Faculty Bulletin

This post contains the list of successful Faculty Support Grant applications for the February application cycle. (Anyone interested in the results of a student grant application should contact me directly.)

AUC is proud of its Faculty Support Grant program, which ranks among the most generous of any university in the world. In addition to looking for your own grant on the list below, please take a few minutes to read through some of the other interesting research topics and conference trips of your AUC colleagues. Enhancing mutual recognition of faculty research is one of the motivations for listing successful grant applicants here in the Bulletin.

If you see any mistaken information in the list, including minor spelling errors in any names, please contact me immediately at gharman@aucegypt.edu. We aspire to have a completely accurate list for each grant cycle.

Official letters of approval will be sent to everyone shortly. However, please note the following two points:

1. My assistant, Nancy, has been asked to help organize the March 31 Commencement Ceremony, and this needs to be her top priority at the moment. This could lead to delays of several days in processing your grant letters.

2. At the request of the Payroll Office, we will no longer be sending approval letters for Conference Grants that have been approved “pending acceptance of paper.” The new policy is that we need to see your acceptance letter from the conference before issuing the approval letter, or at least see your name on the official conference schedule.

CONFERENCE GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Steven Formaneck (Management). San Jose, California, USA. June 2011.

*Dilip Ghosh (Management). Bangkok, Thailand. April 2011.

*Mohamed Hegazy (Accounting). Rome, Italy. April 2011.

*Mohamed Hegazy (Accounting). Istanbul, Turkey. June 2011.

*Maha Mourad (Management). Dubai, U.A.E. March 2011.

*Hamed Shamma (Management). Coral Gables, Florida, USA. May 2011.

*Hamed Shamma (Management). Washington D.C., USA. June 2011.

*Ahmed Tolba (Management). Coral Gables, Florida, USA. May 2011.

*Samir Youssef (Management). Ashridge, U.K. June 2011.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Hussein Amin (JRMC). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. April 2011.

*Kim Fox (JRMC). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. April 2011.

*Gianluca Parolin (Law). Hong Kong. April 2011.

*AKM Ahsan Ullah (CMRS). Bangkok, Thailand. May 2011.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Hala Abd AlHak (SAPE). Montreal, Canada. May 2011.

*Nora Abdel Wahab (ALI). Washington D.C., USA. December 2011.

*Dalal Abo El Seoud (ALI). Washington D.C., USA. December 2011.

*David Blanks (HIST). Beijing, China. July 2011.

*Valerie Carpenter (ELI). Dubai, U.A.E. March 2011.

*Matthew Crippen (PHIL). Toronto, Canada. April 2011.

*Ira Dworkin (ECLT). Baltimore, Maryland, USA. October 2011.

*Lori Fredricks (ELI). Chicago, Illinois, USA. March 2011.

*Atta Gebril (ELI). Nicosia, Cyprus. June 2011.

*Atta Gebril (ELI). Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. June 2011.

*Belle Gironda (Rhet/Comp). Atlanta, Georgia. USA. April 2011.

*Inas Hafez (ALI). Washington D.C., USA. December 2011.

*Mona Hassan (ALI). Washington D.C., USA. December 2011.

*Abeer Heider (ALI). New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. April 2011.

*Noelle Houssney (Rhet/Comp). Melbourne, Australia. June-July 2011.

*Salima Ikram (SAPE). Chicago, Illinois. April 2011.

*Heba Kotb (SAPE). Montreal, Canada. May 2011.

*Sanaa Makhlouf (ELI). Brighton, U.K. April 2011.

*Gretchen McCullough (Rhet/Comp). Lisbon, Portugal. June-July, 2011.

*Mate Tokić (HIST). Berlin, Germany. February 2011.

*Dan Tschirgi (Poli. Sci.). San Juan, Puerto Rico. April 2011.

*Elena Tzelepis (PHIL). Tainan, Taiwan. May 2011.

*Loubna Youssef (Rhet/Comp). Washington D.C., USA. December 2011.

LLT (School of Libraries and Learning Technologies)

*Amanda Click (Library). London, U.K. April 2011.

*Meggan Houlihan (Library). Beirut, Lebanon. April-May 2011.

*Meggan Houlihan (Library). Athens, Greece. May 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Sherif Abdelazeem (EENG). Beijing, China. September 2011.

*Mustafa Arafa (MENG). Washington D.C., USA. August 2011.

*Gregg De Young (MACT). Thessaloniki, Greece. July 2011.

*Ayman Elezabi (EENG). Ayia Napa, Cyprus. May 2011.

*Lamyaa El Gabry (MENG). Vancouver, Canada. June 2011.

*Justin Grubich (BIOL). Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. July 2011.

*Ossama Hosny (CANG). Miami, Florida. June 2011.

*Alaa Ibrahim (PHYS). Cape Town, South Africa. April 2011.

*Jeff Langman (CORE/PENG). Monaco. March-April 2011.

*Magda Mostafa (CANG). Tokyo, Japan. September-October 2011.

*Mohammad Sadek (MACT). Vilnius, Lithuania. June-July 2011.

*Sherif Safar (CANG). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. June 2011.

*Nagwa Sherif (CANG). Bari, Italy. May 2011.

RESEARCH GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Angie Abdel Zahar (Accounting). “The Association Between CEO Incentives and Complex Outsourcing Decisions.” Cairo. March-October 2011.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Jennifer Bremer (PPAD). “Cairo’s Neighborhood Watch Groups: A Case Study of Spontaneous Collective Action.” Cairo. March-May 2011.

*David London (JRMC). “25^th January Multimedia Exhibition.” Cairo. March-July 2011.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Agnes Czajka (SAPE). “Migrants and Refugees in Revolutionary Egypt: Discourses of Nationhood and Foreignness During and in the Aftermath of the January 25^th Uprising.” Cairo, Egypt. June-August 2011.

*Aissa Deebi (PVA). “My Dreams Have Destroyed My Life.” Germany and Palestine. May 2011.

*Lori Fredricks (ELI). “Investigating Tajikistani EFL Teachers’ Views and Experiences Through Critical Literature Circles.” Dushanbe, Tajikistan. May-August 2011.

*Atta Gebril (ELI). “Conceptions of Assessment Among Egyptian Pre-Service Teachers.” Sohag, Egypt. March 2011-March 2012.

*Amy Motlagh (ECLT). “Beyond the Boundaries of Nation: Dreaming of a Modern Iran in Cairo.” Princeton, New Jersey, USA. June-July 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Sherif Aly (CSCE). “Novel Software Engineering Practices for Pervasive Systems.” Ottawa, Canada. June-December 2011.

*Khaled Nassar (CANG). “Digital Fabrication Techniques for Low-Cost Housing Using Local Sustainable Material.” Cairo. June 2011-March 2012.

*Sherif Sedky (PHYS). “Laser-Based Processing of Thin Films for MEMS Applications.” Palto Alto, California, USA. July 2011.

*Ezzeldin Soliman (PHYS). “Novel Miniaturized Antennas for Radio Frequency Identifcation (RFID) Systems.” Leuven, Belgium. June 2011.

*Suher Zada (BIOL). “MicroRNA as a Novel Diagnostic and Therapeutic Tool on HCV-Induced Liver Fibrosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma.” Cairo. March 2011-March 2012.

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT GRANT

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Rasha Abdulla (JRMC). “Social Media and Political Participation: The Case of the Egyptian Revolution.” Cairo. February-June 2011.

*Naila Hamdy (JRMC). “State Media and Private Media vs. Social Media: Monitoring and Analyzing Media Coverage of the Egyptian Revolution 2011.” Cairo and Alexandria, April-July 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Hassanein Amer (EENG). “Effect of Failure Criteria on WSN Lifetime.” Cairo. March 2011-February 2012.

TEACHING ENHANCEMENT GRANT

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Frank Bradley (PVA). “Teaching Creativity: Current Trends and Critical Encounters.” Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. March-April 2011.

*Sophie Farag (ELI). “Skilled Helping and Feedback.” Canterbury, U.K. July 2011.

*Wael Mahallawy (PVA). “Pro Tools Training Professional Certification Package.” New York, USA. April 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Christian Bauriedel (CANG). “Supplements to Enhance the Performance of the 3D-Lab.” Cairo. June-December 2011.

Faculty Bulletin
Editor: Graham Harman,
Associate Vice Provost for Research

2010 AUC Research Conference

The 2010 AUC Research Conference is now open to all faculty and graduate students of all Egyptian Educational Institutions (Universities and Research Institutes). The Conference will be held April 10 to 12, 2010 on the AUC New Cairo Campus. Please send all submissions by e-mail to researchconf@aucegypt.edu. The deadlines are as follows:

STAGE I: Abstracts (maximum 300 words) should be submitted for roundtables, panels, and workshops no later than February 27, 2010.

STAGE II: The organizing committee will select the most appropriate proposals and inform the respective coordinators by March 6, 2010.

STAGE III: Coordinators of the selected proposals will be expected to submit abstracts and/or papers for their respective roundtable, panels, or workshops no later than March 27, 2010.

For more information please click this link for the Conference Website.

If you have any questions please contact the Chair of the Conference Committee, Dr. Graham Harman at gharman@aucegypt.edu.

FACULTY PROFILE

For this week’s profile we turn to Professor Nelly Hanna, a distinguished Middle Eastern historian in our Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations (ARIC). Nelly has studied an impressive variety of topics in her scholarly work, and has been a member of our faculty since 1991. Moreover, we can proudly claim Nelly not just as a scholar but also as an alumna, since she received both her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the American University in Cairo. She is the 2004 winner of the AUC Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award, and currently serves as Chair of the Department of ARIC.

Q: The first thing that stands out about your historical work is its great versatility. Along with discussions of economics and family issues, you have also published on the history of sugar, coffee, textiles, and construction work, to name just a few of your topics. What led you to study such a variety of different themes?

A: I touched on many subjects, but essentially I am interested (at least now) in economic history. It is at the basis of many other things, and can explain important dimensions in society, culture. So researching coffee, sugar and textiles, was part of this broader interest in the economy, but here I must clarify, I mean economy in the broader sense that incorporates people, individuals, society, not graphs and figures or statistics.

Q: Many readers of the Bulletin are inexperienced with archival work, myself included. When I see one of your article titles, such as “Coffee and Coffee Merchants in Cairo, 1580-1630,” the first thing I wonder is: how many records are available about this? Is it easy to find enough information to write such detailed studies about a distant period?

A: Easy is not the right word. There are very rich archives: court registers that record the daily dealings of the population in front of the qadi, including transactions of various kinds, marriage contracts, divorces, commercial ventures, inheritances, litigation and many more subjects. There is a lot on merchants, but also on others.What this means is that you need to go through a lot of material to get to the subject that you are researching. So it is possible but it is a lot of work.

Q: Your first book was on the Cairo neighborhood of Bulaq during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. When we walk through the area today, it might be hard to imagine such a glorious past for Bulaq. Tell us, if you would, what makes the history of the neighborhood so interesting.

A: When I did the work on Bulaq, I was often in the area visiting buildings, markets. I was astonished to find that the people there had ties to this district for generations and were therefore quite attached it. I was also surprised to find the streets and alleys, for the most part, to be identical to the map of Bulaq that the Napleonic expedition had drawn in 1800, even had the same names. In short, a high level of continuity, which may have eroded since my research there in the 80s. Essentially for several centuries this was the port of Cairo for goods coming from the Mediterranean, so it was a pretty important place.

Q: Your second book also has an interesting title— Construction Work in Ottoman Cairo.

A: This is a short work, it is really about the guilds involved in construction, who did private jobs, but who were also involved in the large scale state projects.

Q: You have also written about the French expedition to Egypt during the Ottoman period. What is the most lasting French influence on Egypt today? (From the Napoleonic period, I mean.)

A: French culture had quite an impact: when French political influence decreased after the Napoleonic era, French was still the language of the elite. French-speaking schools were opened in the mid-19th century.

Q: You have written a lot about the textile industry in Egypt. But from a layperson’s perspective, it often seems that this industry is minimal in Egypt these days. It seems as though Egyptian cotton is sold abroad rather than being processed into textiles in Egypt itself. Is that true? And if so, when and why did the textile industry in Egypt start to decline?

A: The textile industry, especially linen, was the most important industry for many many centuries. Textile workers produced an enormous variety of cloth (before 1800) much of which was exported to Ottoman and European markets. The textile industry faced major crises in the 19th century: the switch to exporting raw material and importing English cloth was one of the factors; the monoculture in cotton, developed also in the 19th century: these are elements of a colonial economy.

Q: Here’s another of your many interesting article titles: “Sources for the Study of Slave Women and Concubines in Ottoman Egypt.” They kept detailed records of this?

A: As I said, the records we have are so rich you can find the most amazing subjects.

Q: Moving to a more general question, did you have any “hero” historians during your student years? Or at least any scholars whose work you adopted as a model?

A: Sure, André Raymond (French historian on the Ottoman Arab world). He was my advisor for my Doctorat D’État in France and has since then remained a friend and a model.

Q: What is the biggest scholarly controversy in your field right now, and what do you think of it?

A: The most important controversies are about approaches: should one write history as a broad meganarrative? should one write microhistory? Is culture the moving force in history? is the economy the moving force? They are many and complex, often ideologies are the forces that move them.

Q: You’ve invested so much energy in studying the past of Cairo. Are you optimistic about the future of the city? What will be the biggest dangers over the next century?

A: I cannot say I am optimistic as long as growth and development are haphazard and guided mainly by business concerns.

FACULTY NEWS
(as reported by the faculty members)

David Blanks, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History was selected as Executive Secretary of the African Network in Global History/Réseau Africain d’Histoire Mondiale.

Graham Harman, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Vice Provost for Research, is the subject of a review article in the December 16 issue of the French journal Actu Philosophia. “Graham Harman, Prince of Networks. Bruno Latour, cheval de Troie métaphysique,” by Olivier Surel. http://actu-philosophia.com/spip.php?article181

FACULTY RESEARCH BY SCHOOL
(as reported by the faculty members)
In this issue of the Bulletin, we have:

2 books
1 journal article
2 invited lectures
3 conference presentations

Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS)

David Blanks, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History

•Conference presentation: “The African University in a World Historical Context,” conference on African and Global History, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. December 9-11, 2009.

Heather Browne, Writing Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Composition

•Conference presentation: “Overcoming Foreign Aid Backlash: Supporting Community Schools to Promote Democratization” at the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meeting held in Philadelphia, PA, November 19-21, 2009.

•Conference presentation: “The Potential of Facebook as a Channel of Civic Engagement in Egypt” at the Middle East Studies Association annual meeting held in Boston, MA, November 21-24, 2009.


Kathleen Saville, Senior Writing Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Composition

• Book. The Advanced English Handbook: Reading, Writing, Listening. Shabka, Margaret and Kathleen Saville. (Cairo: Anglo Engyptian Bookshop, 2009) Note: this is the companion book to The Advanced English Handbook: Structure and Form. (Cairo: Anglo Egyptian Bookshop, 2008.)


Margaret Shabka, Senior Writing Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Composition

• Book. The Advanced English Handbook: Reading, Writing, Listening. Shabka, Margaret and Kathleen Saville. (Cairo: Anglo Engyptian Bookshop, 2009) Note: this is the companion book to The Advanced English Handbook: Structure and Form (Cairo: Anglo Egyptian Bookshop, 2008)


Dan Tschirgi, Professor of Political Science

• Book. Origins of U.S. Involvement in the Modern Middle East Problem: U.S.-Israeli Relations Over Arab Lands Occupied in the June War, 1967-1969. (Saarbrücken: VDM Publishers, 2010.)

• Invited lectures, two lectures to be given at the Leonard Davis Institute of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem during the week of January 17, 2010.

School of Business (SoB)

Hamed M. Shamma, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Heikal Department of Management

•Journal article, “Customer and Non-customer Perspectives for Examining Corporate Reputation,” Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 326-337.