WHAT
An international conference, “Creative Cities: Reframing Downtown,” organized by The American University in Cairo (AUC) and Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environment Research (CLUSTER). The conference will showcase comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to issues related to public space, heritage and urban culture, the revitalization of Cairo’s Downtown in the context of gentrification and securitization and urban governance. It will consist of public plenary sessions as well as urban walking tours that aims towards alternative visions for Cairo’s Downtown, informed by local practices in addition to best practices from international contexts.
At the conference, CLUSTER will launch the culmination of their three year research project on Cairo’s Downtown passageways which includes a free publication “Cairo Downtown Passageways: Walking tour,” detailing a walking tour through downtown passageways exploring its cultural and entertainment highlights, spaces of memory and heritage sites. The project also includes a launch of a website that will provide, for the first time, an extensive mapping of downtown’s passageways, featuring interviews with local community members and stakeholders.
WHO
The conference brings scholars, professionals and experts together with local cultural actors, community leaders and stakeholders, including Riham Arram, Cairo Heritage Preservation Unit, Cairo Governor’s Office; Emad Abu Ghazi, former minister of culture, Faculty of Arts, Department of Libraries, Documents and Information, Cairo University; George Arbid, director of Arab Center for Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, AUB; Sahar Attia, head of Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University; Soheir Hawas, Ministry of Culture; Jerold Kayden, Department of Urban Planning and Design, Harvard Univeristy; Ernesto Lopez-Morales, Department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidad de Chile; Nathaniel Bowditch, Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, AUC; Samia Mehrez, Center of Translation Studies, AUC and Mona Abaza, professor of sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, AUC.
WHERE
Oriental Hall; AUC Tahrir Square
WHEN
Saturday, October 31, 2015; 9:00am- 4:00 pm
Sunday, November 1, 2015; 9:00 am- 7:00 pm
