Published on March 8, 2021 by Sean Flynt  
DeVries Book
The new book documents the affluent Cairo suburb of Maadi

A new book by Samford University history professor Annie DeVries documents the history of the affluent Cairo suburb of Maadi as a way to describe the global economic influences that shaped modern Egypt. Maadi: The Making and Unmaking of a Cairo Suburb, 1878-1962 (The American University in Cairo Press) reflects DeVries’s scholarly expertise in global and comparative history, imperialism, modern Egypt and the modern Middle East, in addition to women’s and gender history.

DeVries’s teaching at Samford includes The Modern Middle East and global history courses, among others. In 2020, she and Samford history colleague Anthony Minnema published their roundtable discussion on "Teaching Islamic and Middle Eastern History at Christian Colleges and Universities" in Fides et Historia, the journal of the Conference on Faith and History (CFH). She is working on a new project about innovations in green energy in early 20th century Cairo.

Closer to home, DeVries’s knowledge of global protest movements has provided important context for racial justice initiatives at Samford. She continues to lead a digital history project focused on another transformed community–the majority-Black neighborhood of Rosedale in Homewood, Alabama.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.