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 a contributing editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, a policy journal published by the American University in Cairo. 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, Harper’s, Modern Painters, The New York Review Daily, The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, New York Magazine, Nieman Reports, 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.
Blog: Five Cartoons about Cairo’s Cathedral Bombing
December 16, 2016 Cartoonists for Egyptian newspapers regularly draw in the wake of a tragedy. On December 11, a suicide bomber attacked attacked St. Paul and St. Peter Church, leaving 25 dead and 50 injured. While Egypt has experienced targeted assassinations, attacks on police outposts, and a plane crash in recent times, the strike on the ...
Mock Election: Egypt’s Pageantry, and America’s
November 14, 2016 The day before America’s presidential election, the American University in Cairo hosted a mock vote. My colleagues from the Cairo Review of Global Affairs handed out ballots to students. It was part of a promotional effort for the Fall 2016 issue, which focuses on “Democracy Deficits,” in America, Russia, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Lo ...
Cairo Comics, Between High and Low Art
I presented this paper, originally entitled “Alterative Origins of Arab Comics,” at the second annual Cairo Comix Festival on October 4, 2016, hosted at the American University in Cairo. It was part of a seminar day devoted to comics scholarship, including presentations from the British critic Paul Gravett and the French critic Jean-Pierre Mercier. The ...
Jonathan Guyer on Yale University Radio
Current fellow Jonathan Guyer was recently interviewed by Yale University Radio on the implications of the 2016 election results on US-Egypt relations. His full interview can be listened to through the link below. http://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/jonathan-guyer/
Muzzling Musa Kart
ICWA fellow Jonathan Guyer interviewed Musa Kart, a Turkish cartoonist who was detained for his satirical depictions of president Erdogan and the Turkish government. Musa spoke about his experience with government censorship and the importance of humor as a method of protest. Jonathan’s piece about his interview with Musa can be read on his blog. http://oumcartoon.tumblr.com/post/152655950566/muzzling-musa-kart-how-will-they-explain-this-to