Launching for the first time in early 2023, AUC’s Piece of Mind festival aims to normalize conversations about mental health by featuring scripts written by members of the AUC community on mental health and well-being. 

The festival will be accepting English and Arabic submissions from students, alumni, faculty and staff until October 15. 

“Despite global efforts to raise more awareness about the importance of mental health and to destigmatize it, Egyptian society still has a way to go,” says Nadine Abdel Razek ‘20, festival artistic director. “We wanted to use theatre, as the powerful tool that it is, in creating change and starting conversations about this vital topic.”

Piece of Mind will showcase realistic,10-minute plays about mental health and community. Ahead of the festival, Abdel Razek and their team will select seven to nine scripts from the AUC community’s submissions to develop, after which three to five will be offered a place in the festival. Each script will be assigned a director, and a casting call for actors will follow. AUC community members are encouraged to audition.

The festival was created and is overseen by Jillian Campana, professor and associate dean for Undergraduate Studies and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. “When I initiated this community project I wanted to promote the idea that mental health is an issue for all of us,” she said. “Needing to talk about it, or wanting help is nothing to be ashamed of; rather seeking help when we need it is part of our total wellness."

The production will take place at AUC early February 2023 and will provide an opportunity for its creators and the audience to start conversations, connect with one another and see the ability of theatre to guide social change and acceptance. 

“We want these plays to show people that they are never alone in whatever they’re going through, that whatever they may be experiencing and/or struggling with is valid,” Abdel Razek explains. “We hope that this festival can help normalize this often taboo topic and help destigmatize it, allowing people to talk more openly about mental health struggles.”

Submit your original play to Piece of Mind here.

After 70 years of maintaining the British monarchy’s non-political status, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has raised concerns over how the transfer of power to King Charles III may disrupt the status quo. News@AUC spoke with Chris Barker, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, and Olivier Schouteden, assistant professor in the Department of History, to gain more perspective on this transition. 

What was Queen Elizabeth II’s role in the UK’s political affairs, if any?

Schouteden: Elizabeth II was a constitutional monarch, the embodiment of the nation, and without much more than a ceremonial role. Elizabeth II indeed had the reputation to refrain from intervening in (or even expressing her thoughts publicly about) political affairs.

Barker: The word often used about the queen is “inscrutable.” She was careful not to politicize the monarchy. In his 1867 book The English Constitution, Walter Bagehot distinguishes between dignified and efficient parts of the constitution, arguing that the dignified part is where the power lies and that the efficient part merely uses it. In my own view, that goes too far. And while American small-r republicans will criticize the monarchy, think of the dignity they typically impute to (or require from) their president.

What impact, if any, will this transition have on global politics? 

Schouteden: Through thick and thin, Elizabeth reigned for 70 years — her death leaves a considerable vacuum to fill. This challenge is heightened by the crisis the UK is currently undergoing. Four prime ministers in six years, reflecting a political instability that cannot be understated, an economic crisis fueling popular discontent and social strife, which stem from, among other factors, the combined effects of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. 

On an international and diplomatic level, the UK in a post-Brexit era also struggles to redefine its position within Europe and on a global level. This transition could contribute to further weakening Britain – on a smaller level, some have been quick to notice the losses caused by the slowing down of the economy during national mourning.

Barker: Some countries among the 14 who retain the monarch as their sovereign will take the opportunity of the queen’s death to reconsider the value and meaning of the monarchy. Some may become republics, like Barbados did last year. Expect action on this front in the Caribbean countries anxious about the legacies of slavery and empire.

Will this have any discernible effect on the MENA region and Egypt specifically? 

Schouteden: It is hard to tell so early on. But what about Charles’s position in regard to religion? Charles III seems aware that he will reign over a multicultural, multi-religious society, and this could also mean more openness to different cultures outside of Britain. Yet, there is little indication that his role in this realm will be different from that of Elizabeth II.

How would you describe King Charles’ involvement with politics during Queen Elizabeth’s reign? 

Barker: The commentariat tends to describe Charles as an activist heir, and thus possibly an activist monarch, particularly on issues of importance to him, such as climate change. But Charles said in 2018 that his activism will stop when he takes the throne. The new role requires a new approach, a new restraint, and he has a model to imitate in his mother’s conduct.

Schouteden: Charles has publicly expressed his concerns regarding global warming and support for an ecological transition. He might try to stir the course of the economy in this direction, but it is unclear at this point whether ecological concerns will be given a boost in the UK because of Charles’s passionate claims for a greener world. It is worth noting that during his tenure as Prince of Wales, Charles has been criticized for his lobbying of politicians. Charles is quite savvy and more politically inclined than his mother, but we cannot overplay the impact he could have on political affairs because of the limitations discussed above.

In the past, King Charles has said publicly that if he becomes monarch, he won’t act the same way he did as an heir. Even if this is true, do you think the public’s perception of him will create challenges regardless? 

Schouteden: His earlier opinions [on politics] were expressed in his own name and before his reign, not as part of the royal ideology. We can expect him to reign as Elizabeth II did. What will be demanded of him? To officiate in public ceremonies, to partake in public duties, to represent the UK abroad.

Charles is not held in such high esteem by the citizens of the UK. He is actually less popular than his son William, Prince of Wales (next in line for the throne) and his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton. But is there any reason to doubt the British peoples' sympathy for the Crown at large? I am not sure. We know of the dissatisfaction of young British people with the monarchy but this does not indicate a potential for sedition either. 

Barker: Charles is probably the most overexposed heir to any throne in history. The public has had seventy years to form their opinion – apparently, this is a Guinness world record for heirs-apparent. While he may never outgrow those judgments, the question is whether those old judgments will overbalance the public’s reverence for the institution. And, perhaps more important than what he did as heir, is what he will do to prepare his own heir, Prince William, to continue to embody the dignified part of the constitution.

What would the consequences be for King Charles if he is found to be misusing his position? Can you impeach a king?

Barker: You cannot impeach a king; at most, parliaments have used the impeachment power as a tool to act indirectly against a monarch by impeaching royal ministers. However, all the lesson you need about removal from office lies in a name: Charles III inevitably reminds us of Charles I, executed for treason in 1649.

Is there any other information about this topic you would like to share? 

Schouteden: I would conclude by saying that the only true justification for the British Crown (especially the hereditary nature of the title) today is in its impotence! In other words, should Charles III attempt to exert more power than Elizabeth II, he would not only hit an institutional/constitutional wall, he would also probably be the subject of much ire and criticism that could end the monarchy altogether.

As part of its continuous outreach efforts, AUC launched the Egyptian Migration Hub (EHUB) this summer to raise community awareness of the plight of refugees, implement effective policies to address this global issue, and protect refugees and asylum seekers.

A joint initiative between CMRS and the European Union,  the hub will be a platform for discussing strategies, centralizing data, and furthering policy on migration, as well as addressing gaps in the literature and research on migration in Egypt.

“The ultimate goal of EHUB is to initiate and implement better policies for Egyptian migrants abroad, and for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt," said Ibrahim Awad, professor of practice in global affairs and CMRS director. 

Egypt’s strategic position connecting the Middle East to Africa acts as a crossroads for migration patterns, thereby serving as a transit country for migration. Many Egyptian immigrants are working in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Egypt is also home to many refugees and asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there were over 263,000 refugees in Egypt in 2021. The overwhelmingly largest country of origin for Egypt’s refugees is Syria, accounting for over half of the total registered refugee population. 

“EHUB is an open, inclusive, multidisciplinary partnership that draws on government donors, experts, practitioners and civil society to create and synthesize knowledge for the use by policymakers,” said Ambassador Christian Berger, head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt, at the hub’s launch event. 

As one of the first few academic institutions on migration and refugee studies in the MENA region, CMRS is "the only academic institution in Egypt that offers postgraduate degrees in migration and refugee studies, in addition to carrying out research, training and outreach activities in the field,” said Maysa Ayoub, associate director of CMRS. The hub will contribute to the research on push and pull factors of migration patterns – “push” being the factors that cause emigration and “pull” referring to the aspects of a location attracting migrants – greatly benefiting the policymaking process.

Discussing the implementation and initiation of effective policies for Egyptian migrants abroad as well as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers within Egypt are a few of the major focus points within the field. As such, some of the challenges the hub seeks to address include the evolving demand for migrant labor in Arab countries and in Europe, expanding channels for regular labor migration in order to curb irregular migration, enhancing the protection of Egyptian migrants, and preventing and dealing with the smuggling of migrants and human trafficking. 

At home, the hub also seeks to assist in meeting the demands of the Egyptian labor market by developing the capacities and skills of workers. This in turn will aid in the protection of refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, easing their immersion into the country’s labor market and ultimately guiding them toward a self-sustaining lifestyle.

EHUB’s upcoming sectoral forums will include three planned meetings on migration data, external employment and combating human trafficking. Within each meeting, relevant stakeholders — such as government officials, international organizations, academics, experts and media representatives — will collectively tackle these issues. In addition, media training will bring together journalists and other media professionals to discuss topics such as the migration narrative and the prevention of xenophobia through media narratives.

By gathering all relevant stakeholders regarding migration in the context of Egypt together, the hub will effectively contribute to research on migration and refugees and facilitate discussions to serve policymakers, Ayoub explained. 

Learn more about EHUB here.

A new study co-authored by Salima Ikram (YAB '86) suggests that ancient Egyptians were capable of treating and rehabilitating patients who suffered from strokes.

An international team of Egyptologists from the United States, Spain and Egypt, including AUC’s own Salima Ikram (YAB ’86), has discovered an ancient Egyptian female mummy who suffered a stroke — the oldest documented stroke case in the scientific medical literature.

Studied macroscopically and radiographically on site, the mummy was found to be aged 25-40 (probably closer to 40), belonging to a woman of the 25^thDynasty who died some 2,700 years ago. She appears to have suffered a right cerebral stroke, causing brain damage, and left hemiplegia (paralysis on one side of the body). Radiological examination shows that the paralysis occurred once bone growth was completed, when the woman was 23 to 25 years old, but significantly before her death — which means that she lived with the disease for a long period of time while receiving care and support from those around her.

“This tells us that strokes have a long history and that even in antiquity, people survived them, especially as others cared for them to ensure their survival,” said Ikram.

The study, titled “A Possible Stroke Victim from Pharaonic Egypt,” records that the mummy was found in a position not reported before, with one arm extended and the other crossing over the chest with a contracted hand — a key clue to the diagnosis. Mummies during that period had their hands typically either lying alongside their bodies or in a crossed position on the chest. The mummy’s head was angled down, dramatically, with contracted shoulders, which is common with children’s mummies but not with adults. The position of the shoulders, head and flexed arm suggests that the woman was suffering from damage to the right hemisphere of the brain, and the face looking down is typical of strokes, the co-authors explain in the study.

An attempt was made during the mummification process to fix the position of the woman’s head and chest by including two sticks at her back, which gave her a permanent erect posture. She was also provided with a stick or a crutch, which she seemed to have used during her lifetime as a walking aid. The presence of a rare red linen fabric — found in only a few burials — covering the mummy’s head to knees, suggests a higher social status for this mummy.

The team is currently working on other mummies from the Dra Abu el-Naga area near Luxor to see if they suffered from diseases as well. 

“We are learning about different diseases that ancient Egyptians suffered from and how they dealt with this both medically as well as in a sociocultural context,” said Ikram.

In their award-winning book, AUC faculty chart the evolution of Arab graphic design.

Some of the more than 600 visuals featured in A History of Arab Graphic Design: the anatomy of a horse in crimson and azure, labeled in elegant Arabic calligraphy and preserved on paper for six centuries; tiles in shades of cerulean, turquoise and ultramarine adorning the half-moon entryway of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran; an illustrated mermaid hugging a bouquet of paintbrushes on the first-ever Alexandria Biennale poster.

The first-of-its-kind textbook reminds us that for as long as humans have taken up space, we have insisted on decorating it. In doing so, Arab and Islamic artists have drawn, painted and etched a visual record of their history, whether they meant to or not. “Graphic design is part of a visual language that is itself the by-product and reflection of a culture and its society,” co-authors and Department of the Arts faculty Bahia Shehab (MA ’09), professor of practice, and Haytham Nawar, associate professor and chair, write. “We cannot discuss modern Arab graphic design and visual culture without understanding the region’s visual heritage.”

To read the full article, click here.

From pollution to illiteracy, graphic design graduation projects aim to educate, empower and make a difference.

Hessa fe Qessa (A Lesson in a Story) – Salma Elbarbary ’22

With Egypt’s illiteracy rate reaching 27% in 2020, Hessa fe Qessa is an educational app that teaches illiterate individuals how to read, employing an interactive story that discusses relevant social issues. The app includes an audio guide, exercises and an information bank.

Gowa El Hadota (Inside the Tale) – Salma Elbarbary ’22

We live in a visually abundant world where millions of visually impaired children are deprived of daily activities, simply because they were designed with the sighted consumer in mind. Opening the gates to worlds that can be seen through storytelling and sensory stimulating activities, Gowa Al Hadota is a multi-sensory playing experience for visually impaired children aged 6 to 12. The narrated game targets the child’s imagination to unlock a world that can empower them to play and explore their surroundings independently and safely.

To read the full article, click here.

Human-centered design thinking approach is a core part of the AUC educational experience.

By integrating design thinking into the curriculum, AUC is teaching students to approach complicated problems with a sense of empathy, creativity and resilience, explained Hoda Mostafa, professor of practice and director of the University’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT).

Design thinking is a methodology used by Fortune 500 companies, including Apple and J.P. Morgan, to transform their way of operating and develop innovative, customer-centric products and services. International development institutions, such as the World Food Programme and UNESCO, have employed it to create policies and programs that effectively address poverty, gender inequality and other complex global challenges.

To read the full article, click here.

Faculty uses AI and machine learning to create a universal pictographic human language.

Can humans communicate through a single unified language? 

Yes, according to Haytham Nawar, associate professor and chair of the Department of the Arts, who is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop a universal pictographic language that could bridge divides and enhance cross-cultural understanding.

Why pictographic? 

“The idea is that the machine creates a new language based on how humans in the past created pictographic languages, starting from hieroglyphics all the way to emojis,” said Nawar, who has long been interested in scripts and pictographic languages, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform scripts used in the Near East and ancient Chinese writing systems. These image-based languages were humanity’s earliest communication systems, the precursors to the script-based languages we use today.

To read the full article, click here.

Launched last week, AUC’s Climate Change Initiative capitalizes on AUC’s contributions to national and international efforts in tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time. The initiative includes research, student activities, teaching and learning, outreach, tracking and reducing our carbon footprint, writing school textbooks on climate change and providing climate change solutions in specific contexts within the country.

“Our aim in this initiative is to reinforce AUC’s role as an active academic hub on climate change and sustainable development in Egypt and the region, as well as an active contributor to global efforts addressing climate change challenges,” said President Ahmad Dallal. “Of course, COP27, hosted in Egypt in November, provides an incentive to catalyze AUC’s climate change initiative.”

Dallal outlined the initiative’s five main areas of focus that are fully aligned with national and regional climate change and sustainability priorities:

1. Water-related issues
2. Green architecture and sustainable urban development
3. Green finance
4. Global health
5. Energy transition

These areas of focus also overlap with a number of “cross-cutting issues” ––adaptation to climate change, resilience of communities, mitigation measures, education and a just transition –– that are relevant to Asia and the region. “We encourage a multidisciplinary approach in addressing challenges, including policy, regulatory frameworks, financing, scientific research and social science aspects,” said Dallal.

UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund Mahmoud Mohieldin, who was the keynote speaker at the event, highlighted five distinctive features of COP27, which AUC will participate in next fall:

• A holistic approach to climate change

“We cannot ignore poverty, hunger, job creation and an inclusive approach to the whole [climate change] agenda, including the impact of climate change on children, youth and women."

• Implementation of previous promises outlined in the climate change agenda and action plan

“We don’t need new frameworks; we just need to apply what we have. If there is a good idea, let’s projectize it. You [AUC] have good ideas, and you have been teaching about them, so [the focus now is] how to apply them on your scale, with the hope that this could be scaled up or replicated somewhere else.”

• For the first time in the history of COPs, there is an alignment between the COP agenda, G13 and the rest of the SDGs [UN Sustainable Development Goals], with five major events to correlate the promise of finance coming from different institutions with the pipeline of projects, especially those focusing on mitigation, decarbonization and race to zero.

“This is a very practical approach based on a country-platform design, with five regional roundtables [across the world] – and I’m inviting you to participate in any capacity you wish. … It’s not just about Egypt and the local community. It’s about the region, Arab countries, the Mediterranean, Africa  and beyond.”

• Localization (bottom-up approach): For the first time, Egypt’s 27 governorates will be participating through their big, small and medium enterprises, startups, as well as women-led community development initiatives in a two-month competition to choose the project that offers the smartest and greenest solutions, after which a team of national winners will be selected.
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“It’s not about the competition; it’s about [showcasing] the talents and skills in the governorates, and it’s a chance to demonstrate what they’re doing. … It is customary for rich countries to host big conferences to be attended by 30,000 plus participants, [including] heads of state, but ordinary people would always wonder, ‘What's in it for us? Why do we have this conference?’ And this is legitimate.” 
 

• Finance through partnerships, investments, international financial institutions, as well as public and private sector funding

“Without finance and investments, without the resources available to us –– not just financial resources, but technology and knowledge [as well] – nothing will really progress, and many of these ideas may end up with frustration. There will be some serious discussion about [funding] opportunities." 

Towering in the middle of AUC’s Tahrir Cultural Center (TCC) is a metal sculpture containing intricate shapes made of iron, accompanied by three paintings on a nearby wall. Visual arts major Nour Tawfik ‘22, describes the installation, “Nostalgia is a Dirty Liar…” — which took her a year’s worth of research and creativity to make for her senior project:

“The sculpture represents memories, or a narrative, within space, whereas the paintings depict memories held onto the space,” she said. “This depicts the distortion of memories that occur in an architectural space.”

Her project visualizes the desperation and fear that propels one to hold onto false memories. “More broadly,” she described, “it is a surreal, dystopian illustration of the way in which the subconscious reconstructs memories, making people cling onto false depictions of reality.”

Tawfik’s work is one of 11 multimedia art projects from AUC’s visual arts program on display at the Margo Veillon, Legacy and Future gallery halls at TCC. The exhibition is titled “Liquid Gaze” — a multistage process of looking at or viewing an object described by Shady ElNoshokaty, director of AUC’s visual arts program and curator of the exhibition, in the show’s program.

“This sequence of transformation from one [modality of viewing] to another in moments is what makes the phenomenon of gazing one of the most fundamental human phenomena linked to imagination and creativity,” he wrote.

Be sure to stop by the Margo Veillon, Legacy and Future gallery halls at TCC before June 25 to view all of the 2022 final projects from AUC’s Visual Arts program.

The final projects are an integral part of AUC’s visual arts program, which launched in 2013. Each year, a panel of independent judges evaluates the group show, and ElNoshokaty releases a printed book documenting the creative and production practices showcasing the experience.

“Liquid Gaze” is the first senior project exhibition to be open to the public since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with last year’s show, “(K) for Cannibal” closed to outside viewers.

The projects are unique in that they encompass much more than a simple vision — they also follow a contemporary, experimental methodology with a philosophical reference. In order to reach this deep level of expression, ElNoshokaty has his students conduct one semester of research and another for creating the installations.

The entire process, ElNoshokaty described, is filled with long discussion sessions and ever-shifting goalposts as ideas and concepts evolved.

”The projects started in the fall of 2021, where students developed their individual ideas and conducted visual and knowledge-based research,” he explained. “The latter covered all the theoretical details of the idea, in addition to many other critical and analytical practices that helped develop special creative areas and translate them into theoretical writing for the first part of the project.”

“The research process was incredibly time-consuming, multilayered and complex,” noted Amira ElKouny ‘22, another artist who is displaying her animation work, titled “(IN)DIVIDUAL.” “Every decision had to be well-thought-out before I went along with it, due to the sensitivity of later creating a professional visual arts production based on an intricate research-based project.”

Moreover, ElNoshokaty added, “This group took the most important courses of their majors online due to the pandemic. This project was the first time for many of them to experiment in an actual physical space — which added another layer of pressure.”

Vision from Experience

Inspiration for Tawfik’s iron giant and accompanying paintings first came to her in an art gallery in Athens while viewing an installation by South Korean artist Do-Ho Suh, which allowed visitors an intimate view into the artist’s home. “That sparked my interest in ‘walking through’ memories, which eventually led me to create the installation,” she said.

After choosing her topic, Tawfik dove into studying human memory. “Memories are the foundation of an individual's identity, as they shape and build who a person is, and what they will become,” she said. “They are an integral part of human existence — yet the same memory can be experienced or recalled differently from person to person, or by the same person at different points in time.”

“(IN)DIVIDUAL,” on the other hand, was inspired by a research link visualized in a vivid dream ElKouny had after completing around two years of research on the concept of how our bodies and minds “act and react to spaces they are in, and how the power of authoritative systems affect an individual’s mind and body in moments of fear.”

She describes her installation in the program as a “surreal-morphing experience of fear while trying to escape and survive under authoritarian systems of power.” The work also explores the modern psychotherapeutic theory of the “inner child” and “adult self.”

Lights, Camera, Exhibition

Having just under three months to translate their research into art, the students and ElNoshokaty found themselves hard-pressed for time as opening day approached.

“During the week leading up to the exhibition, I was still finalizing some of the paintings,” Tawfik described. “Finishing a painting is very difficult generally — knowing when it’s done is challenging, because you can always add more layers. I was working on them until the last day.”

ElKouny shared a similar experience. “The week before the exhibition's opening was extremely exhausting and painful,” she said. “I had to re-do a whole part of the drawings, scanning process, video and sound editing process because it did not follow the rhythm of the whole piece — it wouldn't have been as effective as it is now.”

Despite the challenges, all three described the overall experience as extremely instrumental in their personal and professional development.

“Preparing for the grad show is an intense educational experience, not only for my students but also for me,” ElNoshokaty said.

“It was enlightening in a way,” ElKouny added. “I learned a lot about myself, my thought process, actions and creative process.”

“It made me think outside the box and really find out what ideas I’m passionate about,” Tawfik said. “This was also my first time creating a sculpture, so I learned that I can express myself effectively not just through paintings, but also through sculptures and installations.”

With their installations currently housed at the galleries and unalterable, Tawfik and ElKouny feel a mixture of pride and relief. “I can’t believe we were able to achieve this and be part of this exhibition,” ElKouny said.

“Thankfully, everything came together in the end,” Tawfik said. “Now that it is out of my hands to fix anything, I like it a lot more as it stands.”