Egypt as a Project - Séminaire avec Carl Rommel
Schedule
Mon, 30 Mar, 2026 at 10:00 am
UTC+02:00Location
MMSH (Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme), 5 rue du Château de l'Horloge, 13090 Aix-en-Provence, France | Aix-en-provence, PR
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𝐄𝐠𝐲𝐩𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 - 𝐒𝐞́𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐜 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐋𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢 𝟑𝟎 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, à 10h00, à la Mmsh (Aix-en-Provence), en salle 219, le séminaire de recherche de l'équipe Sciences sociales du contemporain, accueillera 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐞́𝐞 “𝐄𝐠𝐲𝐩𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭: 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐥-𝐒𝐢𝐬𝐢’𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜”.
𝐋𝐚 𝐬𝐞́𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐮 𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞́𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐥.
In this talk, I will present the general conceptual arguments and a handful of ethnographic scenes from a book that I am currently writing. Titled Egypt as a Project, the monograph examines dreams taking the shape of “projects” (mashari‘) in contemporary Egypt. As lower-middle class men devise small, often informal business projects for profit making and social improvement, the military-backed regime undertakes spectacular megaprojects in the desert to showcase its grandeur and national-development ambitions.
Based on 25 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cairo, media analysis and historical data, the book’s six ethnographic chapters show how politicians and ordinary citizens alike turn to mashari‘ to set material and social improvements in motion, and how this has a series of social, economic, and political effects. Moving across spheres and scales, its ethnographic documentations of Egyptian project-making will offer unique bottom-up perspectives both on Cairo’s informal economies and on the desert developments that President el-Sisi calls The New Republic (al-gumhuriyya al-gadida).
Centering an analytic which I call “project dreamwork,” the book foregrounds a template for future-making that is ubiquitous across late-capitalist societies but has often been treated as background. Its stories and arguments thus resonate well beyond the immediate Egyptian context. Ultimately, the book sets out to inaugurate an anthropology of the project form. It injects projects and project making at the center of interdisciplinary debates about aspirations, masculinity, and authoritarian statecraft.
𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐋 is a social anthropologist with more than fifteen years’ experience of researching Egyptian society and politics. He is currently a Research Fellow at New Europe College in Bucharest, and a visiting researcher at IREMAM. Rommel has published journal articles on sports, masculinity, revolution, urbanism and “projects” in Greater Cairo. His first monograph was 𝐸𝑔𝑦𝑝𝑡’𝑠 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛: 𝐸𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑈𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠 (University of Texas Press, 2021). He is also the co-edited 𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑑𝑦: 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑃𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑈𝑟𝑏𝑎𝑛 𝐸𝑔𝑦𝑝𝑡, which is forthcoming with The American University of Cairo Press. Rommel is currently authoring a second monograph, tentatively titled, 𝐸𝑔𝑦𝑝𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡: 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒-𝑀𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑒𝑙-𝑆𝑖𝑠𝑖’𝑠 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐, for publication with Indiana University Press.
𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨: 𝐀 𝐤𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐝𝐫 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 @ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐥
À retrouver sur le site de l'IREMAM : https://iremam.mmsh.fr/fr/egypt-project-seminaire-avec-carl-rommel
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Where is it happening?
MMSH (Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme), 5 rue du Château de l'Horloge, 13090 Aix-en-Provence, France, 5 Rue Château de l'Horloge, 13090 Aix-en-Provence, France, Aix-en-provenceEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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