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Appendix: Personnel & Enrollment
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Director: Ibrahim El Nur
One of the central goals of the Office of African Studies is to promote research on comparative and international topics of mutual interest to scholars and policy makers in the Middle East and Africa. To this end the office provides research facilities to visiting scholars as limited space permits, and sponsors a public lecture series. Membership in CODESRIA and the African Association of Political Science facilitates contacts with researchers throughout the continent and helps to promote collaborative activities.
The Office of African Studies is interdisciplinary in its hosting and promotion of research. Activities recently completed or ongoing include the compilation of materials for an annotated bibliography on African international relations (in conjunction with colleagues at University of South Carolina); the investigation of resources for refugees and displaced persons in Cairo, an assessment of the needs of Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees in Cairo; a comparative analysis of female genital mutilation in Sudan, and a digest of Sudanese cultural diversity.
In addition to hosting the IV triennial meetings of the International Sudan Studies Association (June 1997), and the Sudanese Cultural Festival (September 1996), the Office of African Studies has also hosted workshops on issues pertaining to refugees, women, and children. Visiting fellows at African Studies have included scholars from Somalia, Sudan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their projects have included studies of Eritrean women in Cairo, the displaced Sudanese, and Sudanese-Egyptian relations.
The Office also maintains an extensive collection of periodical literature on Africa. Office activities are announced in the African Studies newsletter, Newsline, which is available on the AUC website <http://www.aucegypt.edu>.