World Literature and the Vernacular

  While doing some research on writing in Egyptian 'ammiya recently,  I came across a satirical cartoon from the 20s featuring a peasant woman (or literally, bint-el-balad, daughter of the land),  and what might be called the Egyptian New Woman, described in the cartoon as al-fata al mustarjila sa'iqat al-automobile -- the "mannish" girl who drives …

ArteEast: Art and Culture In Transformative Times

The entirety of ArteEast's conference, “Arts and Culture in Transformative Times: Expanding the Philanthropic Dialogue on the Middle East and North Africa,” is now online. The conference was organized by ArteEast, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation and its co-hosts, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the British Council and was held in New York …