Spring '26 MEIS Talk Series: Dr. Rusha Latif
April 2, 2026, 3:00 PM to April 6, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT
Horizon Hall, 4225
On April 02nd, from 3:00–6:30 p.m. in Merten 1204, Dr. Rayya El Zein will deliver a book talk on "Tahrir, Gaza, and Beyond: Revolution, Liberation, and Praxis”.
In this talk based on her latest book Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution, Rusha Latif will present a provocative new account of Egypt's revolutionaries—one that foregrounds their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation as a key catalyst behind their 2011 revolt. Speaking to these interconnections, this timely presentation will illuminate the revolution's leadership and organizing dynamics and impart urgent lessons from the protagonists behind this historic movement—lessons for everyone hoping to achieve liberation and revolutionary change in the 21st century.
If you plan to attend virtually, please RSVP to receive the Zoom link. For security reasons, a GMU email address is required.
More about the author: Rusha Latif is an Egyptian-American researcher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work focuses on social movements and revolutions, particularly in the Middle East, with an emphasis on leadership, organization, and collective action across lines of class, gender, religion, and ideology. Her book, Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution (AUC Press, 2022), draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Cairo during the 2011 uprising to examine activist agency in the absence of formal leadership. Her research has been featured on NPR, Al Jazeera, and Jadaliyya.
