Elizabeth Monier
Dr Monier is Assistant Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at the University of Cambridge. She specialises in the contemporary history, politics and society of the Arabic speaking World. Her research interests fall broadly in the fields of Inter-Arab politics, diplomacy and soft power, state-society relations, security and state building, citizenship, identity politics, Christians in the Middle East. Her work focuses mainly on Egypt, Arab Gulf states and Iraq.
Her current research includes a project on Arab intellectual discourses on state-building and minorities, focusing mainly on constitutional development in early twentieth century Egypt and Iraq. She is also working on notions of tolerance and citizenship in the Arab Gulf states, especially as they relate to religious minorities and to public diplomacy and soft power.
Elizabeth was previously a lecturer and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Middle East Studies, University of Cambridge and an associate fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). She has also held fellowships at the London School of Economics and Political Science, GIGA's Middle East Institute and the University of Warwick. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2011 in International Studies. Her thesis focused on the social and political aspects of the national and communal belonging of Coptic Christians in modern Egypt, and in particular the use of the media to manage, contest and negotiate identities, notions of citizenship, and representations of sectarian conflict.
In addition to her academic work, Elizabeth has coordinated a number of research projects on Middle Eastern politics, history, religion and law for non-governmental organisations and has written for the media and policy makers on issues of Middle Eastern affairs. She is a member of the Cambridge Interfaith Forum.
website: https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-elizabeth-monier
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth-Monier
Her current research includes a project on Arab intellectual discourses on state-building and minorities, focusing mainly on constitutional development in early twentieth century Egypt and Iraq. She is also working on notions of tolerance and citizenship in the Arab Gulf states, especially as they relate to religious minorities and to public diplomacy and soft power.
Elizabeth was previously a lecturer and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Middle East Studies, University of Cambridge and an associate fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). She has also held fellowships at the London School of Economics and Political Science, GIGA's Middle East Institute and the University of Warwick. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2011 in International Studies. Her thesis focused on the social and political aspects of the national and communal belonging of Coptic Christians in modern Egypt, and in particular the use of the media to manage, contest and negotiate identities, notions of citizenship, and representations of sectarian conflict.
In addition to her academic work, Elizabeth has coordinated a number of research projects on Middle Eastern politics, history, religion and law for non-governmental organisations and has written for the media and policy makers on issues of Middle Eastern affairs. She is a member of the Cambridge Interfaith Forum.
website: https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-elizabeth-monier
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth-Monier
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Papers by Elizabeth Monier
https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/16981/CREID_Working_Paper_11.pdf?sequence=1
This paper examines whose voices narrate official Coptic heritage, what the in-built biases
in representations of Coptic heritage are and why, and some of the implications of
omissions in narratives of Coptic heritage. It argues that the primary narrator of official
Coptic heritage during the twentieth century was the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox
Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the body that holds authority over the sources of
heritage, such as church buildings and manuscripts, and also has the resources with which
to preserve and disseminate heritage. The Church hierarchy’s leadership was not entirely
uncontested, however, a middle ground was continually negotiated to enable lay Copts to
play various roles and contribute to the articulation of Coptic heritage. Ultimately, though,
alternative voices must operate within the limits set by the Church leadership and also
negotiate the layers of exclusion set by society and state.
This paper concludes that the power politics that shaped Coptic heritage narratives at the
end of the twentieth century are facing transformations, particularly in new social and
communicative spaces provided by new media technology, academia, and the diaspora.
Of particular note is the potential of initiatives to harness new media towards the
preservation and dissemination of the ‘ordinary’ experiences of Coptic heritage that
otherwise would go unheard or unseen. The value of recording this lived, everyday
‘Copticness’, alongside the ‘official’ narratives, is being increasingly recognised,
particularly by diasporic communities who are negotiating new relations to their Church,
national identity, and faith community. The extent to which such developments will reshape patterns of omission and inclusion in Coptic heritage narratives will become clearer
as the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds. At present, efforts to address
omissions are weighted towards adding to the voices communicating ‘Copticness’ and not
to displacing the dominant, pre-existing narratives or the hierarchies behind them
Christians have undertaken a process of retreat or withdrawal from public
life in Egypt. It points to the reduction of political space and media in the
1950s/1960s under president Gamal Abdul Nasser and the subsequent
Islamisation of public spaces since the 1970s under president Anwar
al-Sadat. This article examines some of the practices of retreat employed
by Christians in Egypt and the impact this has on collective identity and
perceptions of belonging to the nation in order to determine if spatial
practices of retreat are isolating or, in fact, empowering vis-a-vis inclusion
in the public space and articulations of Egyptian Christian identities. It
concludes that spatial retreat should not be understood as a withdrawal
from the imaginary of Egypt or from Egyptian territory. In fact, spatial
retreats often proclaim and affirm a Christian presence. These spaces
support lived experiences of Egyptian Christian identity. By doing so, they
contribute to empowering engagement with Egyptian national identity
and heritage
… Read more
Online: http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=1028
Church and the Egyptian state. It argues that although cooperation between Pope
Shenouda and former president Mubarak was based partly on the aim of preventing
Islamists coming to power and threatening the status of non-Muslims, the Church
quickly adapted to a post-Mubarak political environment. This was reflected in the
endurance of old paradigms of relations despite changes in leaders since the revolution
of 25 January 2011. However, the rise in attacks on Copts and Coptic churches indicates
an underlying problem of sectarianism remains, exacerbated by the uprising that these
old paradigms cannot address. This article contends this endemic religious tension and
the failure to find influential spaces outside the Church for Coptic political participation
was exacerbated after the uprising by the decline of a discourse of al-mowatana (active
citizenship), accompanied by the appearance of a counter-discourse of matalib fi’awiya
(factional demands).
This article analyses the representation of Muslim–Coptic relations in the Al-Ahrām newspaper between 2005 and 2010 in the period leading up to the Arab Spring and points as well to the impact of the Arab Spring on Church-state and Muslim-Copt dynamics. The article sets the out the context of pre uprising Egypt and particularly the complex relationship between state, religion a and identity that has been central to the transition so far.
The primary goal is to assess the strategies and discourses used to represent sectarianism. As scholars note, negative representations of the ‘other’ in the media can contribute to shaping and prolonging conflict. Therefore, Al-Ahrām's representation of sectarian incidents is significant for the analysis both of the dynamics of Muslim–Christian relations in Egypt, and of state and church policies towards communal violence. There are three central discourses. (1) The use of selective narratives of history to construct a collective understanding of national unity as a natural state of relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. (2) Displacement of blame, which means constructing inter-religious conflict as alien and external through the use of an ‘us versus them’ paradigm in order to shift responsibility for Egypt's sectarian incidents to ‘outsiders’. (3) The control of extreme religious views through a discourse of ‘extremists versus moderates’.
""""
media and popular uprisings in the specific context of recent social and political trends in
Egypt. This is crucial when attempting to draw conclusions about the factors and
mechanisms that produced Egypt’s January 25, 2011, revolution and, more importantly,
whether social media can contribute to building a new political culture to support the
revolution. Although it took just 18 days of protests to force the resignation of President
Mubarak, constructing a new political culture will be a slower and more challenging
process. If social media are to provide a real channel for political debate and activism,
they must connect with traditional forms of media and civil society. This will ensure that
the dialogue about Egypt’s future remains national rather than retreating to the virtual."
https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/16981/CREID_Working_Paper_11.pdf?sequence=1
This paper examines whose voices narrate official Coptic heritage, what the in-built biases
in representations of Coptic heritage are and why, and some of the implications of
omissions in narratives of Coptic heritage. It argues that the primary narrator of official
Coptic heritage during the twentieth century was the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox
Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the body that holds authority over the sources of
heritage, such as church buildings and manuscripts, and also has the resources with which
to preserve and disseminate heritage. The Church hierarchy’s leadership was not entirely
uncontested, however, a middle ground was continually negotiated to enable lay Copts to
play various roles and contribute to the articulation of Coptic heritage. Ultimately, though,
alternative voices must operate within the limits set by the Church leadership and also
negotiate the layers of exclusion set by society and state.
This paper concludes that the power politics that shaped Coptic heritage narratives at the
end of the twentieth century are facing transformations, particularly in new social and
communicative spaces provided by new media technology, academia, and the diaspora.
Of particular note is the potential of initiatives to harness new media towards the
preservation and dissemination of the ‘ordinary’ experiences of Coptic heritage that
otherwise would go unheard or unseen. The value of recording this lived, everyday
‘Copticness’, alongside the ‘official’ narratives, is being increasingly recognised,
particularly by diasporic communities who are negotiating new relations to their Church,
national identity, and faith community. The extent to which such developments will reshape patterns of omission and inclusion in Coptic heritage narratives will become clearer
as the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds. At present, efforts to address
omissions are weighted towards adding to the voices communicating ‘Copticness’ and not
to displacing the dominant, pre-existing narratives or the hierarchies behind them
Christians have undertaken a process of retreat or withdrawal from public
life in Egypt. It points to the reduction of political space and media in the
1950s/1960s under president Gamal Abdul Nasser and the subsequent
Islamisation of public spaces since the 1970s under president Anwar
al-Sadat. This article examines some of the practices of retreat employed
by Christians in Egypt and the impact this has on collective identity and
perceptions of belonging to the nation in order to determine if spatial
practices of retreat are isolating or, in fact, empowering vis-a-vis inclusion
in the public space and articulations of Egyptian Christian identities. It
concludes that spatial retreat should not be understood as a withdrawal
from the imaginary of Egypt or from Egyptian territory. In fact, spatial
retreats often proclaim and affirm a Christian presence. These spaces
support lived experiences of Egyptian Christian identity. By doing so, they
contribute to empowering engagement with Egyptian national identity
and heritage
… Read more
Online: http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=1028
Church and the Egyptian state. It argues that although cooperation between Pope
Shenouda and former president Mubarak was based partly on the aim of preventing
Islamists coming to power and threatening the status of non-Muslims, the Church
quickly adapted to a post-Mubarak political environment. This was reflected in the
endurance of old paradigms of relations despite changes in leaders since the revolution
of 25 January 2011. However, the rise in attacks on Copts and Coptic churches indicates
an underlying problem of sectarianism remains, exacerbated by the uprising that these
old paradigms cannot address. This article contends this endemic religious tension and
the failure to find influential spaces outside the Church for Coptic political participation
was exacerbated after the uprising by the decline of a discourse of al-mowatana (active
citizenship), accompanied by the appearance of a counter-discourse of matalib fi’awiya
(factional demands).
This article analyses the representation of Muslim–Coptic relations in the Al-Ahrām newspaper between 2005 and 2010 in the period leading up to the Arab Spring and points as well to the impact of the Arab Spring on Church-state and Muslim-Copt dynamics. The article sets the out the context of pre uprising Egypt and particularly the complex relationship between state, religion a and identity that has been central to the transition so far.
The primary goal is to assess the strategies and discourses used to represent sectarianism. As scholars note, negative representations of the ‘other’ in the media can contribute to shaping and prolonging conflict. Therefore, Al-Ahrām's representation of sectarian incidents is significant for the analysis both of the dynamics of Muslim–Christian relations in Egypt, and of state and church policies towards communal violence. There are three central discourses. (1) The use of selective narratives of history to construct a collective understanding of national unity as a natural state of relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. (2) Displacement of blame, which means constructing inter-religious conflict as alien and external through the use of an ‘us versus them’ paradigm in order to shift responsibility for Egypt's sectarian incidents to ‘outsiders’. (3) The control of extreme religious views through a discourse of ‘extremists versus moderates’.
""""
media and popular uprisings in the specific context of recent social and political trends in
Egypt. This is crucial when attempting to draw conclusions about the factors and
mechanisms that produced Egypt’s January 25, 2011, revolution and, more importantly,
whether social media can contribute to building a new political culture to support the
revolution. Although it took just 18 days of protests to force the resignation of President
Mubarak, constructing a new political culture will be a slower and more challenging
process. If social media are to provide a real channel for political debate and activism,
they must connect with traditional forms of media and civil society. This will ensure that
the dialogue about Egypt’s future remains national rather than retreating to the virtual."