Dr. Nermin Elsherif

Biography

Nermin Elsherif is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University specializing in Screen Cultures, Digital Media, and Cultural Heritage. Her interdisciplinary background spans media studies, memory studies, and urban studies. Her research investigates the intersection of popular culture and political ideology, particularly how cultural narratives shape, reflect, and contest societal power dynamics. Currently, she is working on a book project that examines the conservative nostalgic discourses that facilitated the resurgence of military authoritarianism following the Arab Uprisings, focusing on how groups of Egyptian middle-class men construct online memorials to celebrate what they perceive as the 'good old days.' These memorials serve as outlets for airing grievances and anxieties about the present and future while shaping the ideals of the so-called 'silent majority.' Her work was recognized by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in 2023. Nermin's current research also explores the aesthetics of fascism online, particularly the role of kitsch in the social reproduction of national identity. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Global Digital Cultures and a lecturer in the Media Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam. She conducted her PhD research with funding from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA-INT) fellowship at the Amsterdam School of Heritage, Memory, and Material Culture from 2017 to 2022, and received a GDC Seed Grant for her project on the Arab Uprisings. Additionally, she has designed various projects, including Maps Egypt, which was awarded a DAAD-GERSS grant. At Utrecht University, she is open to supervising theses in global digital cultures, digital ethnography, cinema, postcolonial media practices, histories, and infrastructures.

Research Interests

Experience