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New Egypt 101
AUC has adjusted and introduced courses to educate students about the revolution 
Marie-Pascale Ghazaleh, assistant professor of history, is part of the faculty team teaching Isqat Al-Nizam: Egypt's January 25 Uprising in
Comparative Historical Perspective Seeing the political reform
movement and events leading
to the collapse of the Mubarak
government as unprecedented
learning opportunities, departments
across AUC have announced new
educational initiatives for Spring 2011
that explore the series of events that
began in Tahrir Square in January.
These initiatives include the creation
of new courses focusing on the
Egyptian Revolution, adjustment of
current courses to address events from
January 25 to February 11, and the
introduction of a number of seminars
and panels that discuss Egyptian
society before, during and after the fall
of the Mubarak regime.
"This series of new academic and
community-outreach programs
demonstrate AUC's responsiveness to
the educational opportunities
presented by social and political events
in Egypt," said AUC Provost Medhat
Haroun. "In only two days, 40 of our
faculty members have created new
programs, workshops and panel
discussions, and augmented courses
that we are offering this semester. We
also want our students to study the
revolution closely and to be aware of
its privileges. They are learning how
they can help in developing Egypt in
the coming period."
Two of the courses that have been
created in response to historic events
are: Isqat Al Nizam: Egypt's January 25
Uprising in Comparative Historical
Perspective and Cairo: The Present and
Future Megalopolis. The former
addresses the events of the revolution
and places them within the broader
context of Egypt's history, as well as the
history of political revolutions in the
modern world. The second course,
taught by John Swanson, associate
provost and director of the Core
Curriculum, examines the development
of the modern megalopolis of Cairo: its
geographic, historical and cultural
context; and the several ways in which
the city struggles to meet the challenges
of the present while preparing for a
complex and uncertain future. "Course
lectures address the significance of cities
and also examine the ways in which
modern Cairo strives to deal with the
demands of commerce, food
distribution, education, transport,
sanitation and sewage, with an analysis
of the future of Cairo in light of the
events," said Swanson.
Many students, inspired by their
experiences in the revolution, have
opted to take the new courses. "Before
the January 25th Revolution, I was not
very politically active. Since then I have
wanted to learn more about this city ––
its past and its future," said Aya Helmy,
an architectural engineering major.
In addition to the two new courses,
24 existing courses have been adjusted
to include discussion and analysis of
recent events in Egypt, as well as ways
in which students can contribute to the
emergence of a new socio-political
system. In addition, a number of
workshops and lecture series discussing
several aspects of the revolution have
been introduced, including the Tahrir
Dialogue panel discussion series by the
School of Global Affairs and Public
Policy, Meet the Media series by the
Kamal Adham Center for Journalism
Training and Research, and
Transforming Egypt seminar series by
the School of Business.
By Madeline Welsh
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