Visiting Scholar Explains the Language of Revolution at a Georgetown Special Event
Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) recently hosted Dr. Laurie Brand, the Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California, for a public lecture titled “The Politics of National Narratives: The Evolution of ‘Revolution’ in Egypt”. Her presentation was a part of the Monthly Dialogue Series organized by GU-Q’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), and explored how country leadership construct a national story or narrative for political purposes, using the theme of revolution in Egyptian history as a case study.
“Revolution is the founding story in the case of Egypt. That might have seemed to have had only academic interest up until 2011, but developments since then make it clear that trying to understand what we mean by revolution and how the notion of revolution evolves is important, in terms of trying to understand a political struggle on the ground,” said Dr. Brand, explaining the contemporary relevance of her historical research.
Drawing on chapters from her recently published book Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria (Stanford University Press, 2014), Dr. Brand showed how the meaning of the term “revolution” was constructed and reconstructed over time in Egypt, focusing on a number of “key junctures” or crises over the preceding decades, starting with the Urabi Revolt, a nationalist uprising in Egypt from 1879 to 1882 that sought to end British and French influence over the country. She then continued with examples from the succession stories of presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, SCAF, Mohamed Morsi, and finally the current leader, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, showing how each ruler redefined the national narrative and the characterizations of their tenure, and reflecting cultural, social, and political values.
She also explained how that effort relates to the need to build or rebuild legitimacy for a leadership, and layed out what types of crises or challenges are most likely to trigger attempts at reconstructing or reinterpreting what’s meant by “revolution” as part of national narrative.
Defining the term “national narrative” as “the story that a national collective tells about itself”, the acclaimed scholar identified the sources she used for her research, including content collected from successive issues of constitutions, in particular their preambles which she says, “often say something about national history, or give the characteristics of “who we are” as a people.” She also studied speeches delivered by leaders to the nation on important occasions, museums, images on national currency and stamps, patriotic songs, and in particular, school text books.
“Dr. Laurie Brand’s work in the study of national narratives is multifaceted and complex, but even in the course of this brief lecture, she presented a compelling series of examples illustrating the relationship between language and political power, which was very enlightening for our students studying international affairs here at Georgetown, as well as for our other audience members from the university and broader Doha community,” said Dr. Mehran Kamrava, the director of CIRS.
In conclusion, she reaffirmed that how revolution is defined, who defines it, and what its content is, are not issues of academic interest only, but are “very real battles that are a part of ongoing struggles today in Egypt and throughout the Middle East over the future of the political systems in the region.”
Laurie A. Brand directs the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Southern California. A four-time Fulbright scholar to the Middle East and North Africa, a Carnegie scholar 2008 to 2010, and a Rockefeller Bellagio writing residency fellow in fall 2012, she is also the author of Palestinians in the Arab World (Columbia University Press, 1988), Jordan’s Inter-Arab Relations (Columbia University Press, 1994), Women, the State and Political Liberalization (Columbia University Press, 1998), and Citizens Abroad: States and Emigration in the Middle East and North Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2006).