After spending five and a half months immersed in the streets and stories of Cairo, Dr. Tessa Farmer, associate professor of anthropology and global studies at the University of Virginia, is back in Charlottesville, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge—and inspiration—from Egypt’s historic Al-Khalifa neighborhood.
Supported by a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Farmer partnered with the Athar Lina Initiative, a long-running community-based project that seeks to restore and preserve the cultural and architectural heritage of Al-Khalifa while addressing its environmental challenges—chief among them, water management.
Everyday Water Practices and Communal Futures
Farmer’s research focuses on the intersections of water, urban infrastructure, and social relations. Her first book, Well-Connected: Everyday Water Practices in Cairo, explored how lower-income residents access clean water and navigate the persistent realities of sewage and waste in the informal neighborhood of Ezbet Khairallah.
Her Fulbright project built upon that foundation—this time with a community-driven mission. She studied how leaked potable water, often seen as a problem in restoration work, could be creatively reused in urban greening projects. After testing showed relatively low levels of contamination, the team proposed solutions requiring only minor treatment.
Athar Lina: Community Heritage, Environmental Resilience
Athar Lina—which translates to “the heritage is ours”—has worked in Al-Khalifa for over a decade. During her time in Cairo, Farmer moved from long-time collaborator to a more active ethnographic role within the initiative, helping bridge technical solutions with local needs.
The organization has already used recycled water to build the Al-Khalifa Heritage and Environmental Park, featuring green spaces, a community theater, and a playground. Farmer described the instant environmental shift visitors experience: “The garden is covered in trees and flowers—walking in, you feel it right away.”
Beyond that, Athar Lina has facilitated rooftop gardens and greening projects in balconies and alleyways to combat urban heat and increase livability in a city facing the pressures of climate change and rapid urbanization.
Teaching and Documenting Ethnography
Farmer also worked with Egyptian colleagues to train them in ethnographic methods, continuing a capacity-building collaboration she hopes to expand. Her work involved participant observation, a core technique of ethnography where the researcher actively takes part in community life while collecting field data.
That process will inform her second book, now in progress, focused on charitable water fountains, or sabils, common throughout Cairo’s historic neighborhoods. These public water sources have long served both spiritual and practical purposes, and Farmer sees them as vital cultural and hydrological touchpoints in urban Cairo.
“An Incredibly Joyful Experience”
Reflecting on her semester abroad, Farmer calls her time with Athar Lina “the most fun I’ve had doing research.”
This fall, Farmer will return to teaching at UVA, sharing her findings and experiences with students—and, likely, encouraging the next generation of anthropologists to explore the complex, creative, and deeply human ways people around the world interact with their environments.
