Cynthia Nelson

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Cynthia Nelson (* 1933 in the United States; † 2006 in Cairo ) was an American ethnologist and professor at the American University in Cairo . She established women's and gender studies in cultural anthropology in Egypt.

life and work

Cynthia Nelson received her PhD from University of California, Berkeley in 1963 with a field study of a rural community in Mexico . She then went to Cairo, where she researched and taught at the American University for more than 40 years. She began with research on the socialization and change among the sedentary Bedouins and soon focused her work on the women in the Middle East and how they were described in ethnography by the predominantly male authors. In 2001 she was appointed to a professorship.

In 2000, Cynthia Nelson founded the Institute for Gender and Women's Studies at the AUC , which she directed until her death. The master’s course that can be completed there combines the investigation of gender relations with an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective with a special focus on the Middle East and North Africa . In her honor, the institute was renamed the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women's Studies (IGWS) in 2006 . It is thanks to Cynthia Nelsons that she anchored ' gender ' as an important topic in the debates on post-colonial visions in the Arab world.

For ten years she worked on her biography about Doria Shafik , from whose brave political activities and philosophical thinking she was fascinated. Lilia Labidi from the University of Tunis emphasized in her obituary that this book, which has also been translated into Arabic , is one of the works that have shaped the way of working and writing ethnologically in the region.

Awards

In 1996 she received the Distinguished Service Award from King Hussein of Jordan for her contributions to higher education in the Arab world.

Fonts

  • Martina Rieker (Ed.), Lila Abu-Lughod (Introduction): Pioneering Feminist Anthropology in Egypt. Selected Writings from Cynthia Nelson , The American University in Cairo Press 2007 (Cairo Papers Vol. 28, No. 2/3)
  • Situating globalization. Views from Egypt , Bielefeld 2000 (edited by Cynthia Nelson and Shahnaz Rouse)
  • Arab regional women's studies workshop , (Cairo papers in social science), Cairo 1998
  • Doria Shafik, Egyptian feminist. A woman apart , Cairo 1996
  • Women, health and development , Cairo 1977
  • The desert and the sown. Nomads in the wider society , (Research series, University of California, Institute of International Studies, No. 21), Berkeley 1973
  • The waiting village. Social change in rural Mexico , Boston 1971
  • The waiting village. Social change in a mexican peasant community , Berkeley 1963

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cynthia Nelson: The waiting village. Social change in a mexican peasant community , Berkeley 1963
  2. ↑ a b c d Kevin Dwyer: Body silent, legacy vibran , AL-AHRAM, Issue No. 797 / June 2006 ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / weekly.ahram.org.eg
  3. ↑ a b Martina Rieker (Ed.): Pioneering Feminist Anthropology in Egypt. Selected Writings from Cynthia Nelson , The American University in Cairo Press 2007, Introduction by Lila Abud-Luhod, ISBN 978-977-416-078-3
  4. ↑ Description of contents on the AUC website
personal data
SURNAME Nelson, Cynthia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nīlsūn, Sīnṯiyā
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH United States
DATE OF DEATH 2006
Place of death Cairo