X-TALK #15 by MOHAMED ELSHAHED
Founder and Editor of Cairobserver

WRITING THE CITY:
On the Need for Architectural Journalism in the Arab World

Middle East cities are constantly undergoing immense transformations that require consistent journalistic coverage, analysis and engagement with the general public. While there has been a history of publishing magazines focused on architecture, rarely has this publishing reached the general public and remained confined to specialists and students of architecture. In 2011 Cairobserver launched as a blog focused on the architecture and urban development in Cairo. The blog has evolved into a platform for writings by specialists and non-specialists aiming to communicate their opinions, studies, and analysis towards a wide audience. In this talk Mohamed will provide a brief background on publishing architecture in Egypt, present the Cairobserver project (online and in print) and make the case for establishing such platforms in cities across a rapidly transforming Middle East.

ABOUT MOHAMED ELSHAHED

Mohamed Elshahed recently completed an Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices postdoctoral fellowship at the Berlin based Forum Transregionale Studien. His research and writing focus on developments in Egypt, at the intersection of Africa and the Middle East, to explore questions pertaining to global modernism. Elshahed’s doctoral dissertation, “Revolutionary Modernism? Architecture and the Politics of Transition in Egypt, 1936-1967,” was completed at New York University. In 2011 Elshahed founded the web platform Cairobserver.com, which has since produced four print publications, focused on urban affairs in Cairo and the broader Middle East.