Faculty Bulletin

Mervat Abu Oaf, Associate Professor of Practice and Associate Chair in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, was very busy last week in anticipation of the March 19 referendum on amendments to the Constitution. Mervat, who teaches a course on Media Law and Policy that covers the Egyptian Constitution, prepared and presented two lectures about the proposed Egyptian Constitutional amendments. The lectures were organized by the Center for Learning and Teaching, and were both entitled "CLT Forum: Crash Workshop on the Constitutional Amendments." One lecture was conducted in English and was open to AUC faculty and students. Another was given in Arabic on March 17, for staff and custodians. For a link to a recording of the forum, click HERE.

Mervat also lectured members of the Greek Orthodox Club in Heliopolis on March 14, an event organized by Dr. Jeannettte Nounou and Mr. Claude Naccache, head of the Board of Directors of the Club. The title of the lecture was "The Egyptian Constitution: Changes to the Constitution in light of the recent political changes in Egypt." Posters were distributed announcing the lecture, which was conducted in Arabic and attended by 221 members who showed great interest and involvement concerning the March 19 referendum. On this occasion, Mervat explained the structure of the abolished Egyptian Constitution and the proposed amendments to the 11 articles of  the Constitution. A series of similar lectures will be conducted to boost awareness of the expected parliamentary and presidential elections.

Mervat Abou Oaf, Associate Professor of Practice and Associate Chair in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC). was the guest speaker on Tuesday, December14, on the live program “Daily Debate” on Nile TV International. She discussed the UN-sponsored Luxor International Forum to combat human trafficking, which was chaired and attended by Egypt’s first lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak. The two-dayforum started last Sunday and was co-organized by the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement (SMWIPM). The event was the first worldwide initiative that places the business community at the forefront of anti-trafficking efforts. Abou Oaf, member in the National Council for Women (NCW) Cairo Branch, shared recommendations accomplished in the event through Mrs. Mubarak’s plan, dubbed “The Luxor Protocol,” representing a work plan for any institution eager to combat human trafficking with the help of the business sector worldwide. The vital role of media in getting rid of this modern kind of slavery was among the recommendations that Abou Oaf discussed in the program.

Abou Oaf also participated for the fifth consecutive year in the organization of foreign press conferences for feature films of the 34th round of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) that took place from November 30 through December 9, 2010. She coordinated symposia and press conferences for a variety of motion pictures produced and directed from around the world. Abou Oaf was responsible for moderating 12 films, nine feature movies and three digital releases. Among the feature films she moderated was Paul Greengrass’s contentious “Green Zone” starring Matt Damon and Khaled Abdulla about the first three months in the 2003 Iraqi War. In the International competition for long feature films Abou Oaf moderated the press conference for many films among them, “Voice Over of Bulgaria” directed by Svetoslav Ovtharov who won best film and the Irish film ‘As if I am not there’ directed by Juanita Wilson who won the Silver Pyramids Prize of the CIFF for directing. 

Among the feature films in the international competition for digital movies, she moderated Qasim Q Basir’s controversial film “Mooz-lum’ starring Evan Ross, Danny Glover and Nia Long about African Americans’ distress after the 9/11 attacks, and the Hungarian film ‘Eastside Stories’ directed by Csaba Bullok among many others. Prizes and results of the CIFF 34th Round as well as photos and videos of the event are announced and posted on the CIFF website

Beginning with the September 2010 application cycle for AUC internal faculty grants, we are posting the names of all faculty grant recipients here on the Faculty Bulletin (and, in the case of all grants other than Conference Grants, the topic of the project). There are two reasons for doing so:

1. To accelerate the notification process.  Please note that recipients still need to wait several days for the official letter from my Office to know the amount received. Acceptance does not entail that the full amount requested was in fact awarded. (For now, we have decided not to list the exact dollar amount of the grants in the Bulletin.)

2. To enhance mutual awareness of AUC faculty research. It is enjoyable to read through the list and learn about the many interesting research projects in which your colleagues are involved.

Some of the Conference Grants are pending a letter of acceptance for the presentations. For this reason, only the conference locations are listed so as not to “jump the gun” with conference titles before some of the presentations are officially accepted.

If you are not on the list below and think there is an error, you may contact the Associate Provost for Research Administration (gharman@aucegypt.edu) for an explanation.

Names of recipients are listed alphabetically by family name.

Please note: this is the last cycle of AUC faculty support grants to be awarded under the old system. Beginning with the November application cycle, new application forms are required and the new rules apply. Please see the following website for details:

http://www.aucegypt.edu/research/grants/Pages/Fac.aspx

(FOLLOW-UP: if your name is spelled incorrectly on this list, or if you see any other error in the information, please contact me immediately at gharman@aucegypt.edu; it is very easy to make changes on the Bulletin and you won't be troubling me at all. We want to get everything right.)

CONFERENCE GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Nahed Amin Azab (Management). Orlando, Florida. March 2011.

*Hala El Ramly (Economics). Denver, Colorado. January 2011.

*Steven Formaneck (Management). Bahrain. January 2011.

*Dilip Ghosh (Management). New York. October 2010.

*Maha Mourad (Management). Beirut. December 2010.

*Maha Mourad (Management). Zürich. February 2011.

*Eskandar Tooma (Management). Cape Town. November 2010.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Holger Albrecht (Political Science). Pisa, Italy. April 2011.

*Nadya Chishty-Mujahid (ECLT). Oxford, UK. January 2011.

*Lori Fredricks (ELI). Jaen, Spain. December 2010.

*Camilo Gomez-Rivas (ARIC). Boston. January 2011.

*Abeer Salah Heider (ALI). Seattle. March 2011.

*Hani Henry (SAPE). Charleston, SC. February 2011.

*Amy Holmes (SAPE). San Diego, CA. November 2011.

*Vassiliki Kotini (ECLT). New Brunswick, NJ. April 2011.

*Amy Motlagh (ECLT). Los Angeles. January 2011.

*Ann Shafer (PVA). Atlanta. November 2010.

*Nadine Sika (Political Science). Florence, Italy. April 2011.

*Mohammed Tabishat (SAPE). New Orleans. November 2010.

*Daniel Vilmure (RHET/COMP). Istanbul. November 2010.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Mervat Abou Oaf (JRMC). Kuwait. October 2010.

*Hamid Ali (PPA). Berlin. January 2011.

*Alejandro Escorihuela (Law). Madrid. December 2010.

*Sherine Fahmy (JRMC). Kuwait. October 2010.

*Kim Fox (JRMC). Kuwait. October 2010.

*Outi Korhonen (Law). Madrid. December 2010.

*Tanya Monforte (Law). Madrid. December 2010.

LLT (School of Libraries and Learning Technologies)

*Amanda Click (Library). Dubai. October 2010.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Maki Habib (MENG). Beppu, Oita, Japan. January 2011.

*Ali Hadi (MACT). Dhaka, Bangladesh. December 2010.

*Ahmed Moustafa (Biology). Hersonissios, Crete, Greece. November 2010.

*Khaled Nassar (CANG). Baltimore, MD. December 2010.

*Hanadi Salem (MENG). San Diego, CA. February-March, 2011.

*Alexander Schuster (MACT). Helsinki, Finland. October 2010.

RESEARCH GRANTS

BUS (School of Business)

*Mohamed Hegazy (Accounting). “Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Do Red Flags Really Help?” Cairo. July 2010-December 2010.

*Khaled Samaha (Accounting). “The Extent of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Information Disclosure and its Determinants by the Largest Companies Listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EXG).” Cairo. September 2010-September 2011.

*Ahmed Tolba (Management). “The Effect of Opinion Leadership on Innovation Diffusion and Use.” Cairo. October 2010-July 2011.

GAPP (School of Global Affairs and Public Policy)

*Hamid Ali (PPA). “Public Policy Debate: Inflationary and Reserve Requirement in Economy with Informal Sector.” Cairo. January 2011.

*AKM Ahsan Ullah (CMRS). “Tapping the Potential for Corporate Social Responsibilities (CRS) to Address the Needs of Refugees in Egypt.” Cairo. October 2010-April 2011.

*Justin Martin (JRMC). "Half the Tunisian Sky: Two-Part Journalism Project on Women's Rights in Tunisia." Tunis. November 2010.

HUSS (School of Humanities and Social Sciences)

*Salima Ikram (SAPE). “North Kharga Oasis Survey, Field Work.” Kharga Oasis, Egypt. December 2010-January 2011.

*Mate Tokić (History). “For the Homeland, Ready! Diaspora Politics and Transnational Political Violence During the Cold War.” Ottawa, ON, Canada. January 2011.

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Sherif Abdel Azeem (EENG). Cairo. “On-line Handwritten Digits Recognition.” September 2010-August 2011.

*Mohab Anis (EENG). “Design for Yield of Sensitive Integrated Circuits in the Nanometer Regime.” Cairo and Waterloo, ON, Canada. January-March, 2011.

*Samer Ezeldin (CANG). “Automation of Project Controls, Procedures, and Protocols for ISO Certification- Phase 1.” Cairo and New Brunswick, NJ. Fall 2010-Fall-2011.  

*Hanadi Salem (MENG). “Fabrication of Ultrahigh Strength/Tough Monolithic and Composite Nanostructured Bulk Products Using Powder Metallurgy/Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS).” Cairo. January 2011-April 2012.

*Kathleen Sheppard (Core). “Margaret Murray and the Tomb of the Two Brothers.” London. January 2011.

*Maher Younan (MENG). “Shakedown Limit Load Determination of Defected Pressure Vessel, and Piping Components Using a Simplified Technique.” Cairo. November 2010-May 2011.

TEACHING ENHANCEMENT GRANT

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Mustafa Arafa (MENG). Cairo. “Development of Teaching Aids for Mechanical Vibration.” December 2010-December 2011.

CO-ORDINATION OF A CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP GRANT

SSE (School of Sciences and Engineering)

*Mohab Anis (EENG).  “International Conference on Microelectronics.” Sofitel el-Gezira, Cairo. December 19-22, 2010.

Mervat Abou Oaf, Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, was a guest on Television Channel Two's live program ‘Zeina’ on Monday, March 8, covering the festivities of International Women’s Day. Abou Oaf spoke about the event and its role in connecting women around the world, celebrating the collective power of women past, present, and future and inspiring them to achieve their full potential. She also discussed the responsibilities of the National Council for Women (NCW), of which she is a member. In particular, she stressed its role in promoting the status of women in Egypt's 27 Governorates, with special emphasis on this year’s March 16 celebrations marking a decade since the founding of the NCW.  She also spoke on the topic of women’s political empowerment in the upcoming elections, and responses to the recent general assembly’s refusal to allow judges of the State Council (Administrative Courts) the option of appointing women to judiciary positions.

 

 

Mervat Abou Oaf, Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Students in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, was recently a guest on the Saudi television program “Bridges.” Details follow.

Saturday. Time: 08:45 to 10:00 pm (Cairo Local Time – LIVE)
Channel: KSA2 (The Saudi Arabian English Channel).
Program: Bridges
Topic: English Channels Operating in Arabic Language in the ME

Professor Mervat Abou Oaf was the guest speaker on KSA2 TV Channel (The Saudi Arabian English Channel) in the live program “Bridges,” where she discussed media issues regarding the role of foreign channels operating in Arabic in the Middle East, the messages they aim to convey, and the objectives they seek to fulfill in the region.

Abou Oaf also gave an explanation of such channels’ extent of awareness and understanding of the specific nature and privacy provisions of the Islamic Arab Communities. Also discussed on the program were the reasons behind the recent interest of foreign nations in the Arab World.

Abou Oaf shared her perceptions of the rationale behind existing trends on this topic, in view of the unprecedented availability and competition among Arabic Satellite Channels, as well as their rising responsibility in diminishing the gap between the Arabs and the West led by the USA.