The lecture, is the second lecture of the OIB/COSIMENA Seminar series, and will be followed by a gathering in the garden. 
 

Abstract

The lecture explores the role of affect and the imagination in the creation and analysis of historical sources in the archive. Until now many historians insist on the materiality and objectivity of archival sources and are skeptical of attempts to infuse archival research with non-tangible factors such as emotions or imagined realities. Feminist scholars have rejected the binary logic that undermined emotions and the imagination in historical research and challenged the tenets of “objectivity” and “legitimacy” enshrined in conventional historiography. I will explore examples of feminist affective imaginings of archival materials as a method to re-envision masculinist historical narratives.

Bio:

Hoda Elsadda is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University, and co-founder of the Women and Memory Forum (www.wmf.org.eg). She is author of Gender, Nation and the Arabic Novel: Egypt: 1892-2008 (EUP and SUP, 2012); co-editor of Oral History in Times of Change: Gender, Documentation and the Making of Archives (Cairo Papers, 35:1, 2018); and Humanities in the Arab World in Times of Conflict and Change (ACSS, 2024).

Kindly register at the following link:https://www.daad.de/surveys/111686?lang=en 

Deadline for Registration: 20 September 2025

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