Linda Herrera, associate professor of education policy, organization and leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, lectures on “Social Media Wars in Revolutionary Egypt” at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 in Garrison Theater. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Herrera, a social anthropologist with regional specialization in the Middle East and North Africa, explores whether youth in Egypt and the wider Middle Eastern region are growing in their influence as they turn to an ever-powerful arsenal of technologies to challenge established power elites. Or, she asks, are these technologies merely reinforcing a highly unequal form of power that favors the entrenched who then become the new power elites?
Herrera received her bachelor’s degree in Middle East studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a master’s degree in anthropology and sociology from the American University in Cairo before going on to receive a doctorate degree in comparative and international education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
This event is part of the Scripps College Humanities Institute’s fall lecture series, “Social Media/Social Change: Negotiating Access, Control, and Unrest in the Information Age.” Throughout the fall semester, distinguished scholars and experts explore, both at a local and a global level, the big-picture implications and the practical realities surrounding social networking and online collaborations. For more information about the lecture series, please call (909) 621-8237.