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.