Nefissa Naguib

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Nefissa Naguib is Professor of Social Anthropology. Her fieldwork on culturally complex societies has ranged from the Mediterranean basin, to Brazil, Norway, and Spain. 

Research Interests

Thematic: Global Moments, Migrations and Diasporas, Humanitarianism and Welfare, History and Memory, Maritime Lifeworlds, Food and Water, Gender, Crafting and Materiality. 

Regional: Mediterranean, Middle East, Oceans and Seas. 

About

Nefissa Naguib`s work is inspired by her interest to understand the contemporary world and to understand human and more-than-human interactions. Her book Water, Women and Memory: was about water as an agent of history. The book, framed as a postcolonial ethnography, made an ahrgument about writing that attends to complex historic and social dynamics. With the publication of Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East (co-edited with Inger Marie Okkenhaug), she addresses the period between 1850 and 2005, a time span of colonization, occupations, wars and conflicts.  As a follow-up, Nefissa co-produced War, Women, Welfare in Jerusalem (nominated for Al Jazeera documentary film festival 2010). 

Her monograph Nurturing Masculinities: Men, Food and Family in Contemporary Egypt is a reframing of gender in the Middle East. It contributes to the transnational gendered representations of men and women in Arab societies. Her most recent book Reconceiving Muslim Men: Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious Times (co-edited with Marcia C. Inhorn) describes new ways of being men, despite the persistence of old patriarchal norms, and offers new understandings of the meaning of concepts such as care and nurturing and of gender itself. 

Recently she has gone back to her earlier work on global moments, humanitarianism, migrations and diasporas. She continues to refine her work on history and anthropology, addressing breakthrough events and the politics of memory. Results of this research are evident in her scholarship on following people fleeing wars and the humanitarian aid provided.

Nefissa Naguib retains her interest to bridge the gap between anthropology, social history and global migrations of people and things in her current collaborative projects: 1. In Transit: Migrations and Afterlives across the African Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean. 2. Garden Keepers: Global Mobilities, Botanical Treasures, Knowledge and Practices. 3. Feeling the Heat: Environmental Labor and Care in the Middle East. 4. Picking up the Pieces:  Relief and Everyday Humanitarianism, 1920 – 2025.

Nefissa has advocated multidisciplinarity in her own research and as initiator of international research networks. She is part of the core research team of YALLA: The politics and aesthetics of everyday life in the Middle East and North Africa. Nefissa has served as research leader of Cultures and Politics of Faith Program, and Director of Arab World Program (The Christian Michelsen Institute). She headed the “Muslim Devotional Practice” (The Research Council of Norway),“Everyday Maneuvers” (The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and “Enabling Local Voices: The Gender and Development Forum,” (The Norwegian Program for Development, Research and Education).

Courses taught in English 

SOSANT 2530 Development

SOSANT 2610 The Anthropology of Food

Sosant 2610 The Anthropology of Contemporary Islam 

Sosant 1200 Political Anthropology 

SV9104 PhD Research Ethics 

ANTH 4030 Advanced Anthropological Methods

ANTH 4020 Academic Writing and Project Development

Sosant 9015 Phd Writing and Methods 

For courses that are also taught in Norwegian please click here

Tags: Migrations and Diasporas, Maritime Anthropology, Memory; Religion, Humanitarianism, Material Culture, Food and Water, Mediterranean, Norway, Middle East, The Suez Canal

Publications

  • Naguib, Nefissa & Beyer Broch, Tuva (2022). Introduction: HandsOn. Cultural anthropology. ISSN 0886-7356.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Hands on the Water. Cultural anthropology. ISSN 0886-7356.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). In Transit: Lives and Afterlives in the Suez Canal. An Introduction. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 54(4), p. 725–730. doi: 10.1017/S002074382300003X. Full text in Research Archive
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2019). Body and Soul of a Good Pint: A Note on Nordic Brewing and the Magic of Yeast. . Gastronomica - The Journal of Critical Food Studies. ISSN 1529-3262. 19(4). doi: 10.1525/gfc.2019.19.4.91. Full text in Research Archive
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018). Introduction. In Naguib, Nefissa & Inhorn, Marcia C. (Ed.), Reconceiving Muslim Men: Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious times . Berghahn Books. ISSN 978-1-78533-882-3. p. 1–24.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2018). An Essay on the Anthropology of Humanitarian Shame. . Public Anthropologist. ISSN 2589-1707.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2018). Egypt. In Joseph, Suad (Eds.), Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews. Syracuse University Press. ISSN 978-0-8156-3558-1. p. 39–57.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2018). Casualities of Fatherhood:Syrian Fefugee Men and Nurturance in the Arctic. In Naguib, Nefissa & Inhorn, Marcia C. (Ed.), Reconceiving Muslim Men: Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious times . Berghahn Books. ISSN 978-1-78533-882-3. p. 279–297. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvw04g42.18.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2017). MIDDLE EAST ENCOUNTERS 69 DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE: SYRIAN REFUGEES AND EVERYDAY HUMANITARIANISM IN THE ARCTIC. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 49(4), p. 645–660. doi: 10.1017/S0020743817000630.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2016). The Flag and the Street. In Raudvere, Catharina (Eds.), Contested Memories and the Demands of the Past:History Cultures in the Modern Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan. ISSN 978-3-319-39000-0. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-39001-7.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2016). Humanitarian pluralism: The arctic passage in an age of refugees. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 48(2). doi: 10.1017/S002074381600012X.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2015). Book Review: Live and Die Like a Man:. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 47(2). doi: 10.1017/s0020743815000288.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2014). Brothers in Faith: Islamic Food Activism in Egypt. In Counihan, Carole & Siniscalchi, Valeria (Ed.), Food activism: agency, democracy and economy. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 978-0-85785-833-7. p. 143–158. doi: 10.5040/9781350042155.ch-010.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Shami, Seteny (2013). Occluding Difference: Ethnic Identity and Shifting Zones of Theory on the Middle East and North Africa. In Hafez, Sherin & Slymovics, Susan (Ed.), The Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa: Into the new Millennium. Indiana University Press. ISSN 978-0-253-00746-9.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2013). Aesthetics of a Relationship: Women and Water. In Wagner, John Richard (Eds.), The Social Life of Water. Berghahn Books. ISSN 978-0-85745-966-4. p. 82–97.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2013). The compassionate brother: A note on islamic food activism. Food, Culture, and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research. ISSN 1552-8014. 16(3), p. 348–354. doi: 10.2752/175174413X13673466711642.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Eating Rice during Passover: Notes on Sephardic Egyptian Memoires. Kult. ISSN 1904-1594. 8.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Fredagslunsj: Tanker om Istanbul i Kairo. Arr - Idéhistorisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7005.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Ethnography at the Barricades. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 43 . doi: 10.1017/s0020743811000420.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2010). For the love of God: Care giving in the Middle East. Social Sciences and Missions. ISSN 1874-8937. 23(1), p. 124–145. doi: 10.1163/187489410X488549.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2009). Tastes and Fragrances from the Old World: Memoirs by Egyptian Jewish Women. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. ISSN 1473-8481. 9(1).
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). A Nation of Widows and Orphans: Armenian Memories of Relief in Jerusalem. In Naguib, Nefissa & Okkenhaug, Inger Marie (Ed.), Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 978-90-04-16436-9. p. 35–56.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Brittle Images, Lingering pasts: Photographs, Memories and Bereavement. In Håland, Evy Johanne (Eds.), Women, Pain and Death. Rituals and Everyday Life on the Margins of Europe and Beyond. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISSN 1-84718-870-2. p. 170–186.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Storytelling: Armenian Family Albums in the Diaspora. Visual Anthropology. ISSN 0894-9468. 21(3), p. 231–244. doi: 10.1080/08949460801986228.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Women’s Dignity Scorched in Palestine. Anthropology News. ISSN 1541-6151. 48(2).
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Vannmeloner under sengen: Armenere i Kairo minnes mat og sult. Arr - Idéhistorisk tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7005.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). “The Open Wound”: Egyptian Amnesia about the Six-Day War. Anthropology News. ISSN 1541-6151. 51.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). Olive oil and the cultural politics of 'Denominaciones de Origen' in Andalusia. In Kaiser, Matthias & Lien, Marianne Elisabeth (Ed.), Ethics and The Politics of Food. Wageningen Academic Publishers. ISSN 90-8686-008-7. p. 292–297.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). The fragile tale of Egyptian Jewish cuisine: Food Memoirs of Claudia Roden and Colette Rossant. Food and Foodways. ISSN 0740-9710. 14(1), p. 35–53. doi: 10.1080/07409710600556860.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Stones and Stories: Engaging with complex emergencies. In Okkenhaug, Inger Marie & Flaskerud, Ingvild (Ed.), Gender, Religion and change in the Middle East. Berg Publishers. ISSN 1845201981. p. 175–191.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). "Life upside down". Women and Silent Crises in the Middle East. Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e-Niswan. ISSN 1024-1256. 12(1), p. 23–37.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Thorbjørnsrud, Berit (1996). Midtøsten. In Howell, Signe & Melhuus, Marit (Ed.), Fjern og nær: Sosialantropologiske perspektiver på verdens samfunn og kulturer. Gyldendal Akademisk. ISSN 82-417-0673-1.
  • Thorbjørnsrud, Berit S & Naguib, Nefissa (1994). MIdtøsten, Fjern og Nær. Sosialantropologiske perspektiver på verdens samfunn og kulturer. Gyldendal Akademisk.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1992). Ønske om et fotfeste. In Kristofersen, Ove (Eds.), Unge Flyktninger i Norge - 50 års erfaring. Kommuneforlaget AS. ISSN 82-7242-863-6.

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  • Naguib, Nefissa & Inhorn, Marcia C. (2018). Reconceiving Muslim Men: Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious times . Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78533-882-3. 335 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2015). Nurturing Masculinities: Men, Food and Family in Contemporary Egypt. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-4773-0553-9. 158 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & de Vries, Bert (2010). People´s movement in time and space. BRIC. ISBN 978-82-7453-082-9. 172 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & De Vries, Bert (2010). Movements of people in time and space : heureux qui comme Ulysses a fait un beau voyage. BRIC. ISBN 9788274530829. 176 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2009). Women, Water and Memory. Recasting Lives in Palestine. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9789004167780. 200 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2009). Women, water and Memory: Recasting Lives in Palestine. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9789004167780. 173 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2009). Food and Foodways in the Middle East. Birzeit University. ISBN 82-7453-045-4. 190 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2009). Foodways in the Middle East. BRIC. ISBN 8274530454. 190 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Okkenhaug, Inger Marie (2008). Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-16436-9. 239 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Knowing Water. Universitetet i Bergen. ISBN 82-7453-028-4. 250 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Knowing water. Lower Jordan Publications. ISBN 82-7453-028-4. 250 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2003). Knowing water: Palestinian women between the spring and the faucet. Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus. ISBN 82-579-4254-5. 289 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1996). Med Kall til Ledelse. Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 82-00-21892-9. 93 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1991). Konflikt og sameksistens. Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 82-00-21405-2. 225 p.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1991). Midt¿sten - konflikt og sameksistens. Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 82-00-21405-2.

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  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Caring for Humans and non-Humans in the Middle East .
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Ports of Care: Keeping it together along the Suez Canal 1940-1945.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). New Directions in Middle East studies .
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Discussant: Rooting with Plants .
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Hands on the Water. Cultural anthropology. ISSN 0886-7356.
  • Beyer Broch, Tuva & Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Introduction: HandsOn. Cultural anthropology. ISSN 0886-7356.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2022). Oceans of Time: The past and present of humans, other-than humans under and above the Suez Canal.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2021). We came with the merging seas.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2021). I am the Ballast Water.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2021). Leaving the Suez: Migration, Diaspora, and the Free Sea.
  • Wig, Ståle & Naguib, Nefissa (2021). The poetics of deep reading: A field guide to getting lost in a book. Fieldsights.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2016). "Spring comes late: Syrian REfugee fathers above the Arctic Circle".
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2016). Malthus in the Arctic: Displacement, Migration and Gender.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2016). Big Hearted, light-blooded Brothers: Muslim men and nurturing.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2015). Eidsvold 24 timer.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2013). Anthropology of Men, Family and Parenting in the Contemporary Middle East. AMEWS-ebulletin.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2013). Revolusjonsfest for de få. Perspektiv. ISSN 1890-2537. 1.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2013). How the other half revolts. Perspektiv. ISSN 1890-2537. 1.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Kvinnenes revolusjon?
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Uprisings in the Arab World.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Muslimsk fromhetspraksis, estetikk og kulturdanning i diaspora.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Turkey in the Middle East.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Transformations in the Arab World.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Changes in the Middle East.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Women, Bread and revolution.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). The whole world is watching us.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Analysis of a revolution.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Kampen for Egypt. [Newspaper]. Dagens Næringsliv.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2011). Basic Ethnography at the Barricades. International Journal of Middle East Studies. ISSN 0020-7438. 43(3). doi: 10.1017/S0020743811000420.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Okkenhaug, Inger Marie (2008). Introduction to Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East. In Naguib, Nefissa & Okkenhaug, Inger Marie (Ed.), Interpreting Welfare and Relief in the Middle East. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 978-90-04-16436-9. p. 1–11.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). The Weight of Memory: The Case of a Private Armenian Photo Collection in the Diaspora.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Egyptian Jews: Reconciling with the homeland.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). The Ethnography of Bread:Anthropology, politics and cuisine.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Adjudicating attachments:Egyptian Jewry and industrial development.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Revisiting Braudel.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Recollections of food among Egyptian Jews.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). Egyptian Jews: Industry, identity, homeland.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2008). “The biggest migration since we left for America”: Revisiting Braudel’s events.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Preserving, Negotiating or Ignoring Armeniannes.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Foodways: Analytical Possibilities in Anthropology.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Photographs, Memory and Mourning.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Armenian Photo Albums in the Diaspora.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Portable Permanence in the Diaspora. The Case of Armenian Jewellers.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). Visitors: Armenian orphans in Jerusalem.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2007). For the love of God.Sisters of St.Elizabeth and orphans in Jerusalem.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). Water and soft threats.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). 'A mission to civilise': An anthropological perspective.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). Olive oil and the cultural politics of 'denomination of origin' in the South of Spain.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). Fredrik Barth and the anthropology of the Middle East.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2006). Orphans of the Diaspora: Armenian survivors in Jerusalem.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Imperialism and anthropological encounters.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Hilma Granqvist.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Cultural Forces.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Hilma Granqvist.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Cultural Forces.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Women and silent crises in the Middle East.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Implications of complex emergencies in the Levant.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Pioneering anthropologists in the Holy Land, 1880-1948.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). Imperialism and anthropological encounters in The Holy Land 1880-1948.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2005). I know who I work for: St.Elizabeth orphanage in Jerusalem.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (2004). Gender studies in the Middle East.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Vaa, Mariken (2003). Models and realities of domestic water supply.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1991). El Set. Midtøsten Forum : Tidsskrift om Midtøsten og Nord-Afrika. ISSN 0802-2291.
  • Norbakk, Mari & Naguib, Nefissa (2014). Love and Responsibility: An ethnography of Masculinities and Marriage in Urban Egypt. Universitetet i Bergen.
  • Naguib, Nefissa & Wirak, Anders (1997). Strengthening Primary Education in Madagascar: The DINA project. Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus.
  • Naguib, Nefissa (1991). Et delt liv. En rapport om unge flyktninger i Norge. Redd Barna.

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Published Oct. 19, 2018 10:56 AM - Last modified Jan. 18, 2024 10:28 AM