Rusha Latif with Isma’il Kushkush

This virtual program brings to readers here (everywhere) the work of Rusha Latif, a San Francisco Bay area writer/researcher and a first-generation Egyptian American. Travels and research undertaken in Cairo a decade ago and since have now become her new book, Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution (American University in Cairo Press).

“As its excellent subtitle indicates, this book debunks many myths related to the so-called leaderless revolutions through meticulous fieldwork investigation of the young leaders of Egypt’s 2011 uprising in its Cairene epicenter. It is a much-needed contribution to the study of the twenty-first century’s pattern of uprisings, showing how a popular movement that goes beyond an ephemeral explosion of anger is necessarily led by more than a virtual network.”―Gilbert Achcar.

“In a moment characterized by the revival of authoritarian regimes and democratic setbacks, this book is a welcome analysis that puts youth activism in post-2011 Egypt in a revealing historic, sociological, and political perspective. Using primary sources, including in-depth interviews with the youth leaders of the January 25 Revolution, Latif’s work offers indispensable insights into the mobilization strategies and trajectories of the youth groups that resisted three successive regimes between 2011 and 2013. Her book powerfully explains how youth activism has forever changed Egyptian politics.”―Amr Hamzawy.

“Rusha Latif . . . embedded herself with young activists and writes about what the world can learn from a defeated revolt.”―Leila Fadel, NPR.

Isma’il Kushkush will join Rusha in conversation. He is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Nation, CNN, the Associated Press (AP), Guernica Magazine, and others. He has covered political, economic, social and cultural stories from Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi, Sweden, Israel the Palestinian territories and the United States. He is currently based in Khartoum, Sudan.