For the seventh instalment of our Interview Series, Dr. Thomas S. Dolan joined us for a conversation on Race, empire (both East and West!), and the migration of Armenian, Palestinian-Egyptian, and Lebanese figures from the Global Middle East. We talked about his family’s flight from the Ottoman Empire and movements into, through, and out of Egypt in the 20th century, his concept of Trans-Imperial Race Craft, and the complex stories of historical figures like Palestinian-Egyptian scholar and activist, Edward Said. Thomas also shares insights on Shakira and how she is perceived differently by Americans and Arabs in Columbia, findings from a chapter in his forthcoming book project.
Thomas received his PhD in American Studies from George Washington University, and previously studied at Yale, NYU and the New School’s Institute for Critical Social Inquiry. His work has been supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Institute for Middle East Studies, Dr. Philip M. Kayal Fund for Arab American Research, Bentley Historical Library, Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom and Armenian General Benevolent Union. He is active in the arts with the SAG-AFTRA-National MENA Committee, MENASA Artists Coalition, MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition, among others, and will soon join the History Department at AUC as a Fulbright US Teaching Scholar.
This is the seventh in a series of interviews with artists, academics, activists, and other migrants of Egypt around the world. Check out previous conversations in the series and stay tuned for our next installment, a discussion with Reem Abdellatif, co-founder of the organizing space African Women’s Rights Advocates (AWRA).
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