Jan Nowak

I am a DPhil student in International Relations at Merton College under the supervision of Patricia Owens. I am broadly interested in how military thought, and thought on war more generally, is constitutive of the International itself. My current project explores the intellectual history of hybrid war, examining its development as a political and intellectual project among Cold War-era defence intellectuals. My research is generously funded by the Clarendon Fund and Merton College.

The Code of Karam: How Literature Shapes Post-Revolutionary Social Spaces in Cairo

In this talk, I will present my upcoming book project on the role of literary practices in recreating spaces of sociability and solidarity in post-revolutionary Cairo. Over the past two decades, Egypt’s literary worlds have been reconfigured by two major phenomena. First, the digital disruption of publishing since the mid-2000s has expanded access to literary authorship, allowing many new writers to enter the market.

Stranger Visions: Ghuraba’ and Egypt’s Ideological Crisis

My paper examines a moment of ideological crisis in modern Egyptian history, refracted through the film Ghuraba’(strangers, directed by Sa‘d ‘Arafa and written by ‘Arafa and Ra’fat al-Mihi). The film was screened in 1973, at a postcolonial inflection point in which Marxism, existentialism and an extreme formulation of Islamism were all depicted as exhausted and inadequate. Ghuraba’ gropes toward, but stops short of fully articulating, an Islamic moral engagement with secular society and ideology.

Seeds in the Rubble: Cultural Vitality in the Arab World

The past century has been a time of great turmoil in much of the world. Europe, perhaps, bore the brunt of this turmoil, with millions killed and entire cities, such as Rotterdam, Dresden, and Warsaw largely reduced to rubble along with their museums, and cultural institutions. The Arab World has also suffered its share of conflicts, compounding the adverse impact of colonialism on everyday life and culture.

Food and Language: Rhetorical-Cultural Excavations in Arab Heritage / الطعام والكلام: حفريات بلاغية ثقافية في التراث العربي

Winner of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2025 for Literary and Art Criticism, Dr Said Laouadi, will be in conversation with Professor Michael Willis and Professor Eugene Rogan on his book 'الطعام والكلام: حفريات بلاغية ثقافية في التراث العربي' / 'Food and Language: Cultural Excavations in Arab Heritage’ (2023).

Translation from Arabic to English will be provided by Taj Kandoura.

About the book:

Safe Corridor

About the book:
‘Safe Corridor’ is a bold, unforgettable novel of war, imagination, and survival. Thirteen-year-old Kamiran is fleeing the collapse of Syria when his body begins to harden—literally—turning to chalk. As his transformation unfolds, he pours his memories, secrets, and darkly funny confessions into a piece of chalk he stole at school. Through the eyes of this precocious, resilient boy, Safe Corridor explores what it means to survive the unthinkable—with tenderness, fury, and imagination.
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