Our 4 Field Colloquium series presents speakers from the four fields of anthropology on new and topical interests in the field.

Sherine Hamdy will be talking about her work on a graphic novel, Lissa, which takes place against the backdrop of Egypt's popular uprisings. Set in Cairo, the project is informed by Sherine Hamdy’s work in the field of Islamic bioethics – specifically, her ethnographic research in Egypt on the vulnerabilities that expose people to kidney and liver disease, and the difficulties of accessing proper treatment. The work also draws on Coleman Nye’s research in the U.S. on the social and political calculus of managing genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancer within a commercial healthcare system. This graphic work of “ethnofiction” tells the story of an unlikely friendship between Anna, the daughter of an America oil company executive living in Cairo, who has a family history of breast cancer and Layla, the daughter of the doorman/servant of Anna’s apartment building, who grows to become a resolute physician struggling for better public health justice and rights in Egypt. Following the women as they grow up together and grapple with difficult medical decisions, the project explores how different people come to terms with illness and mortality against the backdrop of political, economic, and environmental crises.