Jonathan Guyer

This information is accurate as of the fellowship year indicated for each fellow.

Jonathan Guyer is a journalist focused on the politics of art and literature in the Middle East. For the past five years, he has researched Arabic comics in Egypt, interviewing scores of artists and translating hundreds of cartoons from Arabic. He is also a contributing editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, a policy journal published by the American University in Cairo.

At the Radcliffe Institute, Guyer is writing a book on the new wave of comic art that has electrified the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade. Through close examination of graphic narratives and conversations with artists, his project aims to address long-standing questions around the limits of free speech, the role of satire as a form of dissent, and the politics of art in authoritarian states.

Guyer has written for Guernica, Harper’s, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Le Monde diplomatique, the New Yorker, the New York Times, NYR Daily, the Paris Review, and Rolling Stone and is also a regular contributor to Public Radio International’s The World. In 2015, he wrote widely about the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, including a cover story for Nieman Reports, which was recognized by the Society for Features Journalism. His research has been supported by fellowships from Fulbright (2012–2013) and the Institute of Current World Affairs (2015–2017).