter will explore the impact of technology, data proliferation, and omni-channel customer touchpoints on how organizations will manage advertising and consumer communication strategies. The author will review the opportunities provided by technology for advertisers to get insights about the digital-age consumer and the threats due to the control tools that consumers can use such as ad-blockers. This chapter will review the impact of ad-blockers on digital ad ecosystem and measures taken by advertisers to fight against them.

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  Neoplatonist Echoes in Modern Arabic Poetry: The Case of Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar

  Ferial J. Ghazoul

  The article presents an overview of the impact of Neoplatonism and Sufism on modern Arabic poetry. It addresses specifically the example of the Egyptian poet Muḥammad ʿAfīfī Maṭar (1935-2010) and the correspondence of his poetic universe with that of Plotinus. As a student and later an instructor of philosophy, Maṭar was influenced by his mentor ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī who had edited the Arab Plotinus. Maṭar’s poetic collections, interviews, and memoir point to his Neoplatonist and Sufi drive through references, allusions, and subtexts. In Maṭar’s visionary ascension in the poem Qirāʾa (Recital), Qur’anic phrases intersect with philosophical motifs of Plotinus’s Enneads

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  Translation and North African Letters

  Tahia Khaled Gamal Abdel Nasser

  The chapter examines the traffic between Arabic, English and French, on one hand, and between North African and Latin American literatures, on the other. Examining translation and North African letters, the chapter focuses on South-South cultural transactions by way of Arabic-Latin American literary flows.

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  The Culture Police: Manning the barricades of allowable art and culture

  Ramy Aly

  In this chapter I look at the history and ontology of censorship in Egypt from the Monarchical era to the present. I focus on the post-1952 era and how a tutelary state culture has been deployed as part of a broader cultural militarism. The chapter also covers the legislative architecture that has ensured a stranglehold on the part of syndicates and the creation of a broad range of crimes associated with art and culture production and exhibition.

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  Chapter 5. The marginalization of the small peasantry: Egypt and Tunisia

  Habib Ayeb

  Habib Ayeb Late in 2010 and early in 2011 unexpected political events took place in the southern Mediterranean. Popular uprisings ended two particularly tough and inflexible dictatorships. The first of these was in Tunisia, where Ben Ali escaped after his regime collapsed on 14 January 2011 after twenty-three years of exclusive power. The second was the Egyptian dictatorship, which ended one month later with the resignation of its head, Hosni Mubarak. He had been in power since 1981. In both cases, the end of dictatorship was a real political surprise as observers did not expect it. With hindsight we can see a relationship between these great political upheavals and broader political struggles in both countries in the preceding three years. These included the two most important protests in the mining region of Gafsa in south-west Tunisia, from January to June 2008, and those of Mahalla Al-Kobra in the Nile Delta.

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  Chapter 5. The marginalization of the small peasantry: Egypt and Tunisia

  Habib Ayeb

  Habib Ayeb Late in 2010 and early in 2011 unexpected political events took place in the southern Mediterranean. Popular uprisings ended two particularly tough and inflexible dictatorships. The first of these was in Tunisia, where Ben Ali escaped after his regime collapsed on 14 January 2011 after twenty-three years of exclusive power. The second was the Egyptian dictatorship, which ended one month later with the resignation of its head, Hosni Mubarak. He had been in power since 1981. In both cases, the end of dictatorship was a real political surprise as observers did not expect it. With hindsight we can see a relationship between these great political upheavals and broader political struggles in both countries in the preceding three years. These included the two most important protests in the mining region of Gafsa in south-west Tunisia, from January to June 2008, and those of Mahalla Al-Kobra in the Nile Delta.

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  Marginalisation of Egypt's Small Farmers

  Habib Ayeb

  Habib Ayeb Late in 2010 and early in 2011 unexpected political events took place in the southern Mediterranean. Popular uprisings ended two particularly tough and inflexible dictatorships. The first of these was in Tunisia, where Ben Ali escaped after his regime collapsed on 14 January 2011 after twenty-three years of exclusive power. The second was the Egyptian dictatorship, which ended one month later with the resignation of its head, Hosni Mubarak. He had been in power since 1981. In both cases, the end of dictatorship was a real political surprise as observers did not expect it. With hindsight we can see a relationship between these great political upheavals and broader political struggles in both countries in the preceding three years. These included the two most important protests in the mining region of Gafsa in south-west Tunisia, from January to June 2008, and those of Mahalla Al-Kobra in the Nile Delta...

• 

  Marginalisation of Egypt's Small Farmers

  Habib Ayeb

  Habib Ayeb Late in 2010 and early in 2011 unexpected political events took place in the southern Mediterranean. Popular uprisings ended two particularly tough and inflexible dictatorships. The first of these was in Tunisia, where Ben Ali escaped after his regime collapsed on 14 January 2011 after twenty-three years of exclusive power. The second was the Egyptian dictatorship, which ended one month later with the resignation of its head, Hosni Mubarak. He had been in power since 1981. In both cases, the end of dictatorship was a real political surprise as observers did not expect it. With hindsight we can see a relationship between these great political upheavals and broader political struggles in both countries in the preceding three years. These included the two most important protests in the mining region of Gafsa in south-west Tunisia, from January to June 2008, and those of Mahalla Al-Kobra in the Nile Delta...

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  Locating Marginality and Poverty in Egypt and the Middle East

  Habib Ayeb and Ray Bush

  Ray Bush Habib Ayeb Revolutionary upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 has challenged many commentators to rethink their often limited interpretations of politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) . Ideas of an ‘Arab mentality’ or of Arab ‘mice’ content with ‘political passivity’ and of a region simply not ready for democratic deepening have been upset by momentous struggles to throw off the yoke of repression and struggle for new patterns of justice and equality (Fisk 2003; cf. Fisk 2011) . Yet commentators have been reluctant to talk about revolutionary struggles. There has also been a reluctance to contemplate agendas set by, among others, independent trade unions and the Youth Coalition in Egypt which pushed beyond the initial framing of rising demands for political rights to advance root-and-branch social and economic transformation. Commentary and analysis on the revolutions have preferred to speak of an ‘Arab spring’ or...

• 

  Locating Marginality and Poverty in Egypt and the Middle East

  Habib Ayeb and Ray Bush

  Ray Bush Habib Ayeb Revolutionary upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 has challenged many commentators to rethink their often limited interpretations of politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) . Ideas of an ‘Arab mentality’ or of Arab ‘mice’ content with ‘political passivity’ and of a region simply not ready for democratic deepening have been upset by momentous struggles to throw off the yoke of repression and struggle for new patterns of justice and equality (Fisk 2003; cf. Fisk 2011) . Yet commentators have been reluctant to talk about revolutionary struggles. There has also been a reluctance to contemplate agendas set by, among others, independent trade unions and the Youth Coalition in Egypt which pushed beyond the initial framing of rising demands for political rights to advance root-and-branch social and economic transformation. Commentary and analysis on the revolutions have preferred to speak of an ‘Arab spring’ or...

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  Microwaving Dreams? Why There is No Point in Reheating the Hart-Dworkin Debate for International Law

  Jason A. Beckett

  A critique of attempts to transpose Hart and Dworkin's legal theories to international law. I demonstrate why neither approach can provide insights into international law. Hart and Dworkin are institutional theorists, their methodologies are anchored by the need to justify the exercise of socially centralised violence. International law lacks both institutions and centralised violence, and the stabilising force these bring; it is radically indeterminate. Attempts to suppress this indeterminacy have resulted in international lawyers fragmenting into communities of practice, united by their eschatological faith in the international community. I challenge this faith.

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  Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution

  Rabab El Mahdi

  Rabab El Mahdi For thirty years, particularly since the advent of neoliberalism, the concepts of ‘marginalization’ and ‘poverty’ have come to replace those of ‘class’ and ‘exploitation’ as analytical categories. The reasons for this are many, but the ideological hegemony and political power of a very small class of big businesses served by technocratic states have been paramount. Under this model, the conflictual power relations revealed by the categories of ‘class’, ‘exploitation’ and the subsequent ‘class struggle’ have been seen not to be useful. Rather, the neoliberal model is legitimized by preaching a harmonious power structure in which ‘trickle-down’, ‘efficient use of resources’, ‘meritocracy’ and ‘technical fxes’ are used to justify and deal with pressing problems of poverty and maldistribution of power and wealth. In similar vein, the recent uprising in Egypt since 25 January 2011 has been constructed as a non-violent, youth revolution in which social media (especially Facebook...

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  Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution

  Rabab El Mahdi

  Rabab El Mahdi For thirty years, particularly since the advent of neoliberalism, the concepts of ‘marginalization’ and ‘poverty’ have come to replace those of ‘class’ and ‘exploitation’ as analytical categories. The reasons for this are many, but the ideological hegemony and political power of a very small class of big businesses served by technocratic states have been paramount. Under this model, the conflictual power relations revealed by the categories of ‘class’, ‘exploitation’ and the subsequent ‘class struggle’ have been seen not to be useful. Rather, the neoliberal model is legitimized by preaching a harmonious power structure in which ‘trickle-down’, ‘efficient use of resources’, ‘meritocracy’ and ‘technical fxes’ are used to justify and deal with pressing problems of poverty and maldistribution of power and wealth. In similar vein, the recent uprising in Egypt since 25 January 2011 has been constructed as a non-violent, youth revolution in which social media (especially Facebook...

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  Working with street kids: unsettling accounts from the field

  Kamal Fahmi

  Kamal Fahmi In Latin America, Africa, Asia and eastern Europe, children and youth living on the streets are commonly referred to using the term street children. In North America and western Europe, the term homeless youth is used interchangeably with that of street children to refer to this population. Since the beginning of the 1980s, this social phenomenon has been increasingly preoccupying policy-makers, researchers and development planners. Despite the widespread concerns and the numerous intervention programmes, the street children phenomenon is escalating persistently worldwide and confusion still remains regarding the definition and conceptualization of these young populations living and surviving under circumstances that most would find unbearable (De Moura 2002; Cree et al. 2002) . This chapter draws on a participatory action research project started in 1993 with street children in Cairo. I was the principal in charge of this project. My responsibilities included overseeing the design and implementation of...

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  Working with street kids: unsettling accounts from the field

  Kamal Fahmi

  Kamal Fahmi In Latin America, Africa, Asia and eastern Europe, children and youth living on the streets are commonly referred to using the term street children. In North America and western Europe, the term homeless youth is used interchangeably with that of street children to refer to this population. Since the beginning of the 1980s, this social phenomenon has been increasingly preoccupying policy-makers, researchers and development planners. Despite the widespread concerns and the numerous intervention programmes, the street children phenomenon is escalating persistently worldwide and confusion still remains regarding the definition and conceptualization of these young populations living and surviving under circumstances that most would find unbearable (De Moura 2002; Cree et al. 2002) . This chapter draws on a participatory action research project started in 1993 with street children in Cairo. I was the principal in charge of this project. My responsibilities included overseeing the design and implementation of...

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  Discourses of Donne: A Genealogy of Critical Memory

  William Donald Melaney

  explores a tapestry of perceptions of how memory develops, and the effects these memories have on our mental and physical lives, both individually and collectively.

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  Margins and frontiers

  Reem Saad

  Reem Saad Academic literature from a range of disciplines has no shortage of accurate and all-encompassing definitions of the concept of marginality. An example of such definitions is the following: Marginality is a complex condition of disadvantage which individuals and communities experience as a result of vulnerabilities that may arise from unfavourable environmental, cultural, social, political and economic factors. Although most discussions of marginality deal with distressed economic and ecological conditions of life, the concept of marginality can also be applied to cultural, social and political conditions of disadvantage. (Mehretu et al. 2000: 90) Gurung and Kollmair also stress the multifaceted nature of the concept and its connection to a state of disadvantage. They identify two principal conceptual frameworks within which marginality is defined and described: the societal, which focuses on ‘human dimensions such as demography, religion, culture, social structure (e. g. , caste/hierarchy/class/ethnicity/gender) , economics and politics in connection...

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  Margins and frontiers

  Reem Saad

  Reem Saad Academic literature from a range of disciplines has no shortage of accurate and all-encompassing definitions of the concept of marginality. An example of such definitions is the following: Marginality is a complex condition of disadvantage which individuals and communities experience as a result of vulnerabilities that may arise from unfavourable environmental, cultural, social, political and economic factors. Although most discussions of marginality deal with distressed economic and ecological conditions of life, the concept of marginality can also be applied to cultural, social and political conditions of disadvantage. (Mehretu et al. 2000: 90) Gurung and Kollmair also stress the multifaceted nature of the concept and its connection to a state of disadvantage. They identify two principal conceptual frameworks within which marginality is defined and described: the societal, which focuses on ‘human dimensions such as demography, religion, culture, social structure (e. g. , caste/hierarchy/class/ethnicity/gender) , economics and politics in connection...

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  High sensitivity refractive index sensing using an axicon lens structure

  Manar Abdel-Galil, Mohamed Swillam, Yehea Ismail, and DIaa Khalil

  [abstract not available]

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  Latin America and North Africa: Latin American Iconography in Arabic Literature

  Tahia Khaled Gamal Abdel Nasser

  In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Latin American writers frequently traveled to North Africa and produced novels and travelogues informed by these encounters. Arab writers, in turn, have drawn upon Latin American literature, culture, and iconography. Examining direct contact between Latin America and North Africa, I turn to Latin American-themed literature from North Africa, focusing especially on Arabic literature. This chapter focuses on Egyptian writer Mohamed Makhzangi’s Laḥaẓāt gharaq jazīrat al-ḥūt (Memories of a Meltdown: An Egyptian between Moscow and Chernobyl), a memoir-cum-travelogue modeled on Gabriel García Márquez’s literary reportage in Relato de un náufrago (The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor) and La Aventura de Miguel Littín: clandestino en Chile (Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín) and Arabic literature that draws upon Latin American literature and iconography, thus fortifying cultural ties between Latin America and North Africa.

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  A Machine Learning-Based Technique for the Classification of Indoor/Outdoor Cellular Network Clients

  Kareem Abdullah, Sara Attalla, Yasser Gadallah, Ayman Elezabi, and Karim Seddik

  [abstract not available]

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  Machine Learning-Based MIMO Enabling Techniques for Energy Optimization in Cellular Networks

  Mariam Aboelwafa, Mohamed Zaki, Ayman Gaber, Karim Seddik, and Yasser Gadallah

  [abstract not available]

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  Application of response surface model for sizing solar thermal energy system at residential scale during the early design stages

  Mohamed Hany Abokersh, Hatem Elayat, Mohamed Osman, and Mohamed El-Morsi

  [abstract not available]

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  Enhancement of silicon nanowire micro-TEG using a plasmonic mid-IR absorber

  Samar Akef, Ahmed M. Hassanen, and Mohamed A. Swillam

  [abstract not available]