This class helps students to get familiar with the history of Egypt and the larger Middle East through the story of the city of Cairo, the largest Arab and Muslim metropolis, and the second largest in Africa. We explore not only the various historical layers of this city, but we also learn about the approach of urban history, including the crucial questions of globalization, urban revolts, and the environment in the past two hundred years and until today. In this way, the class is a methodological enquiry into how we can describe change in urban life with the tools of history, art history, anthropology, and sociology.
