Unique digital archive of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution now online

A new digital archive co-created by University of Warwick researcher Dr. Nicola Pratt gathers art, music and film created during the 2011 Egyptian revolution into a unique new multimedia resource for scholars, students and the general public alike.

'Politics, Popular Culture and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution' documents the 25 January 2011 uprising and its aftermath through the prism of popular culture, showing how Egyptians have narrated their own histories of the revolution through graffiti, music, satire, TV drama series and film.

The online archive, which is free to use, includes more than 200 items, many of which are translated into English. It has been designed to help its users discover more about the significance of the 2011 uprising and its aftermath for everyday Egyptians, and to enable them to explore the relationship between politics and popular culture in a revolutionary context.

Dr. Pratt, Reader, International Politics of the Middle East in the University's Department of Politics & International Studies said: "Music, graffiti, satire and film all played a vital role in giving Egyptians an outlet for their political views during the 2011 revolution and its aftermath, but by their very nature these things can be ephemeral.

"Our archive captures a snapshot of these popular responses to the Revolution and, we hope, not only will preserve them as valuable records for future researchers in the face of official attempts to impose a historical narrative, but also to spark the interest of new students of history and politics.

"We have created a number of pathways through the archive allowing users to browse by theme, media type or timeline of the revolution. There are also study guides for independent learners, and for teachers looking for on-line resources suitable for incorporating into their courses."

The archive is one of the key results from a collaborative research project carried out by Nicola Pratt (University of Warwick), Dalia Mostafa (University of Manchester), Dina Rezk (University of Reading) and Sara Salem (previously, University of Warwick), and funded by the AHRC.

Rather than limiting the archive to those cultural objects that were 'popular' in the sense of being widely consumed, items were selected for their political resonance at different moments of the revolution, and, particularly for the ways in which they explore competing definitions of 'the people' and what they wanted in the context of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath.