Much scholarship has been devoted to debates around how global inequalities of knowledge production arise from asymmetric power relations and disparities in access to material resources, as well as values and practices that prioritize certain academic disciplines and research outputs over others. The central role played by universities in producing both knowledge and researchers is similarly acknowledged, with the doctorate increasingly recognized as a crucial phase in establishing both. Bounded Knowledge: Doctoral Studies in Egypt explores these debates from a uniquely Egyptian perspective. It provides a fresh, historical analysis of how doctoral studies evolved in Egypt and an ethnographic inquiry into the actual conditions of knowledge production in the country's public universities, with focus on the humanities and social sciences. Although it is commonplace to speak of international collaborations in knowledge production, institutional settings and material conditions are so uneven as to make the fiction of equality impossible to sustain. The chapters in this book, by social scientists within and outside Egypt, look closely at how such academic hierarchies are reinforced in the context of the internationalization of research. They also look at the ways in which notions of socially responsible research, common the world over, are translated in the particularly Egyptian context: how research topics are discussed, how doctoral studies are organized, and ultimately, how society thinks about research.

An ethnographic study of how doctoral-level research in the social sciences and humanities is produced in Egypt

About the Author
Daniele Cantini is a social anthropologist based at the University of Halle, Germany, where he also serves as coordinator of the Graduate School "Society and Culture in Motion." His regional focus is the contemporary Middle East, in particular Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, where he lived for many years and conducted research on youth, university systems, subjectivity, religion, migration, and knowledge production. He is the author of Youth and Education in the Middle East: Shaping Identity and Politics in Jordan (2016).

Reviews
Bounded Knowledge offers unique insights into the vastly understudied subject of knowledge production in the social sciences and humanities in Egyptian universities. The authors deftly tackle critical issues around internationalization, censorship and academic freedom, gender, and religion in the academy. This edited volume is a valuable sociology of knowledge in itself, and a highly welcome addition to the literature on doctoral education, state power, and counterpower in Egypt. * Linda Herrera, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *
This is a vital read for scholars and students of higher education in Egypt and the Arab region. In this ethnographic inquiry, the authors take us on a journey into the doctoral phase in humanities and the social sciences in Egyptian universities. As they do that, they provide significant insights into what constitutes knowledge, the material conditions of knowledge production in Egyptian academic institutions today, and how doctoral students navigate a difficult terrain before they earn a formal academic credential. * Moushira Elgeziri, Arab Council for the Social Sciences *
Much more than a review of doctoral studies in the social sciences at Egyptian universities, Bounded Knowledge successfully integrates different genres, multiple narratives, and competing frames: the transmission and uses of knowledge, institutional design, and social practices. * Iman Farag, independent researcher *
A pioneering analysis of doctoral education in Egypt, Bounded Knowledge focuses on the social sciences. This is to my knowledge the first full-scale discussion of doctoral education anywhere in the Arab world published in English. * Philip G. Altbach, Boston College *



Book Information
ISBN 9789774169861
Author Daniele Cantini
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint The American University in Cairo Press
Publisher The American University in Cairo Press