Relevance, Persistence, and Patience: Surviving as a Scholar in Exile

As an exiled scholar, I liken my situation to a farmer without land to cultivate. Scholars require stable intellectual spaces to nurture their ideas. Constant relocation prevents planting scholarly seeds and risks losing academic roots. In my experience, living in five places in five years, with the longest university stay being 10 months, I resorted to gathering knowledge wherever I went—observations, posters, and books. In Egypt, amid a colonial university and dictatorship, I faced mistreatment from students who viewed me as a servant. Faculty members lacked time for meaningful engagement. Italy offered a beautiful yet chaotic setting with pressured scholars. Brussels, associated with the EU and NATO, provided little campus solidarity despite a “solidarity” scholarship. Interactions with doctoral students were disappointing; their busyness hindered learning. Throughout this period, books became my refuge and companions in navigating academic transience.