The presentation highlights the actual role played by Mayy Ziyādah, not only as a salonniere, but also as an intellectual in her own right with a significant role in the Nahḍah in twentieth century Egypt. As her name is most often associated with the salon, Professor Khaldi will demonstrate the intellectual climate of that salon, its capacity to bring together different factions and to emerge thereby as a microcosm of the Nahḍah, in its complexity and hybrid nature. With these goals in mind, she will draw on an extensive amount of material, supported by a theoretical framework that helps in envisioning the salon as a public sphere

Boutheina Khaldi is Associate professor of Arabic and comparative literature at the American University of Sharjah. She has published a monograph in English: Egypt Awakening in the Early Twentieth Century: Mayy Ziyᾱdah’s Intellectual Circles (Palgrave, 2012), a book in Arabic: Al-Muḍmar fῑ al-Tarassul al-Niswῑ al-‘Arabῑ (2015) (The Implicit in Arab Women’s Epistolary Writing), in addition to a number of peer-reviewed articles, and co-edited three textbooks: Al-Adab al-‘Arabῑ al-Ḥadῑth: Mukhtᾱrᾱt, Al-Wafῑ fῑ Turᾱth al-‘Arab al-Thaqᾱfῑ, and Turᾱth al-'Arab al-Ma'rifi

Location: Columbia's Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive

This event is sponsored by the Seminar in Arabic Studies, University Seminars.