Our Alumna Dina El-Sharnouby (now American University of Cairo) will talk about "Youth in a Changing World: The Egyptian Uprising of 2011 and the Political Imaginaries of Revolutionary Youth". Her presentation is part of the Citizenship Lectures at Potsdam university, which this winter focus on "Social Movements, Protest and Contention in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa".

With the wake of the Arab uprisings, primarily young men and women rose up to demand 'bread, freedom, and social justice'. Though it does not come as a surprise that it is foremost the young who would take to the streets, the wave of Arab uprisings suggests the rise of a new youth politics departing drastically from previous revolutionary practices and thought. Generally speaking the Tahrir occupation of 2011 in Egypt was characteristic for its leaderful and cross-ideological mobilization techniques, thus suggesting a different practice of revolutionary politics today. What constitutes the political imaginaries of Egyptian revolutionary activists as reflected in their political practices? This talk will discuss and debate the meaning of the horizontal character of revolt in light of the Egyptian uprising of 2011. It will argue that horizontal social movements suggest a new politics revolved around questions of sharing power instead of seizing it as was the case in previous revolutionary struggles opening new discussions in relation to leadership models, mobilization strategies, and forms of organization.