CASAR Workshop 2013–14
In April 2013 the Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research at AUC announced the launch of a workshop for graduate students from universities throughout Egypt who are doing research in American studies.
The workshop started on September 2013 supervised by Dr. Ira Dworkin, Associate Director of CASAR at AUC,with five graduate students from four different universities:Zainab Magdy (Cairo University), Heba Ahmed(Minia University), Sarah Mustafa(Helwan University), Asmaa Abdallah (AUC) and Nermine Sergius (AUC).
The three–hour workshop sessions were held on a monthly basis at different AUClocations and featured invited guests from different universities in Egypt.
–Session 1: September 7, 2013, 12–3 (AUC New Cairo campus).
Introductory orientation and business session was followed by a lunch with AUC CASAR’s students, stuff, and faculty.
–Session 2:October 12, 2013, 4–7(AUC Zamalek).
Session guest: Dr. Magda Hasabelnaby (Women’s College– Ain Shams University).
4–5:Each member of the workshop introduced their research projects and areas of interest.
5–7: Dr. Hasabelnaby’spresented her research project “The Egyptian Afterlife: Translations of Edgar Allan Poe in Egypt,” which surveys and evaluatesArabic translations of Poe in Egypt since the middle of the twentieth century. The presentation was followed by a discussion.
–Session 3: November 9, 2013,2–5(AUC New Cairo–AUC Library).
Dr. Dworkin explained some of the library sources:
Online sources such as JSTOR, Dissertations and Theses, Literature Resource Center, MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography, Project Muse, eBook Collection, and Ebrary;
Zotero program for citation and bibliography data management;
Academic writing (through a discussion of Mark Gaipa “Breaking into the Conversation: How Students Can Acquire Authority for Their Writing.”).
–Session 4: November 30, 2013, 4–6(AUC Zamalek).
Session guest: Dr. Mounira Soliman (AUC).
4–5: The group discussed the parameters of the workshop. Each participant would be assigned a scheduled date that complemented their research process and would circulate a thesis chapter or excerpt of 20-30 pages one week in advance so thegroup members would read the material ahead and discuss it for an hour during the designated workshop in order to generate critical questions and provide feedback for the author.
5–6: A discussion about Dr. Soliman’s project titled “The Reception of the United States Discourse on the Egyptian Revolution: Between the Popular and the Official.”The paper was electronically circulated a week in advance to facilitate the discussion.
Following the session, workshop participants attended a dinner that CASAR hosted in honor of visiting Vietnamese American writer and journalist Andrew Lam in Le Tarbouche restaurant at Le Pacha Boat in Zamalek.
–Session 5: February 9, 2014, 3–6 (AUC Tahrir).
Session guest: Dr. Somaya Sabry (Faculty of Arts– Ain Shams University).
3–4: The group discussed one chapter of workshop member’s Heba Ahmed’s MA thesis, “The Language of Protest and Revolt: A Sociolinguistic Study of Egypt's Revolution of January the 25th.”
4–5: The group discussed one chapter of Zainab Magdy MA thesis titled “Performing War: A Study of the Works of Suheir Hammad and Heather Raffo.”
Both papers were circulated electronically one week in advance for the members to read.
– Professor Vijay Prashad’s lecture at AUC Zamalek:4–6 February 23, 2014.
The lecture title “New Geographies of Power: An Arab Emergence and the Rise of Regionalism.” The lecture was hosted by CASAR.
–Session 6: March1, 2014, 10–12(AUC Zamalek).
Session guest: Dr. Ebony Coletu (AUC).
10–11: Discussing the coming one–day seminar at Helwan University.
Briefly discussing the on–going project of Dr. Coletu about the different reactions of the Egyptian audiences to the mini series Roots that was broadcast on Egyptian television in 1979.
11–12: The group discussedNermine Sergius’spresented paper titled “Time Regained: Reading Alternative History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Najwa Sha‘ban’s AlGhurr.” The paper was circulated electronically one week in advance for the members to read.
–Session 7: April 5, 2014, 10–1(AUC Zamalek).
10–11:30: The group discussedAsmaa Abdallah’s MA proposal of “Anti-Marriage Plot: Confinement and Consumption in the Fiction of Margaret Atwood and Hanan Al–Shaykh.”
11:30–1: The group discussed a chapter of Sarah Mustafa’sMA thesis titled “Post-postmodern Revival of Morality in the Post-Apocalyptic Worlds of José Saramago’s Blindness and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”
Both papers were circulated electronically one week in advance for the members to read.
–Session 8: May 3, 2014,10–1 (AUC Zamalek).
A workshop on writing a proposal or an abstract for a conference paper.
Conferences and Seminars:
– CASAR–Helwan University one–day seminar: April 3, 2014
The seminar title “American Studies, Egyptian Scholarship,” was organized by AUC CASAR in collaboration with the Department of English, Faculty of Arts at Helwan University.
Three members of the workshop presented a 15–minute paper as follows:
Sarah Mustafa: “Post-postmodern Revival of Morality in the Post-Apocalyptic Worlds of José Saramago’s Blindness and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”
Asmaa Abdallah “Anti-Marriage Plot: Confinement and Consumption in the Fiction of Margaret Atwood and Hanan Al–Shaykh.”
Nermine Sergius “Time Regained: Reading Alternative History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Najwa Sha‘ban’s AlGhurr.”
Two members (Zainab Magdy and Heba Ahmed), were parts of an open forum titled “American Studies, Egyptian Universities: Student Perspectives.”
– One Day Conference at Women’s College– Ain Shams University: April 30, 2014.
Three members of the workshop (Zainab Magdy, Heba Ahmed. Nermine Sergius) presented a 15–minute paper related to the project each is working on in the workshop.
– OASIS Orientale American Studies International School in Procida Italy: May 4–11, 2014
Two members of the workshop (Asmaa Abdallah and Zainab Magdy) each presented a paper.Asmaa Abdallh received funding from AUC to attend the conference; Zainab Magdy received a full scholarship for tuition and accommodations from OASIS.
– The annual meeting of the American Studies Association (ASA)in Los Angeles, California, US: November 6-9, November 2014.
Zainab Magdy and Heba Ahmed are on the program for a panel on “Egyptian Universities Beyond Crisis,” which is sponsored by the International Committee of the ASA which will also provide travel funding for both participants.
Written By: Nermine Sergius
Research Assistant, Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research