IFAO

The 11^th session of the seminar series 'Exploring Egypt: Histories and Historiographies', a joint initiative of the Ifao, DAIK, CAI, PCMA & NVIC, will be hosted at the Ifao. This session features Nadine Atallah, and it is entitled "Women's Arts Education in Egypt (1908-1952), A Struggle where Feminism and Nationalism Converge". The lecture is open to the public in the limit of available places.

Abstract:

1908 is commonly considered a key date, marking the beginning of the history of modern art in Egypt, because it was the year the School of Fine Arts was established in Cairo. Though, until the early 1950s the school only accepted male students. Yet, women artists have been active on the Egyptian art scene since the first decades of the twentieth century. So how did they train? What were their alternatives to formal, local academic tuition? By bringing to light the trajectories and commitments of women teachers and aspiring artists, as well as the evolution of institutions and learning methods, this presentation highlights some of the stages in women's access to artistic training in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century. This evolution is understood as part of a larger social movement, marked by feminist demands and the “Egyptianisation” of both female teachers and students, in the context of struggles for national independence.

Exploring Egypt Seminar: Histories and Historiographies

A joint collaboration between the Ifao (Institut français d’archéologie orientale) & the DAIK (German Archaeological Institute in Cairo), joined in 2025 by the CAI (Centro Archeologico Italiano), PCMA (Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology Cairo) & NVIC (Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo).

This seminar series aims, broadly speaking, to discuss different aspects related to the production of historical knowledge on Egypt. Speakers are invited to reflect on the different ways of writing, narrating and thinking about Egypt’s history at different periods, as well as on the actors, contexts, and power relations involved in the production of historical narratives. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, the seminar series seeks to bring into conversation fields which have traditionally been examined separately, such as the history of Egyptology, the study of modern Egyptian historiography, and the history of heritage and preservation.

In addition, while the seminar series seeks to shed a critical light on the formation of specific disciplinary fields and traditions, it also moves beyond an exclusive focus on professional history writing, in order to explore the various institutions, genres, and channels, through which historical narratives have been produced and disseminated.  Among the themes that will be discussed, for instance, are the different “histories” of Egyptology, archaeology or Arabic and Islamic studies, academic versus “popular” representations of history, and heritage preservation as a site of production of historical narratives.

Exploring Egypt: Histories and Historiographies Seminar is organised by Fatma Keshk, Postdoctoral fellow at DAIK & Ifao and Malak Labib, scientific member of the Ifao.