I designed WR 150: “1968/2011” to teach research skills in the first half of the course and then allow students to use those skills to learn more about a topic of their choice in the second half. Earlier in the semester we had examined a number of academic essays and found most to be written in a three-part structure: first, authors discuss what has already been written about a given topic; they follow this up with a problem or question that hasn’t been addressed in that body of discourse; and finally, authors pose a solution to that problem by introducing their take or position. Paper 3 had to be structured in this way.
Lisa Lau knew early on that she wanted to examine the role of history during the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011. She had done research on how state museums in various countries shape the national historical narrative and she wanted to examine how the burning down and total loss of the Institute d’Egypte museum of ancient Egyptian history during the Arab Spring might affect the historical narrative of the Egyptians. What she found fascinating was that at the moment of this tremendous loss, most Egyptians had never set foot inside the museum and knew practically nothing about the history it told. How much was Egyptian historical consciousness actually affected then?
The murals of Mohammad Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square, in contrast, offer a narrative of history that is constantly being “written,” edited, erased, and “rewritten,” presenting a visual narrative of events that is accessible to all Egyptians. Thus “The Murals of Mohammad Mahmoud Street: Reclaiming Narratives of Living History for the Egyptian People” was born. Lisa’s first draft was exhaustive in its research, however it took on too many topics. I made some suggestions on theoretical background sources on history, nation, narrative, and the museum and provided some guidelines for cutting and focusing. I hope Lisa will continue to work on this project and eventually publish it as a scholarly monograph.
— JURA AVIZIENIS
WR 150: 1968/2011