Mohammed El Shafie ’17, philosophy graduate and recipient of the HSBC Bank Egypt Public School Scholarship, now steps up to a new challenge as he enters his first year at Harvard Law School this fall.

With a long list of academic feats behind him, El Shafie looks to the future with fervor in the hopes of using his law degree to effect significant change. “I hope to work toward bringing the Islamic and Western worlds closer to one another,” he affirmed.

El Shafie was resolute in his plans even as he started applications to law schools, noting in his speech at President Francis J. Ricciardone’s inauguration that his dream was “to avert the danger of terrorism by establishing a genuine philosophical foundation for a true understanding between East and West.”

El Shafie looks back at AUC as a catalyst that exposed him to numerous fields, drawing out various interests in him. He ultimately chose to pursue a major in philosophy, observing great value in the study of the theories that form the fundamentals of political thought. He has shown devotion to his scholarly work even outside of the classroom, participating in international conferences and reigning in impressive awards for his writing.

“AUC’s liberal arts education allowed me to see a great deal more than I would have otherwise,” he affirmed. “Professors in the philosophy department were always very willing to discuss theories with me. This is an experience that I don’t think I could have found at another institution.”

In addition to discussing philosophical works with his professors, El Shafie was active in extracurricular activities, writing for AUC Times magazine, helping as a radio program manager and regularly participating in the Philosophy Club. In Fall 2015, El Shafie was awarded the Dr. Ahmed and Ann M. El-Mokadem Study Abroad Scholarship to participate in an exchange program with the University of Michigan. El Shafie is also a skilled and passionate classical pianist who has performed at several events.

“These activities allowed me to see AUC as an educational institution that is part of a community,” El Shafie reflected. “It taught me that the best kinds of educational institutions understand the needs of their communities.”

With the goal of promoting discussion and engagement among students of diverse backgrounds, El Shafie founded a reading society that brought together participants from AUC, Oxford and several other American universities. Named MensCiceronis, the group regularly meets to dissect the classics of Western and Judeo-Islamic political philosophy. Students who were physically available would meet on AUC’s campus, joined by students abroad through Skype. “The group has proven to be quite a success,” El Shafie noted. “It has been a space for dialogue between people of different cultures and has enriched us all very much.”

Beyond his University activities, El Shafie, who is visually impaired, demonstrated a passion for teaching Braille and helping to increase the number of Braille translations available to visually impaired individuals. He worked with the Egyptian Parents Association for the Visually Impaired, teaching Braille reading and writing, Braille music, adaptive technology, Microsoft Word and English in different programs. He volunteered with Bookshare, working on scanning and proofreading books for Braille translation. He also took the initiative of developing the first draft of an electronic Braille edition of Shakespeare’s complete works.

Having explored the philosophies underlying political theory, El Shafie will now begin to make his mark on another university community as he continues to work toward fusing theory and practicality through the study of the written law. “Through studying law, I hope to be able to combine law and philosophy, theoretically and practically, so I can achieve change,” he said.

Recognized for their contributions, two faculty members were honored at the Spring 2016 commencement ceremony: Zeinab Amin, associate professor of the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science and director of the actuarial science program, received the Excellence in Academic Service Award, and Ferial Ghazoul, professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, was presented with the Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award. The awardees were selected by a committee that included representatives from each school.

Commitment to Academic Service

For Amin, there is no greater fulfillment than feeling her contributions at AUC have created a positive impact. “Receiving this recognition means that my hard work has paid off,” she said. “It's an inspiration and affirmation that being generous, giving your effort and time, and giving to the community without any rewards or expectations in return do not only create a positive impact on the community, but also for myself.” 

Throughout her 10 years of service at AUC, Amin’s major contributions include designing a new minor in financial mathematics and restructuring the curriculum of the actuarial science program, which was classified as an advanced actuarial science program by the American Society of Actuaries in 2009 and received accreditation by the Supreme Council of National Universities. She also designed a new core capstone course, which introduces students to the role of enterprise risk management in mitigating loss and optimizing opportunity across a business. In 2009, she was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award from AUC for her outstanding performance in helping students reach their full potential in various areas of AUC’s curricula. 

Since Fall 2012, Amin has served as associate chair of the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Science, director of the actuarial science program, and the founding adviser of the Actuarial Science Association, in addition to chairing the Senate Curriculum Committee, Departmental Academic Affairs Committee and Faculty Search Committee. She also served as a member of the Departmental Research Committee, a member of the Middle States Accreditation Steering Committee and co-chaired its Governance, Leadership and Administration working group, and supervised the Mathematics and Chemistry Lab.

"Amin is a dedicated advocate for the welfare and the development of AUC,"  said Ehab Abdel-Rahman, vice provost and physics professor. "Her leadership and excellent contributions to the University have resulted in a significantly improved and strategically important impact throughout the entire academic programs. Her contributions to service made a noticeable impact to the University, so it was not only a question of quantity of service but also leaving a mark on the University."

One of Amin’s most recent accomplishments is the partnership initiative she coordinated with the University of Liverpool, which resulted in the student exchange agreement signed by AUC’s provost and the University of Liverpool’s vice-chancellor in January 2016. 

Distinguished Research Record

Ghazoul is the founding editor of Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, an annual interdisciplinary publication that is published in Arabic, English and French at AUC. She is currently on the advisory board of several journals and foundations, including Thaqafat, Fusul, Kitab-fi-jarida and The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.



She was recognized for her distinguished record of past and continuing excellence in research. “Ferial Ghazoul has made an impact on shaping the comparative literature field by her continuity of research productivity since the 1980s and the volume of works published annually, including journal articles, book chapters and translations,” said Abdel-Rahman.

Ghazoul has published extensively on the medieval comparative literature and postcolonial studies. She is the author of two notable books titled The Arabian Nights: A Structural Analysis (1980) and Nocturnal Poetics: The Arabian Nights in Comparative Context (1996). She has also edited and co-edited several literary works including Arab Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide (1873-1999), The View from Within: Writers and Critics on Contemporary Arabic Literature (1994), and Edward Said and Critical Decolonization (2007). 

Ghazoul’s career as a translator earned her the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award for the translation of Matar’s Quartet of Joy (1997), and recently received a grant to translate the works written by the Bahraini poet, Qassim Haddad.

The Department of English and Comparative Literature (ECLT) in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences recognized three students at the 2014 Madalyn Lamont Literary Award ceremony for the most creative writing pieces in English. The Madalyn Lamont Literary Award was started in 1986 in memory of Madalyn Lamont, an instructor in the writing program, a poet and a women’s rights activist. The awared recognizes students with creative skills in narrative, poetry and drama writing. 

Lara Ahmed, Reham Abouelwafa and Bara Elhag are the three award winners for the 2014 Madalyn Lamont Literary Award, coming from different backgrounds but with a common passion for creative writing. “This award serves as a kind of motivation for me to write more,” said Ahmed, who submitted a short story titled "The Ventriloquist" about a man working a mundane job. A writer for the AUC Times, Ahmed believes that AUC consists of a lot of creative outlets, in terms of clubs, workshops, competitions and award ceremonies that help nurture and hone students’ creative writing skills. Ahmed is a freshman student at AUC, who is yet to declare a major.

Abouelwafa, the second award winner, is studying business administration with a concentration in marketing and a minor in digital media. In her junior year at AUC, Abouelwafa was rather surprised, yet extremely happy, to have won the award. “It feels great to get credit for something I really love doing, and it is a great opportunity to turn a hobby into something bigger,” said Abouelwafa, who submitted a short comic story about a magical refrigerator that grants you superhuman speed. “The only glitch is that you have to carry the refrigerator with you at all times, making it completely useless,” she explained. Abouelwafa has participated in several extracurricular activities on campus, and she is currently on an internship program at AUC’s Career Center, working as a graphic designer. Abouelwafa is putting together a portfolio of all her work so she can become an animator and perhaps open her own animation studio one day.

The third award winner, Bara Hatem Elhag, is a freshman student pursuing a degree in biology, but who enjoys an endless love for writing. “The story of winning third place is still surreal to me until now. I didn’t believe there was a chance for me getting past the nomination stage,” said Elhag, whose paper is about a fragile, old, frightened woman who believes there is a killer in her cellar. Elhag is currently applying for a summer internship at the Naval Medical Research Unit 3 (NAMRU-3), a biomedical research laboratory of the US Navy located in Cairo. According to Elhag, “AUC offers many venues for students to explore and display their talent, whether it be through exciting talent shows, or brilliantly constructed music practice rooms in the Center for the Arts, or, of course, something like the Madalyn Lamont Literary Award ceremony.” In addition to pursuing her passion for writing, Elhag hopes to work in medicine and “be the most beneficial world citizen I can be.”

The Madalyn Lamont Literary Award invites influential female speakers every year during the award ceremony held in the spring. This year, the guest speaker was Hoda Elsadda, chair in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at the University of Manchester. Elsadda serves as co-director of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW) in the UK, associate editor of the online edition of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, member of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund for Women, member of the Advisory Board of the Durham Modern Languages Series, and Core Group Member of the Arab Families Working Group. Elsadda is also the co-founder and current chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Memory Forum.

List of Previous Distinguished Women Speakers
Leyla Doss, Egyptian activist
Suaad al-Sabah, Kuwaiti poet
Mona Amyuni, Lebanese professor of comparative literature
Mohsina Tawfiq, Egyptian actress
Arundhati Ghose, Indian ambassador
Shahira Mehrez, Egyptian designer
Doris Shoukri, professor of English and comparative literature at AUC

Language is often viewed as simply a means of communication, a tool for giving directions, delivering speeches or meeting people. But according to Reem Bassiouney, associate professor of applied linguistics, language is not just a way to communicate, but a principal means of expressing one’s identity, particularly during times of conflict.

“Language is at the core of who we are,” Bassiouney said. “It could be a classifying category for defining us, such as describing Egyptians as people who speak Arabic. But language can also be a way of expressing who we are.”

In her recent book, Language and Identity in Modern Egypt, Bassiouney argues that language is used in Egyptian public discourse to create a particular collective identity. By studying a variety of sources such as patriotic songs, films, blogs, TV talk shows, newspaper articles and novels from the 20th century until June 30, 2013, Bassiouney found that language plays an essential role in constructing an identity, essentially labeling who is an “authentic Egyptian” and who is not. “The main aim of constructing a distinct identity is to decide who is included and who is excluded from this large community called ‘Egyptians,’” Bassiouney explained. “Variables like language, ethnicity, locality, character traits and moral dispositions are criteria for inclusion and exclusion. There were numerous examples in this book of what I term an ‘exclusion-inclusion pattern of display’ by individuals in public discourse. This is defined as a pattern in which individuals display their stance of belonging or not belonging to a community, and also display their stance toward other individuals as belonging or not belonging to a community and nation. Individuals use social variables, including language, in this pattern of display.” To illustrate this point, Bassiouney noted how, during the January 25 Revolution, some loyalists tried to make the claim that the protestors in Tahrir Square were not real Egyptians because many spoke in English and were, thus, deemed as “not Egyptian” or “not representative of real Egyptians.” This rationale, she said, is steeped in social attitudes toward the English language. “While Egyptians rush to master English and teach it to their children, when someone is depicted as speaking English, his or her Egyptian identity is contested,” she explained. The revolutionaries, in turn, claimed that they were authentically Egyptian because of their command of the Arabic language, again showing how language expresses identity. Bassiouney pointed to the example of the Egyptian poet al-Jukh, who recited a poem on the Abu Dhabi television program, The Prince of Poets, using Standard Arabic, not Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, to “authenticate the identity of the Egyptians in Tahrir Square.” “I have now spoken,” he said. “My language is not English, and it is not even Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. It is the authoritative Standard Arabic, with all its powerful indexes.” Bassiouney argues that Standard Arabic is oftentimes associated with the Quran, Islamic jurisprudence and civil law so it connotes legitimacy. Because of this context, the poet employs Standard Arabic as an indicator for authentic Egyptian identity. “The poet al-Jukh had to use Standard Arabic to prove that the protestors were true to their cause and to Egypt,” Bassiouney said. “Through this poem, the revolutionaries in Egypt used language to show that they are indeed ‘real Egyptians.’” This, Bassiouney noted, is because language contains certain indexes, or connotations. Given certain contexts, Standard Arabic is often associated with legitimacy, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is used to index authenticity, while an Egyptian speaking in English may connote respect or suspicion, she said. This concept extends beyond just code choice and even applies to smaller details, like the type of grammar used. For example, Bassiouney found that in several patriotic songs, the singers often use the third person pronoun (he, she, it or they), instead of the second person pronoun (you), to refer to a colonizer or an aggressive outsider. This was the case in Misr Tatahadath ’An Nafsiha (Egypt Speaks About Itself) by Umm Kulthum, when Egypt refers to colonizers in the third person plural, or in the case of the song Habibti ya Masr (Egypt, My Love) by Shadia, in which the person who does not understand Egyptians is referred to in the third person singular. “In my view, this manipulation of pronouns is intentional and intends to undermine the aggressive, unfriendly, unsympathetic outsider, while appealing to the insider or sympathetic outsider,” Bassiouney affirmed. “In that sense, even the use of certain grammatical constructs expresses who the real Egyptian is and who is the ‘other.’ This way, linguistic resources are employed to index attitudes and ideologies through a stance-taking process.” Bassiouney hopes that this research will provide non-Egyptians with a deeper understanding of the perspectives and actions of Egyptians. “It’s important for outsiders to know about public discourse in Egypt because sometimes for an outsider, you can sound aggressive or snobbish if you don’t understand the context of a discourse of any country,” Bassiouney explained. “When you do, you are then able to understand why people are behaving the way they do and why they are making these decisions. It becomes easier to deal with people. My hope, on a broader sense, is that this research will facilitate communication between people from different cultures. It’s important for Egyptians to think about how they learn everything. You know who you are, but it’s good to know the mechanism about how you reached ‘who you are.’”