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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

Interview Assignment for JRMC 2202-04

Interview Transcipt


Interviewer: Zeina Fouda
Narrator: Stephen Urgola
Date: 5/03/2014
Place: Stephen Urgolas Office,
Rare Books and Special Collections Library,
American University in Cairo
Professor Kim Fox
Date Completed: 15
th
March 2014









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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview


5
th
Match 2014
Persons present: Zeina Fouda
Stephen Urgola

Fouda: Good morning (chuckles), uh so thank you for having me and letting me interview
so soon, lets start by your name and where you work and...

Urgola: Uh sure, Im Stephen Urgola. Im the university archivist in the Rare Books and
Special Collections Library at the American University in Cairo. Uhm, Im from New
York, in the United States originally, came to Egypt in 2001. Im 41 years old and uh,
Im excited to be interviewing about this topic,

Fouda: So, Ive noticed that youve spent most of your career doing archives. I mean, you
have a Masters degree in history, right, and youve worked at the Columbia
University as the assistant director of archives and in many other institutes. So why
did you choose to work with archives? What compelled you to?

Urgola: Mm, it was a bit by accident. I was always interested in history, as a subject,
something I read a lot as a kid and I was always interested in historical places. And
uh, when I was an undergraduate at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts,
USA, uh.. in my sophomore year, my second year, I was given the opportunity to do
work study and among the different departments at the university, at the college,
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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

that had openings, one was the university archives and it looked the most
interesting and so I worked, uh in the archives for the rest of my time in college
and I found it just a very interesting kind of place to work and a place of a lot of
interesting stories and hidden secrets, uh that were buried there I guess and then
unburied when they were made available to researchers so thats what drew me
into the field. Uhm, I didnt know exactly what I wanted to do after I graduated uh
so speaking with my former employers there after college, they suggested graduate
school and Id always thought about maybe history for graduate school but, I didnt
know the exact application I would pursue, would I become a professor or a
teacher? And so doing graduate work in history with archives training, which I did
in New York University, seemed like a great combination, so kind of a practical
application to that academic field.

Fouda: Okay, so after working in the states, what brought you to AUC to work at the
archives here?

Urgola: Uh, lets see. I had, after graduate school, I had taken a job back at my college
working on an archives collection there and I had thought thatuh.. I felt like I was
back where I started, in a way, and I always wanted to live abroad and try living in a
place overseas and so I started looking for those kind of opportunities but there
werent many in my field, I was restricted basically to English language materials.
Many other countries with English language materials already had strong archival
work forces, so they werent likely to be recruiting from overseas. So just looking at
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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

the job Internet list serves for archives I saw American University in Cairo and I was
immediately intrigued by that, and so I applied for the job. I didnt take the job
immediately; I had another couple of positions that I took briefly but then I was able
to step into this position. But it wasnt out of special interest in the Middle East or
uh the Arab World it was just sort of by accident because it was an English
language institution overseas.

Fouda: (laughs) Right. Yeah. So, now youre in Egypt, and just for the fun of it basically?
Okay thats cool. Uh, well because Egypt has rich history and Im sure that AUC
documents also the history of Egypt itself and all sorts of institutions, so have you
found anything thats... do you have a lot of archives for Ancient Egyptian history or
Egyptian history in general?

Urgola: Okay, Uh Well we dont have much on Ancient Egypt in the actual archival
holdings of the Rare Books Library. We do have a lot of books related to Ancient
Egypt and Egyptology, thats one of our main collecting areas, but in the archives we
dont really have things like papyrus or uh anything older than, say, 250 years old.
The books go much older but the archival material is not all that old. But uh,,. that
was also one of the biggest attractions of this job and something that Ive always
enjoyed very much. Im dealing the universitys history so thats uhan interesting
work, AUC has an interesting background and role but I also get the chance to work
with these collections that are donated by people whove made an impact in Egypt
and the Middle East; collections that are really sought out by researchers around the
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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

world and I think setting in the United States, I wouldnt have that opportunity,
because you generally wouldnt havein a bigger place you wouldnt have the
archives work with the primary source documents work, with the other collections
work together and I have that chance. Uhand even if I did have that chance in the
states, it would be much on a much more limited scale, it might be archives for a
university plus recording the history of a town or a state but not for the entire
country, so thats a big benefit here.

Fouda: Okay, thats good. Uh Are there any ongoing projects on right now that the AUC
archives are building on? Uhm, Ive seen the room outside, I think the Mutanabbi
Project, its a really interesting display to be honest, I really liked it! So uh..?

Urgola: We have too many projects to list and I have not been involved in the Al-Mutanabbi
Street Exhibition but it looks to be one of the best ones the Rare Books Library has
ever done. Uhits actually a good example of how everyone working here does
multiple things. So our regional architecture curator, who deals with architectural
plans and drawings is, uh shes also an artist and so shes the one whos mounted
that exhibition. Uh, but in the archives, for example we have on going projects to
organize and give access to personal papers collections, Hoda Sheraawy is a big one
that weve been working on, were almost finished. Weve also got ongoing projects
on some of the earliest AUC offices that did very interesting work dealing with
promotional events, bringing speakers onto campus in the 1920s about various
social problems, social issues in Egypt. Uhthose offices also did things like make
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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

outreach projects into the villages and so those collections in the 1920s, 30s and
40s are very interesting and we have someone working on that. Other kinds of
projects we have are in the digital fields so were doing things like digit-izing some
old AUC records, like trustees minutes, digital projects related to our historical
photograph collections and another big thing is oral history sort of like this one
here. Were making interviews for people involved in the revolution as part of the
University on the Square project. Weve had about 300 over the last three years and
its ongoing. And thats a project where we also collect photographs and artifacts
and were going to make them accessible too.

Fouda: That sounds very interesting. Thank you so much for your time.
Urgola: Great!
Fouda: And uh I look forward to seeing you again!
Urgola: Great! Thanks very much!
Fouda: Thank you!








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Zeina Fouda Stephen Urgola Interview

Glossary:
American University in Cairo (AUC) The university where the interview was held and it is
also where Urgola currently works.
College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts The college where Urgola did his undergraduate
studies.
Al- Mutanabbi Street Project: An ongoing exhibition done in the Rare Books and Special
Collections Library in AUC.
Columbia University A university in New York, USA, where Urgola worked as Assistant
Director of the universitys archives.
University on the Square An ongoing project managed by the Rare Books and Special
Collections library where they interview people about the past revolutions that have
occurred in Egypt.