Syllabus: Constructing and policing the "foreigner" in colonial and post-colonial Egypt (Master Semiar at HU)

Egypt attracted large numbers of migrants throughout the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th century, who were in search of economic opportunities or escaping political upheavals in Europe. The resulting demography of Egypt's urban centers was marked by a significant diversity, often grieved as an ephemeral cosmopolitanism that was cut short by the rise of Egyptian nationalism and the subsequent exodus of "foreigners" by the late 50s and early 60s. This course approaches this dominant culturalist narrative critically. It inquires into the political factors behind the construction of the "foreignness" of certain groups of residents, in the colonial and post-colonial states' drive to police dissent and enact state sovereignty. Students are invited to engage critically with both colonialist and nationalist narratives, by examining biographies that escape the dichotomous categories of national/foreign, as well as waves of cross-ethnic solidarity and common socialist struggle, and the state's repression of the latter through denial of Egyptian nationality or residence rights and deportation.