Dr. Elliott Colla's Guest Lecture: "The Egyptian Revolution in Literature and Activism: 2011-2014"

On March 12, Elizabeth Dahab (Comparative World Literature) and Ron Loewe (Anthropology) will sponsor Georgetown University’s Dr. Elliott Colla in his lecture titled “The Egyptian Revolution in Literature and Activism: 2011-2014.” The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Karl Anatol Center.

The following is Professor Elliott Colla’s abstract:

Despite the difficulties, Egyptian writers have been publishing fictional and non-fictional accounts of the Revolution since the first days of the uprisings of 2011. Even as the revolution has turned and intensified, these writers have produced an impressive corpus of novels, short stories, memoirs and graphic novels. What kinds of stories are they telling? How do their tales impact public understandings of the event of revolution itself? How does one write the story of an event still unfolding?

Dr. Elliott Colla earned his Ph.D in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in 2000, his M.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in 1992, and his B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from UC Berkeley in 1989. His educational interests focused on European travel, aesthetics, and the Egyptian novel. Dr. Colla is currently the Chair and Associate Professor for the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University