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“University on the Square: Documenting Egypt’s 21st Century Revolution,” a Community-based Archival Project
Abstract
During the 18 days in early 2011 that came to be known as Egypt’s January 25 Revolution, a documentation project was launched at the American University in Cairo (AUC) with the aim of reflecting the role and experience of the participants in the mass popular protests. The “University on the Square: Documenting Egypt’s 21st Century Revolution” project is an ongoing community-based archival initiative, aimed first at AUC and then broadened to encompass a wider base of contributors. Using internet web-based technologies applied to similar “crowdsourcing” projects around the world, University on the Square solicited donations of digital photographs and videos taken at Tahrir Square and elsewhere, but also collected tangible remains of the protests like signs, leaflets, souvenirs, newspapers, and artifacts like tear gas canisters, in addition to developing an extensive website archive. This paper will cover these aspects of the project and also outline the project’s oral history efforts to record experiences of the 2011 uprising and the subsequent three years of protest and political activity in Egypt. The more than 300 interviews conducted (in Arabic and English) capture the experiences of a wide variety of male and female participants such as college students, workers, academics, activists, football “ultras,” graffiti artists, journalists, refugees, and some political figures, representing a variety of viewpoints (including Islamists and apathetic observers in addition to those strongly opposed to presidents Mubarak or Morsi). The paper will discuss challenges faced, especially how constantly shifting political and security circumstances and popular attitudes in Egypt affected the course of the project and the nature of the material gathered. The ways in which the resulting physical and digital archive have been and can be used, as well as a comparison with other projects to document Egypt’s revolution, will also be addressed.
Discipline
Library Science
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Democratization