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Alexandrian Cosmopolitanism: An Archive by Hala Hilmi

Join Alwan for the Arts in celebrating the release of Hala Halim's latest literary feat Alexandrian Cosmopolitanism: An Archive, an interrogative account of how Alexandria became enshrined as the exemplary cosmopolitan space in the Middle East and a critique of Eurocentric conceptions of cosmopolitanism. Readings and conversation on the dialectic of the book will be complemented with the poetry and music that emerged from the region.

The dominant account of Halim's "Alexandrian Cosmopolitanism" elevates things European in the city's culture and simultaneously places things Egyptian under the sign of decline. In a comparative study of literary representations, addressing poetry, fiction, guidebooks, and operettas, among other genres, she reappraises three C.P. Cavafy, E.M. Forster, and Lawrence Durrell whom she maintains have been cast as the canon of Alexandria.

Biography

Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University, Hala Halim's research and teaching address a wide variety of issues including contrasting accounts of heritage and urban spaces in relation to narratives of identity. Additionally, Halim focuses on the practise of translation, "transculturation" and comparative genealogies of cosmopolitanism. She has held an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA's Humanities Consortium, and her translation of a novel by Mohamed El-Bisatie, "Clamor of the Lake", received an Egyptian State Incentive Award in 2006.