Giedrė Šabasevičiūtė is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and an associated researcher at CEDEJ in Cairo. Trained as sociologist (EHESS, 2015), her research focuses on marginal literary and intellectual communities in Egypt, examined through the study of the practices and sites of sociability that sustain them. In her previous project, she examined the Egyptian man of letters-turned Islamic activist Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) to understand how the Arab intellectual canon has been constructed in opposition to literary cultures cast as unmodern on account of their religious character. Using archival research, the project aimed to uncover his networks and sites of intellectual sociability in interwar Egypt, revealing how they shifted over the course of his career and ultimately lead to his exclusion from Egypt‘s official intellectual history. This work culminated in the publication of Sayyid Qutb: An Intellectual Biography (Syracuse University Press, 2021).

In her current research, she maintains her interest in marginal literary cultures beyond established circuits of recognition by focusing on amateur literary communities in Cairo constituted within the associative world of literary clubs. Through the site of a literary club, she examines how writing and publishing fiction, as well as attending literary clubs, open up new life possibilities for middle-aged Egyptians living under the post-revolutionary regime. Provisionally titled Enchanted Lives: Midlife and Literary Self-Making in Cairo, this research will be published as a monograph by Syracuse University Press. Her work has appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Critique, the Journal of Middle East Women‘s Studies, Middle East – Topics & Arguments, L‘Année du Maghreb, Critique Internationale, and Egypte, Soudan, Mondes Arabes (ESMA). She has also published chapters in edited volumes.

During the next two years (2026-2028), she will be working with Hélène Martinelli (ENS Lyon) and Ali al-Moussaoui (Charles University) within the Tandem Program AV ČR-CNRS on the project Paper Bonds: Bookmaking for Kin, Friends and the Self in Contemporary Europe and the Middle East.

Within this project, she will explore the self-publishing practices of marginalized literary communities in Cairo.

CV

Employment:

· 2020 – present: Research Fellow, Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

· 2019 – 2022: Lecturer, Charles University, Department of Middle Eastern Studies.

· 2015 – 2020: Postdoctoral Researcher, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences.

· 2015 – 2016: Lecturer, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, Vilnius University

· 2015 – 2016: Lecturer, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University.

Education and Academic Qualifications

· 2015: Ph.D, sociology, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

· 2008: M. A, sociology, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

· 2006: B. A, Arabic Language and Literature, Sorbonne IV-Paris.

· 2004: B. A. Arabic Studies, Oriental Institute, Vilnius University.

Awards and Grants

· 2025 – 2007: 2 year grant for a project Paper Bonds: Bookmaking for Friends, Kin, and the Self in Europe and the Middle East (2026-2028), TANDEM by CNRS, Czech Academy of Sciences, and CEFRES (with Hélène Martinelli).

· 2022 – 2025: 3 years grant for a project Pathways of Literary Professionalization in Twenty-First Century Egypt (2023-2025), GAČR (The Czech Science Foundation).

· 2022 – The Award of the Czech Academy of Sciences for the outstanding scientific results for the monograph Sayyid Qutb, an Intellectual Biography (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2021)

· 2021-2023 – Mobility Grant Barrande French-Czech Mobility Grant. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Funding for mobility and scientific exchange between the Oriental Institute (Prague), IREMAM (Aix-en-Province), and Paris-8 Vincennes (Paris)

· 2016, 2019, 2021 – Awarded grants Strategy AV21 -Czech Academy of Sciences to organize cultural events and conferences in Prague.

· 2011-2013: Ph.D. scholarship, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CNRS, hosted by

CEDEJ (Cairo).

Selected List of Publications (from 2018)

Monographs:

· Sayyid Qutb. An Intellectual Biography (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2021).

Edited Journal Issues:

· “Ruins of the Welfare State. Material Legacies of a Socialist Middle East”, Egypte, Soudan, Mondes Arabes, CEDEJ, nr. 25, 2025 (with Carl Rommel, Uppsala University)

Peer-reviewed Articles (selection)

· 2025. “The High Art Unites Us’. Staging Unity through Honoring in Cairo’s Literary Clubs, Middle East Critique, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2025.2488081

· 2024. “Creating Spaces for Culture: Self-Efforts and the Production of Marginality in Cairo’s Cultural Palaces,” ESMA, Issue 25, 202, 163-182.

· 2024. « Introduction: Ruins of the Welfare State. Material Legacies of a Socialist Middle East », ESMA, n° 25, 163-182 (with Carl Rommel).

· 2023. “Women Writing in Cairo: Midlife, Self-Care, and the Informal World of Literature”, Journal of Middle East Women Studies, November, Vol. 20, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-10815483

· 2020. “Sociabilités et ruptures biographiques. Retour sur la conversion islamiste de Sayyid Qutb», Critique Internationale, no. 88 (2020/3), 131-150. https://doi.org/10.3917/crii.088.0131

· 2018. “Sayyid Qutb and the Crisis of Culture in Late 1940s Egypt”, International Journal of Middle East Studies 50 (1), 85-101.

Book Chapters:

· 2021 “When a Coterie Becomes a Generation. Intellectual Sociability and the Narrative of Generational Change in Sayyid Qutb’s Egypt”, in Yasmine Berriane et al (eds.) Methodological Approaches to Societies in Transformation. How to Make Sense of Change (Palgrave Macmillan).

Selected Conference Presentations (from 2022)

· 2025 – “The Code of Karam. How Literature Shapes Post-Revolutionary Spaces in Cairo?” Middle East Centre, St. Anthony’s, Oxford University, December 4.

· 2025 – « Produire de “vrais livres”: l’essor de l’autoédition et la valeur de l’objet-livre en Egypte » in the conference « Le livre fait par tous : actualités et perspectives de la recherche sur l’autoédition », Bibliothèque Nationale de France-Richelieu, Paris, November 28.

· 2025 – “Working for Pleasure, not Money: Cairo’s Associative Literary Scene and its Alternative Value System”, 5th ISA Forum of Sociology, Rabat, Morocco, 11 July.

· 2025 – « In the Interstices of a Changing City: Literary Place-Making Practices in Cairo », 10th European Conference of African Studies, Prague, 27 June.

· 2025 – “Between Gatekeeping and Self-Making. The Book in Cairo’s Economy of Self-Publishing”, international conference Entrer en Littérature/Entering Litterature ENS Lyon, 27-29 March.

· 2025. “In the Cracks of the Welfare State. Midlife and Literary Self-Reinvention in Egypt”, CEDEJ, February 11, Cairo.

· 2023. “Writers, Not Civil Servants. Running Culture Palaces in Cairo”, MESA, Montreal, Canada, November 2.

· 2023. « Cultural Life in the Cracks of the Projects. The Development of Culture Palaces under Nasser and al-Sisi. » The BRISMES Conference, Exeter, UK, 3-5 July

· 2022. « Out of Place. Class Aspirations and Mobilities Among Egyptian Fiction Writers ». Congress SeSaMO, Naples, Italy, 23 June.

· 2022. « The Currency of Literature. Writers and the Practice of Takrim in Cairo’s Literary Clubs », EGYCLASS Conference, CEDEJ, Cairo, November 5.

· 2022 – « L’Etat se retire: la fabrication du « soi littéraire » au sein des Palais de la culture au Caire », Insaniyyat Congress, Tunis, Tunisia, September 22.

Academic Service:

· 2020-Present. Member of the Administrative and Editorial Board of Egypte, Soudan, Mondes Arabes, published by CEDEJ, Cairo.

· 2020 – Present: Co-editor of the “Sources and Documents” in Egypte, Soudan, Mondes Arabes.

· 2025-2028: Member of the Scientific Committee of BULAC (La Bibliothèque des Langues et Civilisations), Paris.