SCE Community Lecture Series 8
Monday, May 23, 2016
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Ewart Memorial Hall, AUC Tahrir Square
Event Type
(none)
Department
School of Continuing Education
Event Url
As part of the School of Continuing Education's (SCE) Community Lecture series, Reem Bassiouney, associate professor of applied linguistics, will deliver a lecture titled, "Religion and Identity in Modern Egyptian Public Discourse."
In modern Egypt, language is used as the linchpin for an Egyptian
identity that is perceived to be a coherent and holistic one. Public
discourse tackles the thorny issue of religious differences between
Christians and Muslims by using two strategies: foregrounding and
backgrounding. That is, in mainstream public discourse, religious
differences are undermined and religion as an inclusive general
belief system is highlighted. Egyptian public discourse attempts to
convey the following two messages to the Egyptian target audience:
1) “We” speak the same language or code, so we belong to the
same community of practice and are, therefore, the same people,
regardless of our religious affiliations; and 2) Religion is important in
identity formation, but social, ethnic or historical similarities between
Christians and Muslims are more salient in identity formation. Data
used to verify these two claims include online articles, movies and
patriotic songs.