students involved in design thinking workshops

Academy of Liberal Arts

With a focus on helping students seamlessly transition into the American-style, liberal arts experience, AUC’s Academy of Liberal Arts empowers students to challenge their intellectual boundaries, expand their linguistic competencies and develop crucial skills in effective reasoning, reading, writing and self-expression.

About the Academy of Liberal Arts (ALA)

By emphasizing critical thinking, cross-disciplinary learning and a global perspective, we prepare students for a lifetime of success. And our extracurricular activities and centers foster creativity, leadership and community service, enabling students to become engaged citizens who are equipped to tackle the complex challenges of the 21st century.

About ALA's mission and vision

Ghada Elshimi, AUC Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Academy of Liberal Arts

Message from the Dean

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all undergraduate students of The American University in Cairo. AUC first made its name as an institution unique in Egypt — an American-style liberal arts University focusing on undergraduate studies — and this mission remains at the heart of everything we do.

Read the Message

2 new students talking to professor about courses in Explore the Disciplines Fair at AUC

The Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum is the foundation of every AUC student’s education — the heart of the liberal arts experience. It includes courses in writing, language and information literacy; philosophic and scientific thinking; Arab history, literature and society; and foundational classes in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Check AUC Core Curriculum

ALA Departments and Programs

Faculty Highlights

Alexander Lewko

Senior Instructor I and Chair

Co-chaired NileTESOL Conference (2016)
“English in Egypt” book chapter in Blackwell-Wiley Encyclopedia of World Englishes (forthcoming, 2024).

Amani Demian

Senior Instructor

NileTESOL 2019 Co-chair, AUC. ( 2018- 2019)

Amani Elshimi

Senior Instructor II

Elshimi publishes on core curricula, Islamic-education epistemologies, and engaging pedagogies.
Elshimi serves as reviewer for the Journal of Islamic Philosophy.

Doris Jones

Senior Instructor II

Founding Director of the Common Reading Experience (CRE)
Co-author of the original ALA Liberal Arts Mission Statement (2013)

Elisabeth Yoder

Senior Instructor II

Designed new curriculum for Academic English for Graduates (2016)
Contributed to design of Tomorrow’s Leaders Research Writing course

Fikry Boutros

Senior Instructor

AUC’s Excellence in Teaching Award recipient (2020-2021)

Gretchen McCullough

Senior Instructor II

Produced Confession of a Knight Errant: Drifters, Thieves and Ali Baba’sTreasure: A Novel. (Cune Press, 2022)
Translated M. Metwalli’s A Song by the Aegean Sea. A Chapbook of Poetry. (Laertes Press, 2022)

Iman Baza

Senior Instructor

Baza earned her PhD with Distinction, 2021
First Place (with Ms. Nesma Hossam, Dr. Marwa Baza, and Mostafa Kafrawy) in AUC’s 2023 Futurize Your Course Competition(2023)

Kathleen Saville

Senior Instructor and Chair

Publication:

Allen, I., Moughabghab, E. and K. Saville. (2021) “Flash Archiving the Writing Center: Snapshots from Lebanon and Egypt.” The Writing Center Journal.

Laila ElSerty

Instructor

Co-chair, NileTESOL, 2022, and member of the organizing committee, 2023, 2024.
Current research: "Genre Analysis of the Abstracts of EAP and AAP Journal Articles: A Comparative Study with Pedagogical Implications."

Mariah Fairley

Senior Instructor II

Conceptualizing Language Teacher Education Centered on Language Teacher Identity Development: A Competencies‐Based Approach and Practical Applications (TESOL Quarterly 2020).
Completed PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics with distinction.

Mariam Osman

Senior Instructor

Chair, Co-Chair and President of NileTESOL (2013 & 2018)

Matthew Hendershot

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Academy of Liberal Arts and Instructor

Multi-section redesign of RHET 3210 Business Communications in collaboration with the School of Business (2021-2022)
Over 1,300 students have taken RHET/CORE 1010 Imagining Exile (Theme leader 2014-present)

Nagwa Kassabgy

Senior Instructor II

Reviewed Road to College Open English Courses.
Established ELI’s IPAL in 2018.
Research areas: Faculty peer assessment; classroom observation reliability; reflective journals' value in teacher training; and mentor and mentee attitudes.

Noha Khafagi

Senior Instructor II

Co-chair of NileTESOL 2023 & 2024
Three papers accepted in IATEFL Conference Proceedings

Rania Jabr

Senior Instructor II

Received Excellence in Teaching Award (2013)
Co-chaired NileTESOL Conference (2018 and 2022)

Richard Hoath

Senior Instructor II

Publication:

Hoath, Richard The Birds of Egypt and the Middle East. The American University in Cairo Press, 2021. Print

Sanaa Makhlouf

Senior Instructor II

Designs collaborative modules for cultural exchange sessions with AUC and other students in international universities outside Egypt.
Presented papers at over 15 conferences in the past 10 years.

Sophie Farag

Senior Instructor II

Designed IEP Project-based Integrated Skills (PBIS) course
Designed an English Pronunciation & Speaking Skills non-credit course for scholarship students
Coach for design thinking projects

Yasmine Motawy

Senior Instructor II

AUC Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award recipient (2022)

Publication

Stillness between the waves. Egyptian Children’s Picturebooks and Contemporary Egyptian Society. Cairo, Dar El Balsam, 2021. (Arabic)

Yasmine Salaheldin

Senior Instructor II

Publications

Salah El-Din, Y. (2022). Code Mixing in Egyptian Real Estate Billboards: A Multi-modal Analysis. A paper published in the International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics.
Hafez, O.; Salah El-Din, Y. (2021). Egyptian Educators’ Online Teaching Challenges and Coping Strategies during COVID-19. Arab World English Journal.
Salah El-Din, Y. (2022). The Self and the Other: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Leila Aboulela’s “The Ostrich”, HERMES, (2015)