Feature
Tarek Masoud works with the A.R.T. to help bring the story of the Egyptian revolution to the theater
Interdisciplinary collaboration across Harvard usually takes the form of co-authored papers or perhaps jointly chaired conferences. Tarek Masoud’s latest collaboration found him not in a classroom around campus but working with writers and directors of “We Live in Cairo,” a musical set during protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the tumultuous years that followed in Egypt. The show made its world premiere this spring at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University in Cambridge.
For Masoud, Professor of Public Policy and Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations at HKS, the chance to apply his scholarly background studying the Arab Spring and the fate of democratization in the Middle East to such a topically relevant production was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. “As academics, we speak in disciplinary language to disciplinary audiences. The arts are completely different in that they are meant to appeal broadly. A work of art about the Egyptian revolution can get people to care about it in a way that pure scholarship never could,” Masoud says.
Having conducted extensive fieldwork in Egypt over the past 15 years, Masoud was well positioned to work with “We Live in Cairo” writers Daniel and Patrick Lazour and director Taibi Magar to ensure that cast members accurately portrayed the revolution and the young idealistic activists who made it happen. “Tarek is passionate, patient, and a serious lover of musical theater, so in our spirited conversations (which could go on for hours), he paid close attention to how our six characters would intersect with complex political situations and historical events,” Daniel Lazour says.
For Masoud, “We Live in Cairo” doesn’t just provide a unique and vivid retelling of Tahrir Square and its aftermath—it also demonstrates to audience members the depth and durability of the democratic yearnings that exist among young people in Egypt and in the Arab world more broadly. Even as the country has sunk back into the clutches of authoritarianism, says Masoud, “the desires and passions that created that dramatic revolution still exist, and they remain unfulfilled.” According to Masoud, “Many around the world have come to view the so-called Arab Spring as a failure, and have written off the prospects for Arab democracy. “We Live in Cairo” reminds us that the Arab Spring was a process, that it is still ongoing, and that the people who sparked it are not going away.”
Video
Harvard community members joined the Ash Center for a Democracy in Hard Places Initiative event featuring Larry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Book
In Defending Democracy in an Age of Sharp Power, editors William J. Dobson, Tarek Masoud, and Christopher Walker bring together leading analysts to explain how the world’s authoritarians are attempting to erode the pillars of democratic societies—and what we can do about it.
Feature
Shady ElGhazaly Harb MC/MPA 2023, a prominent youth activist during the 2011 uprising, finds new ways to understand the continuing struggle for democracy in Egypt during his time at Harvard Kennedy School.
