October 22 2024 (Tuesday) 2:30 – 7 pm

if you are unable to attend in person .. send me your contact to (egyptweekkw@gmail.com) . . . and I will send you the zoom link

Alexandra Kinias, founder and CEO of Women of Egypt Network. Kinias holds a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering. After moving to the U.S., she became a screenwriter, novelist, travel advisor, and freelance market research consultant on Egyptian women’s issues. A women’s rights advocate and public speaker, her work appeared in various outlets in MENA and the U.S. Her movie Cairo Exit won the Best Non-European Film award at the Independent European Film Festival. Kinias also founded WoEgypt Initiative to empower Egyptian women, highlight key issues to drive positive change. Celebrating her 60th Birthday, she summited Mountain Kilimanjaro, to challenge age stereotypes

Adel Darwish
an Alexandria, Egypt born British author, historian, political commentator and a veteran journalist, based at the Press Gallery of the House Of commons in the Palace of Westminster. As a broadcaster Adel continues to contribute, mostly live, to major national and international networks on a variety of subjects. His expertise on international affairs covers conflict, conflict resolution, water politics, and has worked for most Fleet Street papers as a foreign correspondent covering Africa and the Middle East since the Six-day war in 1967 through to the late 1980s. He knew and had meetings with most of the period leaders of the region. As author, he published several books including : Alexandria Adieu: A Personal History: 1939-1960; Unholy Babylon: The Secret History of Saddam’s War; Water Wars: Coming Conflicts in the Middle East; The Edge of War: Kuwait’s Underground Resistance, Khafji 1990-1991. In the field of Drama, he published many film and theatre critiques and as theatre producer and director, Darwish has been involved in British theatre, with some of his plays performed at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Young Vic and several Fringe theatres in London during the 1970s. Most of his plays were adaptations of poems and short stories from Africa, especially from Egypt. Darwish introduced 20th century Egyptian Drama in English to British Theatre goers Between 1970 and 1982 in English production of scores of plays by Egyptian playwrights. Among them Tawfik el-Hakim; Alfred Farag; Mahmoud Diab; Ali Salem (Salim); Mikhail Roman. Darwish also produced plays by other African writers like Libyan novelist and dramatist Ahmed Faqih . He also produced works from Latin America like Pablo Neruda

Ronald Moreno Cicurel
mathematician and author of “memoires” of his early life in Egypt (he is grandson of Salvatore Cicurel who founded the famous department stores in Egypt. He is the son of Salvator Cicurel and Huguette (nee Rofé). Ronald was born at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza in 1945. His family was forced to leave Egypt in 1957 to settle first in Milan and two years later in Lausanne where they obtained Swiss nationality. Ronald did his primary education in a small school in the Cairo suburb of Meadi, at the Cours Morin in Zamalek, then at the Lycée français du Caire before leaving Egypt. He continued his education at the Lycée Alessandro Manzoni in Milan, at the Collège Cantonal du Belvédère in Lausanne, to conclude his secondary studies at the gymnasium of Cité in the math / science section where he obtained his baccalaureate. He pursued university studies and obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Lausanne in 1968, followed in 1973 by a doctorate in science. He teaches at the universities of Lausanne and Geneva, actively participates in international congresses and seminars in Switzerland, France, England and the USA. From 1980 to 2000 he participated in the creation and development of several commercial enterprises in various fields, including education and publishing. He will carry out activities in Switzerland, Indonesia, India, South Africa and Brazil in particular. In 2003, he returned to university research as a lecturer at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is interested in the rapid developments of neuroscience and contributes to the launch and development within EPFL of a computer brain simulation project. Ronald left EPFL in 2016, but continued his research to this day examining how mathematics, epistemology and physics can contribute to the knowledge of the brain and mental space of primates. He is also a lecturer and the author of a dozen books, mostly scientific

Dr Isaac Friesen
Isaac is Assistant Professor of Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. His research brings together anthropological and historical perspectives on political conflict, religion, and imperialism. He has lived in Egypt for four years (including throughout the 2011-2013 revolutionary period), and has a forthcoming manuscript on the Muslim attendance of Coptic spaces in Egypt.

Isaac’s presentation will centre on the subject of diversity in contemporary Egypt. His discussion of religious, socioeconomic and political difference in the Egyptian context will connect, more broadly, to current debates around diversity, difference and conflict across the Middle East, Canada and the wider world

Dr George Dimitri Sawa
was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and in addition to being an amazing oud & Qanoon player and author he has a PhD in Arabic historical musicology from University of Toronto in 1983 and is an independent scholar in Arabic music theory, performance and literature. He taught medieval, modern and sacred music at the University of Toronto and York . He has over 50 years experience in Arabic performance, history and theory; and has performed and lectured worldwide. and has published over seventy articles and nine books that include translations of medieval treatises, performance practice, music education, and a treatise on musical ornaments. His 5 CDs and 3 DVDs include historical performances and educational material for belly dancers. George is the recipient of numerous awards including the Livetime Achievement Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for his research in Arabic music history

Samy Harak
though a lawyer by profession, he has spent over 40 years researching and writing er and writer about the progression of the “Egyptian” spoken language, following it from its roots in ancient Egypt through the Coptic and ensuing influences all the way to the present

this portion is in Arabic, I will translate if required

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BACK TO ALEXANDRIA . . . followed by interactive zoom with director Tamer Ruggli

after twenty years of absence, Sue must return to her native Egypt to see her mother Fairouz, an eccentric aristocrat from whom she has been estranged. This surprising journey, leading her from Cairo back to Alexandria, tinted with distant memories, nostalgia, and mixed feelings about her past, will allow Sue to become the empowered woman she ought to be

Tamer Ruggli,

a Swiss-Egyptian filmmaker, born in 1986, spent his formative years in Kinshasa, Riyadh, Vienna, and Zürich. He pursued his education at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) and further refined his writing skills at the New York Film Academy. Tamer received the SSA Scholarship (Swiss Society of Authors) and the Prix CÉCI Le Moulin d’Andé for his first feature-length film, RETOUR EN ALEXANDRIE. Tamer’s films have been recognized and awarded by numerous prestigious international film festivals