Dr. Catherine Cornet trained as a political scientist and an Arabist in France and the UK. She has 15 years of experience in Middle Eastern affairs and Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and has travelled extensively in the region for EU-funded projects as a researcher and journalist. Since 2001, she has written for the Italian newsmagazine, Internazionale, and is a free-lancer for many French media outlets, including ARTE Television and France 5.
Cornet was a research associate for the European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2016-2017) and communication expert for Mediterranean research projects for the Rome-based Istituto Affari Internazionali (2014-2017, a think tank on International Relations). She also worked for the European Commission in Brussels (1999-2000) as assistant to the Political Officer for the Peace Process in the Middle East and served as coordinator for Europe and the Middle East for the Coalition for an International Criminal Court (New York- Brussels 2000- 2001).
Professor Cornet joined AUR as an Adjunct Professor in 2016 and teaches in the Bachelor’s program in International Relations and Global Politics and the Master’s program in Peace Studies. She has also taught at Rome’s La Sapienza University; Pisa University; and University Naples l’Orientale. Her research focuses on International Relations, Mediterranean Studies and Middle Eastern politics and cultures.
Cornet is currently drafting her book proposal entitled: “In Search of an Arab Renaissance: Artists, Patrons and Power in Egypt and the Middle East (2001-2013).
Professional Links
Twitter: twitter/CatherineCornet
The Rooftops of Rome French TV documentary: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ss1u8
Publications
Catherine Cornet (2021). “The cinema of the young Muslim Brothers: claiming a space in Egyptian pop culture”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13530194.2021.1885847
Cornet, Catherine (2020). “Dis-orientamento visuale’” in Comito, C, and Moresi, S.(eds) ArapPop, Arte e letteratura in rivola dei paesi arabi. Roma: Mimésis Edizioni.
Cornet, Catherine (2018). “From Egypt to Europe and Back: Egyptian State Patronage and Circulation of Art Abroad since 1989” in Nadia Maltzahn and Monique Bellan (eds.) The Art Salon in the Arab Region: Politics of Taste Making, Beirut: Orient-Institut Beirut
Cornet, Catherine (2017). “L’Académie d’Egypte à Rome et les «artistes d’état » égyptiens” in Boissier, A; Gillet, F; Messaoudi, A and Emel Yavuz, P. (ed), Arts visuels en terres d'islams: nouvelles approches, nouveaux enjeux, Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, Aix-en-Provence: REMM.
Cornet, Catherine (2014). “Computer Intimacy: Digitally-Mediated Democratization of Arab Youth Culture” in Herrera, L. (ed), Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East,’ New York: Routlege.
Cornet, Catherine (2013). “Art for Social Change, Supporting Art for community building in Egypt, a comparison” in Voices of Arab Philanthropy and Civic Engagement Series. Cairo: The John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo.
Cornet, Catherine (2012). “Naked Alia: The Agency of Art through new Media and its new Impact on the Middle East”, in Narrating the Arab Spring. New questions, New modes of resistance and activism, and New politics. Cairo: University of Cairo, CASAW.
Cornet, Catherine (2011). “Physical Presence versus Digital Mobility: How to Handle the Paradox?” in Fund Safar (ed), Exploring Mobility in the Mediterranean. Amman: Safar Fund.
Conference Papers
Cornet, Catherine (2017). “In Search of an Arab Renaissance: In what measure did foreign private foundations contribute in defining Cultural policy in Egypt (2001-2013)?” presented at the conference, “Mapping Cultural Policy in the Arab World,” University of Westminster, London, 21 April 2017.
Cornet, Catherine (2017). “Arab artists addressing power between Europe and North Africa,” presented at the conference, “Dai Colonialismi al ‘Diritto di avere diritti’: La sfida del Nord Africa e del Medio Oriente,’ University of Naples l’Orientale, Italy, 23-24 March 2017.
Cornet, Catherine (2016). “Egyptian soft power and the definition of a modern Egyptian art for foreign eyes,” presented at workshop, “The Art Salon in the Middle East: Migration of Institutional Patronage and its Challenges,” University of Catania, Italy, 17-19 March 2016
Cornet, Catherine (2013). “The Arab Renaissance or Nahda, a Zeitgeist travelling through the last century” in workshop - An inquiry into the media of time-specific cultural patterns, Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Bielefeld, Germany, 19 - 21 September 2013.
Cornet, Catherine (2014). “Arab Art is the new cool’” presented at Brismes Annual meeting. ‘The Middle East in Global Perspective: Interactions Across Time and Space’. Brighton: University of Sussex, 16-18 June 2014.