SOLD OUT Study Day: Alexandria Through History

Related to “Egypt’s Sunken Cities,” this event includes two talks, complimentary refreshments, and an opportunity to explore Egyptian book-related materials and techniques.

Alexandria has had an impact on world culture from its ancient library to writers of more recent times. It has been immortalized by western writers, such as E. M. Forster and Constantine Cavafy, and by Egyptian writers such as Naguib Mahfouz, Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, and Edwar al-Kharrat. Reborn in 2002, the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, is a vast complex where the arts, history, philosophy, and science come together.

 

Literary Alexandria: Muse, Promise, Riddle

Presenter: Shaden M. Tageldin

This talk will show how works by writers of Egyptian and European origin have seized on Alexandria’s Mediterranean location to project Egypt northward, toward Europe, or to highlight Egypt’s place at the threshold of Afroeurasian cultures—and signal its complex orientation in the world.

Shaden M. Tageldin, PhD, is associate professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. She directed the African Studies Initiative (2014–18).

The Glories of Ancient Alexandria: Egypt’s Archaeological Treasures from the Mediterranean Sea

Presenter: Hussein Bassir

This talk will reveal the glories and beauties of ancient Alexandria by shedding light on Egypt’s archaeological treasures from the Mediterranean Sea and its library’s significance from ancient to contemporary times.

Dr. Hussein Bassir is  Director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum and Director of Dr. Zahi Hawass Center of Egyptology, BA

Co-presented with Bibliotheca Alexandria. Dr. Bassir’s lecture is sponsored by the Mark and Mary Goff Fiterman Lecture Fund.