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In this online workshop, Karim El-Haies  

traces how cinema and the modern city grew together in Egypt—from the late 19th century’s “technologies of empire” (railways, tramways, the Suez Canal) to the social worlds they produced: workers, migrants, tourists, flâneurs, and “tramps.” Drawing on archival materials from his ongoing PhD research project, Karim reads Cairo on screen as a living archive of colonial modernity—where movement (of people, goods, images, and power) reshapes urban space and everyday life.

In the opening session, we use Youssef Chahine’s Cairo Station (Bab al-Hadid) as a lens onto class, labor, disability, gender, and the politics of representation—tracking how the film moves across genres (melodrama, realism, noir) to stage the city as a social microcosm and a contested site of mobility.

Want to watch the full recording? Join our Patreon to access the workshop video—and help us continue building IDC Theory’s public archive of critical research and cultural programming.

This three-day workshop explores martyrdom as subjectivity: a lived, shared, and generative force in the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Our papers derive from the history and intellectual production of various resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon. Through this insurgent intellectual history we locate the place of martyrdom and sacrifice in the life of the Resistance. From this standpoint, we interrogate, challenge, and re-write extant theory discussing ‘the power over life and death’.

Through four grounded, insurgent research projects, we explore how martyrdom creates biographies beyond the self, how dismemberment becomes a symbol of resilience, how legacy animates resistance, and how traditions breathe new life into partisan struggle.

Together, we ask: What remains after death? What forms of life emerge from sacrifice? And how does martyrdom trouble the sovereign power to define life and death?

Over three days, Ameed Faleh, Ahmed Dardir, Majd Darwish, and Bashar al-Lakis will share their research on martyrdom and/as subjectivity, which will be part of our panel at the forthcoming BRISMES annual meeting.

On the 1st session (Sunday 22 June) the presenters will provide a brief overview of their research, followed by an extensive Q&A session.

On the 2nd session (Monday 23 June) we will discuss some of the material we are using in our research, including primary documents. The documents will be provided beforehand, in case some of the participants would like to go through them in preparation for the discussion.

The 3rd session (Tuesday 24 June) is for the final discussions and concluding remarks. Participants are encouraged to reflect on the relevance of our research for real life struggles—and challenge us if they want.

This is a rehearsal for our forthcoming panel at BRISMES. Part of the revenues will be used to cover our conference expenses.

This is a pay what you may event; participants are welcome to contribute as much (or as little) as they can.