Revolution Squared: Tahrir, Political Possibilities, and Counterrevolution in Egypt

We are thrilled to be cosponsoring this lecture with African Studies on

October 16, 2024 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
1155 Observatory Drive Madison, WI 53706, 206 Ingraham Hall

Atef Said presents few key threads from his book Revolution Squared (Duke U Press 2024) about the Egyptian Uprising of 2011 and the military counter-revolution in its aftermath. He demonstrates the expansive range of liberatory possibilities and containment at the heart of every revolution. Drawing on historical analysis and his own participation in the revolution, Said outlines the importance of Tahrir Square and other physical spaces as well as the role of social media and digital spaces. While presenting the notion of lived contingency, Said charts the lived contingencies of Egyptian revolutionaries from the decade prior to the revolution’s outbreak to its peak and the so-called transition to democracy to the 2013 military coup into the present.

Atef Said is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research engages with the fields of sociological theory, political sociology, historical sociology, sociology of the Middle East, and global sociology. He the author of Revolution Squared: Tahrir, Political Possibilities and Counter-Revolution in Egypt (Duke University Press, 2024).