The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

You’re never done learning, especially with so many new and exciting fields of study opening up every day. But, if you’re not down for a new degree, then why not try a workshop or a course? Maybe you’ll reinvent yourself and find new and interesting people who share your particular niche interests on the way. CILAS has a new batch of riveting thematic courses and labs in their spring semester that you need to check out, and they just extended their registration to the 4^th, so hurry up! Here are the three workshops we’re most intrigued by.

Journey in the World of Music (offline, Mondays 6-8 pm)

Music is one of the most fundamental expressions of existence the human race has come up with. It makes sense that its roots would be such an interesting subject worthy of major critical thinking.

In this class, Qais Raja, Jadal guitarist and Albaitil Ashwai frontman, promises to take his students on a temporal and geographical journey to discover the origins of music. The purpose of this class is to culturally, politically, and spiritually contextualise the music we are familiar with and love so much. There’s a comfort in understanding the origins of all things, and this course seems like it will be a beautiful intellectual awakening for everyone involved.

Who Taught You to Feel Happy? On Pleasurable Feminism (hybrid, Sundays 6-8 pm)

Feminist activism is not and should never be all about struggle. Pleasure is a fundamental part and right of activism, which is the focal point of this refreshingly intimate course. Based on the framework presented in Maree Brown’s book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Mariam Deif Allah promises to guide her students through an exploration of pleasure, consent, and satisfaction in a world that denies them these simple rights. Mariam is a feminist doula and a published writer with her activist focus mainly being better sexual and reproductive rights for Egyptian women.

Archives of Memory and Forgetting In the Middle East (offline, Tuesdays 6-8 pm)

Instructed by Amy Fallas, a Salvadoran-Costa Rican writer and Yale graduate, this class promises to be an intersectional and inclusive overview of history, politics, and memory from an analytical and questioning point of view. The workshop will focus on what is real and what may not be so, specifically in a Middle Eastern and Egyptian context. The instructor herself is a PhD candidate in History, where her research explores the roles of ethnic and religious discrimination in the region, which is why we are envious of anyone who chooses to go on this journey with her.