Un-Mapping Water Labor: Quantitative Slippages in Occupied Cairo
Abstract
Like any doctoral student, I wanted to write a compelling dissertation with meticulous archival research. The archive is often defined as the state’s official depository of administrative documents. In my case, the National Archives in Egypt has somewhat mythic status: an object of perennial desire that can prove frustratingly difficult to access. And yet, there is a frequently expressed fear among students that a dissertation written without this experience is insufficient. I had plans to use the National Archives to reconstruct a history of urban water. Instead, things turned out differently. When Covid-19 hit in 2020 I had a two-year-old son, and my daughter was born in July of that same year. Caring for young children among myriad covid restrictions foreclosed a return to Egypt, official security clearances in hand or otherwise. It was imperative at that stage to make new plans.