Faculty Bulletin

This news comes courtesy of Dr. Ann Lesch, Associate Provost for International Programs.

A number of AUC faculty have won prestigious grants in the Erasmus Mundus WELCOME program. The grant supports one month of research by a full-time professor during academic year 2013-2014.  It covers living expenses and airfare. The five faculty who won awards are likely to use January or June 2014 for the research.

Atta Gebril, Assistant Professor in the MA TESOL program, will collaborate with Prof. Dr. Michael Eid’s research group in education and psychology at the Free University of Berlin in order to complete his study on test preparation practices by teachers in the context of the Secondary School Certificate (thanaweya amma) exam in Egypt by introducing a comparative dimension to the research and refining his data analysis.

Dina Wafa, Director of Executive Education at in the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP),  will join the public administration team in the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po, where she will conduct research on political attitudes and electoral behavior transformations in Egypt, benefiting from a comparative perspective in relation to France and Europe.

Mariam Ayad, Associate Professor of Egyptology, will conduct research at the Free University of Berlin in the Wortenburch archives and the Neues Museum in Berlin. This will enable her to complete her manuscript on the Opening of the Mouth ritual, in which she focuses on the relationship of the textual content of the ritual to its physical placement on a tomb’s walls. Her translation of the ritual will present its various episodes in the order in which they are found in Egyptian tombs. She will also further her new research that aims to produce a comprehensive anthology of ancient Egyptian texts dealing with women’s professional or personal lives.

Tahia Abdel Nasser, Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Interim Director of the Center for Translation Studies, has been accepted by the Free University of Berlin to conduct research through the Institute for Latin American Studies, specifically working with Professor Susanne Klengel, professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultures.  Her research will focus on Arab and Latin American literary, cultural and political intersections in the 20^th and early 21^st century, including the presence of the Orient in Latin American fiction, the rich repertoire of cross-cultural influences among Hispanic and Arabic literary traditions, and the reception, translation, and influence of Latin American novels and poetry in the Arab world.

Wael Hassan, Assistant Professor of Structural and Earthquake Engineering in the Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, will conduct research in the Institute of Concrete Science and Technology at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain) related to the analytical modeling of the seismic behavior of masonry infill reinforced concrete frame structures. He seeks to establish common research interests that will lead to joint analytical and experimental research projects.  He will also make presentations on his research on the macro modeling of the seismic performance of different concrete structural components as well as on the engineering of tall buildings in the United States and Asia.

In addition, under the administrative staff grant category through the MEDASTAR consortium, Esraa El Bially, Assistant to the Associate Provost at the International Programs Office, will spend one month at the International Office of Sciences Po studying its systems for managing international students and sending students abroad.

AUC’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications (JRMC) will host Professor Beatriz Herraiz Zomoza, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia in late June and July 2014, funded through WELCOME.  She will teach an intensive summer course in motion graphics, an important element in television, advertising, cinema, and theatre.  She has hands-on experience as a graphic designer with a local television network as well as extensive teaching experience in subjects related to the generation of animated images, special effects, and the application of 3D images to the internet, TV, and cinema.

We are pleased that the Free University of Berlin will host three professors and Sciences Po will host a researcher and an administrator.   We have had student exchange relationships with FUB and Sciences Po since 2010 and 2009, respectively, and these programs will deepen and expand the relationships. In addition, we are pleased to open a new and promising academic relationship with the Polytechnic University of Valencia through the exchange of research and teaching professors.

Mariam Ayad, Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology (SAPE) has been invited to give a seminar (talk) at Cambridge University today (May 9). The talk is part of the Egyptian World Seminar series, and is sponsored by the McDonald Institute of Archaeology of Cambridge University. In her talk, Mariam will highlight the various mechanisms employed by  the God’s Wives of Amun to attain and retain power and legitimacy.

Earlier this week, Mariam was also informed that she has been awarded a fully-funded Erasmus Mundus WELCOME scholarship that will allow her to spend a month doing research at the Freie Universität Berlin. The scholarship provides round-trip airfare and a stipend to support Mariam’s research activities while in Berlin. She hopes to use her time in Berlin to finalize her translation of the Opening of the Mouth Ritual, and to jumpstart a project aimed at producing an anthology of Ancient Egyptian texts dealing with women’s personal and professional lives.

click here to view a poster announcing the seminar

Mariam Ayad, Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Pychology, and Egyptology (SAPE), recently gave a talk in Providence, Rhode Island at the Sixty-Third Annual Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). Mariam’s paper, entitled “Reviving Harwa: Selection and Layout of Opening of the Mouth Scenes in TT37,” highlighted the results of fieldwork conducted at the tomb on the Theban west bank last December-January. Sources report to the Bulletin that the paper was well received.

Also featured at the conference display was Mariam’s recent edited volume, Coptic Culture: Past, Present and Future Mariam tells us that this was the first time she saw an actual physical copy of the book, which only appeared in March/April. This volume of collected papers represents the proceedings of an international symposium on Coptic Culture that Mariam organized in Stevenage, UK, in May 2008.

The following list includes only faculty grants. Graduate student grants are now handled exclusively by Dr. Amr Shaarawi, Dean of Graduate Studies. Please contact Dean Shaarawi’s office for news about graduate student grant applications.

My office will process the checks for the following grants as quickly as we can, but please allow some time for processing, since there is a very heavy workload for my assistant, Nancy Wadie, once the grant decisions are made. If you have not yet provided a letter of acceptance from a conference for which you have received a grant, no check will be issued until we receive such a letter.

CONFERENCE GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Mohamad Al-Issis (ECON). Stanford, CA, USA. April 2012.

*Nizar Becheikh (MGMT). Hsinchu, Taiwan. March 2012.

*Khaled Dahawy (ACCT). Ljubljana, Slovenia. May 2012.

*Hala El-Ramly (ECON). Rome, Italy. June 2012.

*Mohamed Hegazy (ACCT). Ljubljana, Slovenia. May 2012.

*Mohamed Hegazy (ACCT). Istanbul, Turkey. May 2012.

*Dina Rateb (MGMT). Provo, UT, USA. April 2012.

*Dina Rateb (MGMT). Vienna, Austria. May 2012.

*Hamed Shamma (MGMT). Milan, Italy. May-June 2012.

*Khaled Soliman (MGMT). Istanbul, Turkey. May 2012.

*Samir Youssef (MGMT). Nottingham, United Kingdom. April 2012.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Dalia Ashmawi (JRMC). Las Vegas, USA. April 2012.

*Kim Fox (JRMC). Las Vegas, USA. April 2012.

*Benjamin Geer (MEST). Beirut, Lebanon. July 2012.

*Naila Hamdy (JRMC). Las Vegas, USA. April 2012.

*Naila Hamdy (JRMC). London, United Kingdom. April 2012.

GSE (Graduate School of Education)

*Ana Gil Garcia (GSE). Vancouver, Canada. April 2012.

*Ted Purinton (GSE). Barcelona, Spain. June 2012.

*Stacie Rissmann-Joyce (GSE). San Juan, Puerto Rico. April 2012.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Hala Abd AlHak (SAPE). San Juan, Puerto Rico. April 2012.

*Mona Amer (SAPE). Cape Town, South Africa. July 2012.

*Mariam Ayad (SAPE). Providence, RI, USA. April 2012.

*Dalia Basiouny (PVA). Dearborn, MI, USA. May-June 2012.

*Amy Carrillo (SAPE). Cape Town, South Africa. July 2012.

*Victoria Clark (RHET). Lodz, Poland. May 2012.

*Matthew Crippen (PHIL). Windsor, ON, Canada. April 2012.

*Matthew Crippen (PHIL). Waterloo, ON, Canada. May 2012.

*Aissa Deebi (PVA). Austin, TX, USA. March 2012.

*Ira Dworkin (ECLT). Beirut, Lebanon. May 2012.

*Rasha Essam (ALI). Lexington, KY, USA. April 2012.

*Lori Fredricks (ELI). Loughborough, England. March 2012.

*Atta Gebril (ELI). Ankara, Turkey. May-June 2012.

*Camilo Gómez-Rivas (ARIC). Toronto, Canada. April 2012.

*Hani Henry (SAPE). Las Vegas, USA. February 2012.

*Abeer Heider (ALI). Bologna, Italy. March 2012.

*Sean McMahon (POLS). Madrid, Spain. July 2012.

*Yasmine Motawy (RHET). London, United Kingdom. August 2012.

*Amy Motlagh (ECLT). Santa Clara, CA, USA. April 2012.

*Alissa Nostas (ELI). Dubai, UAE. March 2012.

*Bernard O’Kane (ARIC). Philadelphia, USA. March-April 2012.

*Rashmika Pandya (PHIL). Tallinn, Estonia. May-June 2012.

*Gavin Rae (PHIL). London, United Kingdom. February 2012. (retroactive)

*Heba Salem (PHIL). Oxford, United Kingdom. May 2012.

*Shahira Yacout (ALI). Denver, USA. November 2012.

LLT (School of Libraries and Learning Technologies)

*Meggan Houlihan (Library). Anahaeim, CA, USA. June 2012.

*Hoda Mostafa (CLT). Buffalo, NY, USA. May 2012.

*Carolyn Runyon (Library). Anaheim, CA, USA. June 2012.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Mohamed Abdel-Mooty (CANG). São Paulo, Brazil. July 2012.

*Sherif Aly (CSCE). Lugano, Switzerland. March 2012.

*Asma Amleh (BIOL). Montreal, Canada. November 2011. (retroactive)

*Mustafa Arafa (MENG). Chicago, USA. August 2012.

*Hassan Azzazy (CHEM). Frankfurt, Germany. March 2012.

*Rachid Belhachemi (MACT). Venice, Italy. April 2012.

*Gregg De Young (MACT). Seoul, South Korea. July 2012.

*Mohamed Elbarkouky (CANG). Edmonton, Canada. June 2012.

*Lamyaa El-Gabry (MENG). Copenhagen, Denmark. June 2012.

*Jeff Langman (CORE). Venice, Italy. June 2012.

*Khaled Nassar (CANG). Birmingham, UK. April 2012.

*Ahmed Rafea (CSCE). Dublin, Ireland. June 2012.

*Karim Seddik (EENG). Paris, France. April 2012.

*Mohamed Shalan (CSCE). San Francisco, USA. June 2012.

*Nagwa Sherif (CANG). Paris, France. July 2012.

RESEARCH GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Mohamad Al-Ississ (ECON). “Eliciting the Price of Religiosity Through a Laboratory Experiment on Islamic Banking.” Cairo. March 2012-March 2013.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Ashraf Abdelbar (CSCE). “Hybridizing Ant Colony and Particle Swarm Optimization.” Rolla, MO, USA. August 2012.

*Nageh K. Allam (PHYS). “Design and Assembly of Nanostructured Electrodes for Solar-Driven Fuel Production.” Cambridge, MA, USA & Cairo. April 2012-January 2013.

*Florin Balasa (CSCE). “Power Analysis and Optimization Techniques for the Memory System in Digital Signal Processing.” Leuven, Belgium & Cairo. October 2012-September 2013.

*Salah El-Haggar (MENG). “Natural Fiber Plastic Composites.” Cairo. March 2012-March 2013.

*Amal Esawi (MENG). “Hierarchically-Designed Ultra High Strength Materials.” Cairo. Summer 2012-Summer 2013.

*Ali Hadi (MACT). “Regression Analysis by Example, Fifth Edition.” New York, USA & Cairo. February-August, 2012.

*Ezzeldin Soliman (PHYS). “Novel Micromachined Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRA) for mm-Wave Applications.” Leuven, Belgium & Cairo. June-July 2012.

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT GRANT

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Maki Habib (MENG). “Mechatronics Engineering: Research Development and Education.” Aveiro, Portugal. March 2012-January 2013.

TEACHING ENHANCEMENT GRANT

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Sheila Peuchaud (JRMC). “Multimedia Bootcamp.” Chapel Hill, NC, USA. May 2012.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences

*Sophie Farag (ELI). “Building Prospective Group Dynamics” & “Successful Pronunciation Teaching and Learning.” Canterbury, United Kingdom. Summer 2012.

*Christopher Faulk (RHET). “2012 Digital Media and Composition Institute.” Columbus, OH, USA. Summer 2012.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Ashraf Abdelbar (CSCE). “2012 ABET Assessment Workshop and Program.” St. Louis, USA. April 2012.

*Tarek Madkour (CHEM). “Developing Modeling and Simulation Learing Module Units for the Food Chemistry Course: CHEM 519, ‘Practical Approaches to Food Analysis.’” Cairo. March–May 2012.

CO-ORDINATION OF A CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP GRANT

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Salima Ikram (SAPE). “First International Chariot Conference (FICC).” Cairo. November-December 2012.

LLT (School of Libraries and Learning Technologies)

*Aziza El Lozy (CLT). “Challenges and Practices of Pedagogy and Instructional Technology: Professional Development for Palestinian Educators.” Cairo. March 2012.

Mariam Ayad, Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, and Egyptology (SAPE) had an interesting Winter Break. She writes as follows:

Dear Colleagues:

What follows is a list of all Faculty Support Grants approved from the September application cycle. (Graduate Student Grants are now handled by Dr. Amr Shaarawi, Dean of Graduate Studies; inquiries can be made with his office.) All unsuccessful applicants have already been informed by email. If you think you have been wrongly omitted from the list, or if there is a typographical or other error in your listing, please let me know at gharman@aucegypt.edu. Such mistakes are easy to fix. Please note that under the new travel policy, my office will initially only be processing checks for the non-travel portion of your grant. As for the travel portion, you can either (a) book your tickets through the AUC Travel Office, or (b) book them yourself. The procedures for the two cases are as follows:

(a) The Travel Office will receive a list from me of everyone approved for travel for this cycle, including the destination and approximate dates. Since not everyone will choose to use the Travel Office, they will not automatically book your tickets for you; you must contact them to make this request, but please wait until at least Sunday, October 23 before doing so. Once the Travel Office tells us that you are booking through them, we will then pay the cost. Naturally, this amount will count against your annual maximum (which is $3,500 for Conference Grants and $6,500 for Research Grants).

(b) If you choose to book the tickets yourself, you must be reimbursed after travel is complete, after presenting your boarding passes for the whole of the trip. Please note that the amount of reimbursement will be determined by the Travel Office. If for some reason you need a more complicated itinerary than direct travel to the research/conference site, you are allowed to book such an itinerary, but of course you will only be reimbursed for what the fair price would have been for a direct route. Naturally, this amount will count against your annual maximum.

Important Note: faculty are not allowed more than the maximum amount in each grant category for any reason. If for example the airfare and per diem for a distant conference add up to more than $3,500, you may be left with some out-of-pocket expenses. Faculty are encouraged to consider this point when deciding on which conferences to attend during any given academic year.

Another Important Note (October 19): We do not process Conference Grants for which the letter of acceptance is still pending until the letter of acceptance is forwarded to my office.

Dr. Graham Harman, Associate Provost for Research Administration

CONFERENCE GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Neveen Ahmed (MGMT). Washington, DC, USA. November 2011.

*Mohamad Al-Ississ (ECON). Chicago, USA. January 2012.

*Hala El-Ramly (ECON). Chicago, USA. January 2012.

*Steven Formaneck (MGMT). Bangkok, Thailand. December 2011.

*Maha Mourad (MGMT). Venice, Italy. January 2012.

*Maha Mourad (MGMT). Nicosia, Cyprus. March 2012.

*Samir Youssef (MGMT). Rotterdam, The Netherlands. June 2012.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Hamid Ali (PPAD). Chicago, USA. January 2012.

*Timothy Dolan (PPAD). Penang, Malaysia. December 2011.

*Mohamad Elmasry (JRMC). Beirut, Lebanon. October 2011.

*Kim Fox (JRMC). Beirut, Lebanon. October 2011.

*Naila Hamdy (JRMC). Beirut, Lebanon. October 2011.

*Kevin Keenan (JRMC). Beirut, Lebanon. October 2011.

*Kevin Keenan (JRMC). Juba, South Sudan. November 2011.

*Usha Natarajan (LAW). Eugene, Oregon, USA. October 2011.

*AKM Ahsan Ullah (CMRS). Phuket, Thailand. May 2012.

GSE (Graduate School of Education)

*Ana Gil Garcia (GSE). Madrid, Spain. November 2011.

*Ted Purinton (GSE). Rhodes, Greece. January 2012.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Zeinab Abul-Magd (HIST). Washington, DC, USA. December 2011.

*Holger Albrecht (POLS). Washington, DC, USA. December 2011.

*Stancil Campbell (PVA). Long Beach, CA, USA. March 2012.

*Agnes Czajka (SAPE). Berlin, Germany. October 2011.

*Sophie Farag (ELI). Glasgow, Scotland. March 2012.

*Lori Fredricks (ELI). Antigua, Guatemala. November 2011.

*Camilo Gómez-Rivas (ARIC). Washington, DC, USA. November-December 2011.

*Joseph Hill (SAPE). Montreal, Canada. November 2011.

*Amy Holmes (SAPE). Boston, USA. November 2011.

*Nagwa Kassabgy (ELI). Chicago, USA. November 2011.

*Sara Magrin (PHIL). Ithaca NY. October 2011.

*Sanaa Makhlouf (ELI). Ankara, Turkey. October 2011.

*Javed Maswood (POLS). Taiwan. November 2011.

*Sean McMahon (POLS). Dunedin, New Zealand. November-December, 2011.

*William Melaney (ECLT). Pittsburgh, USA. October 2011.

*Amy Motlagh (ECLT). Washington, DC, USA. December 2011.

*Bernard O’Kane (ARIC). Sydney, Australia. October 2011.

*Rashmika Pandya (PHIL). Reykjavik, Iceland. November 2011.

*Rose Parfitt (POLS). Helsinki, Finland. October 2011.

*Sylvain Perdigon (SAPE). Washington, DC, USA. December 2011.

*Susanne Rizzo (ELI). Philadelphia, USA. March 2012.

*Yasmine Salah El-Din (ELI). Chicago, USA. November 201

*Ann Shafer (PVA). San Francisco, USA. November 2011.

*Mohammed Tabishat (SAPE). Montreal, Canada. November 2011.

*Mark Westmoreland (SAPE). New Orleans, USA. November 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Nageh K. Allam (PHYS). Boston, USA. November-December 2011.

*Christian Bauriedel (CANG). Nairobi, Kenya & Madrid, Spain. November 2011.

*Ali Darwish (EENG). Montreal, Canada. June 2012.

*Sherine Elbaradei (CANG). Sharjah, UAE. November 2011.

*Tarek Elkewidy (PENG). Bangkok, Thailand. November 2011.

*Maki Habib (MENG). Oita, Japan. January 2012.

*Ali Hadi (MACT). Lahore, Pakistan. December 2011.

*Tarek Madkour (CHEM). Tokyo, Japan. December 2011.

*Khaled Nassar (CANG). Weimar, Germany. November 2011.

*Ahmed Rafea (CSCE). Alexandria. October 2011.

*Hanadi Salem (MENG). Orlando, Florida, USA. March 2012.

*Mohamed Hassan Sayed (PENG). Washington, DC, USA. October 2011.

RESEARCH GRANTS

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Naila Hamdy (JRMC). “Prediction of Media Credibility in Egypt’s Post-Revolution Transitional Phase.” Cairo. October-December 2011.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Mariam Ayad (SAPE). “Epigraphic Fieldwork in the Tomb of Harwa (TT37).” Luxor. December 2011-January 2012.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Ahmed Abou-Auf (EENG). “Fault Modeling ad Worst-Case Test Vectors for Delay Failure Induced in CMOS ASIC Devices by Total Ionizing Radiation.” Cairo. October 2011-September 2012.

*Wael Ahmed (CHEM). “Graphene-Polymer Nanocomposites as Surface Coatings for Biomolecular Absorption.” Cairo. October 2011-October 2012.

*Edwin Cruz-Rivera (BIOL). “The Role of Structural Versus Chemical Defenses in Turbinaria.” El Gouna, Egypt. November 2011-June 2012.

*Maki Habib (MENG). “Design and Development of GSM Based Remote Control and Monitoring System.” Cairo. October 2011-October 2012.

*Tarek Madkour (CHEM). Cairo. “Development of the Molecular Parameters for the Design of New Nano-Structured Highly Permeable and Highly Selective Polyimide Membranes for the Green Separation of Natural Gas.” Cairo. September 2011-June 2012.

*Tamer Shoeib (CHEM). Cairo. “Theoretical Modeling and Structural Analysis of Gluathione Complexes with the Anti-Cancer Drugs Cisplatin and Oxaliplatin.” Cairo. November 2011-October 2012.

*Mohamed Swillam (PHYS). “Design and Fabrication of Nanoscale Plasmonic Networks.” Toronto, Canada. November 2011-October 2012.

TEACHING ENHANCEMENT GRANT

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Mohamed Aly (MENG). “Development of Drawing and Dimensioning Library for Mechanical Components According to Different International Drawing Standards.” Cairo. December 2011-December 2012.

*Lamyaa El-Gabry (MENG). “Sustainable Solar Systems in Mechanical Engineering.” Egypt, Spain. December 2011-December 2012.

*Basil Kamel (CANG). “Design Methodology: Studies in Design Studio Experiential Learning.” Cairo. October 2011-August 2012.

CO-ORDINATION OF A CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP GRANT

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Thomas Skouteris (LAW). “International Law and the Periphery,” in co-operation with the University of Sydney, Australia. February 2012.