Events

The past ten years have brought waves of upheaval through Egypt, starting with the Arab Spring in 2011. To better understand these changes and the future of Egypt in the world, we need to understand the history and context of “Islamic Revival” in the country, beginning in the 1970s – a crucial period in Egyptian history, where the relationship between politics and religion was transformed. What is the future of Islam in Egypt? How can we understand the complex relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military regime of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi? How can history be a tool for decision-makers in international relations? 

In this special edition of The World Today for Penn Global Week, join Perry World House and the Middle East Center for a conversation with Aaron Rock-Singer to discuss these critical questions, and the ideas and issues explored in his book, Practicing Islam in Egypt: Print Media and Islamic Revival. Rock-Singer is a Penn graduate and a former Perry World House postdoctoral fellow. Sign up for this virtual event, and details of how to take part will be in your order confirmation email.

SPEAKER

Aaron Rock-Singer is an Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his B.A from the University of Pennsylvania (2007), his M.Phil from St. Antony’s College, Oxford (2010) and his Ph.D from Princeton’s Department of Near Eastern Studies (2016). Fluent in Arabic and Hebrew and proficient in Turkish, he has published widely on Islamism, Salafism, and the role of Islamic scholars in contemporary politics. In his first book, Practicing Islam in Egypt: Print Media and Islamic Revival (Cambridge, 2019), he drew on ideologically diverse Islamic magazines from this period to chart the rise of an Islamic Revival in 1970s Egypt within a larger global story of religious contestation and change. His current book project, entitled In the Shade of the Sunna: Salafi Piety in the Twentieth Century Middle East, explores Islam’s fastest growing movement through a focus on the daily practices through which it has shaped societies across the Middle East.