Aliaa Hamad has a BA in English Literature, an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) from The American University in Cairo (AUC), and received her PhD in Linguistics from Cairo University in 2015. Her doctoral dissertation explored language proficiency, attitudes, and study habits as factors influencing Egyptian graduate students’ acts of plagiarism. She also has a Career Certificate in Legal Translation from AUC and is a Cambridge-certified oral examiner.  

She first taught English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at a private English-medium university, before joining AMIDEAST to teach university graduates English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and becoming part of the English Language Teaching and Training Program and Community College Initiative where she trained university graduates and professors who wished to pursue their education abroad. At AUC’s School of Continuing Education, she taught adults General English and Conversation and was a stage mentor, Curriculum Design Form Writer, and Test Item Writer. As a stage mentor, she conducted workshops that aimed to help teachers align their teaching methodology with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), trained and evaluated teachers, provided them with supplementary materials and activities that corresponded with the learning objectives and goals of the courses, and selected, adapted, and wrote texts and test items for the different levels she taught corresponding with the learning objectives. She also developed, adapted, and evaluated reading, listening, writing, and speaking materials for General English, EAP, and ESP adult learners. As a curriculum design form writer, she wrote course descriptions, course goals, learning objectives, syllabus outlines, and means of student assessment.

She also taught TESOL Diploma students at Notting Hill College a teaching methodology course in 2014 and worked as a freelance translator and managing and senior editor of a magazine.

She currently serves on three committees in her department: publicity, professional development, and faculty support.

In 2014, she was awarded the Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching by The American University in Cairo’s School of Continuing Education.

Her research interests include teacher education, learner motivation, teaching methodology, language assessment, curriculum design, rhetoric and composition, creative writing, gender studies, and rhetoric in international human rights laws.