Being Borrowed: On Egyptian Migration to the Gulf

Lina El-Shamy is a design anthropologist and mom-of-two. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto where she is researching the neo-rococo domestic salon rooms of contemporary Egyptian homes (el-salon el-modhab). She holds a Bachelor of Design in graphic design from Ontario College of Art and Design University and an MA in art history from the University of Toronto. Lina was born in Alexandria, Egypt, grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and immigrated to Canada at age 15; making her life a postmodern jumble of everything her heart desires.

In 2018, art-critic and curator Farida Youssef was a Merut Fellow at the British Museum in London, UK, contributing to the Modern Egypt Project where she was immersed in the philosophy of archaeology and the history of displaying Egyptian antiquities in the 20th century. Her experience there allowed her to understand how curators are not only caretakers of artwork and artefacts, but produce knowledge in spaces that reach wide audiences: the museum and the gallery. She earned an MA from University College London, UK.