Jonathan Guyer, Author at Institute of Current World Affairs

From Cairo, Jonathan focused on examining connections between cultural currents and political change across the region. He has been living and working in Egypt since 2012, where he is senior editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, a policy journal published by the American University in Cairo. Managing the journal’s digital strategy, Jonathan edits the Cairo Review’s blog and books section. From 2012 to 2013, he was a Fulbright fellow researching political cartoons in Egypt. He previously served as a program associate for the New America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force in Washington, DC, and as assistant editor of Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel. A frequent analyst on Public Radio International, he has contributed to Guernica, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, New York Magazine, Nieman Reports, The Guardian, Salon, and others. His research on Egyptian satire has been cited by the Associated Press, CNN, The Economist, The Nation, New Statesman, Reuters, and TIME, as well a variety of international news outlets. A cartoonist himself, he blogs about Arabic comics and caricature at oumcartoon.tumblr.com.

Posts and Dispatches from Jonathan Guyer:

Arab Cartoonists Respond to the Tragedy in Paris
PRI – Jonathan Guyer spoke with Marco Werman of PRI’s The World about the response of Arab cartoonists and satirists in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and Beirut. In the interview, Jonathan describes the unifying messages coming from Arabic cartoons in response to the tragedies. He also discusses the global impact of terror and the...
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Taking the Mickey Out of Terrorism
Sydney Morning Herald – ICWA Fellow Jonathan Guyer is quoted in a recent Australian article on Arab humor. In the piece, Jonathan describes his observations of the cultural scene in Egypt, saying, “the one thing I find really singular in Egypt is this kind of black humour … in any of the myriad of tragedies that occur there...
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Comics Festivals Across the Middle East
This fall, ICWA is doodling its way across the Middle East. Fellow Jonathan Guyer recently participated in Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Alger, the region’s premier comic con. Speaking on a plenary session entitled “Dis le mois en bulles: La Bande Dessinée et le Dessin dans le monde arabe,” he joined Algerian cartoonists Le...
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Egypt’s Intellectual Situation
September 17, 2015 Painter Adel El-Siwi leads me through his workspace on the fourth floor of a downtown Cairo apartment building. His hands, cargo shorts, pink T-shirt, and Crocs are splattered with paint. Shelves of art, literature, and philosophy books reach the high ceiling. Across the corridor, massive canvases face the wall like unopened presents. Tubes of...
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From Beirut: The Origin Story of Arab Comix
August 30, 2015 Under the banner “Picture stories from here and there,” the Beirut collective Samandal publishes local and international comix. For the uninitiated, comix imply countercultural, illustrated tales for adult audiences. Personal, quirky, and rebellious, comix have no boundaries. The underground art spans from word-heavy narratives in ink to wordless sequential illustrations, reminiscent of...
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Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution
Jonathan Guyer has contributed a chapter to Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution, a forthcoming book from Routledge. His chapter focuses on the translation of Arabic political cartoons. Here is Jonathan’s abstract: This chapter reflects critically on the translation of Arabic political cartoons, both in broad and narrow terms. The questions I address...
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Cairo Art Crime: George Bahgory and the Missing Pieces
July 11, 2015 A source in Beirut tipped me off. Somebody had stolen paintings—two hundred paintings—from Egyptian artist George Bahgory. Five months earlier, I attended the opening of Bahgory’s retrospective. Scores of elegant Cairenes crunched toast with black caviar. They roamed through six rooms of paintings, gazing at six decades of work. In the main...
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A Parking Garage in the Square
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Based in Cairo, I am examining media and visual culture in Egypt and across the Middle East. I have researched comics and satire in the region since 2012. Spending long evenings with cartoonists grappling with the aftermath of the revolution, I discovered that pop culture captures significant and subversive narratives that are...
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Jonathan Guyer in the Media
In the wake of the tragic Charlie Hebdo attack, newly appointed ICWA Fellow Jonathan Guyer has become a media sensation. A specialist on Arabic cartoons and culture, Jonathan is ideally suited to supply a unique Middle East-based perspective on developments. Most recently Jonathan authored a piece for Guernica Magazine. He has written several other articles, including...
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Introducing Jonathan Guyer
Based in Cairo, Jonathan’s Fellowship will be focused on art, mass media, and satire. Watch our video to find out more about Jonathan and his plans for his ICWA Fellowship....
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