In addition to hosting numerous distinguished visiting professors, AUC draws on the rich experience of world-renowned scholars through a number of endowed professorships. Endowments are contributions from individuals or companies that are put into interest-generating trust funds to provide permanent funding for professorships. These lasting gifts diversify learning opportunities beyond the limits of the normal budget.
Endowed professorships at AUC honor established scholars and make it possible for the university to recruit and retain outstanding teachers and researchers in fields ranging from engineering and international business to Egyptology and comparative religion. Endowed professors draw on a wealth of experience and expertise, and through teaching, public lectures and academic publications, provide AUC’s students and the community at large with new insights and a richer academic environment.
Current Endowed Professors at AUC
Elnora Stuart, holder of the BP Egypt Oil Professorship in Management Studies, joined AUC in 2000. In addition to her duties as a professor, Stuart was instrumental in achieving accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), a rigorous certification that has been granted to only 90 schools outside the United States. Stuart is co-author of Marketing: Real People, Real Choices, a marketing principles textbook that is now in its fifth edition and is widely used in major U.S. and international schools. She is also a member of the American Marketing Association, the Association for Consumer Research, the Society for Marketing Advances and the American Academy of Advertising.
Bringing years of inter-religious study and dialogue to the AUC community, Nelly van Doorn-Harder of Valparaiso University held the Coptic Studies Professorship in Fall 2006. In addition to teaching and organizing lectures at AUC, she conducted research during her time in Egypt, tackling contemporary issues and exploring several aspects of the Coptic community including the role of women, the concept of saintliness, patriarchs of this century and the current revivalist movement. Van Doorn-Harder is currently co-writing a book on Coptic patriarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries and compiling an unedited volume on modern issues and developments of the Coptic Church.
In honor of his lifelong contributions to earthquake engineering, Medhat Haroun, dean of the school of sciences and engineering and holder of the AGIP Professorship in Environmental Engineering, earned the 2006 Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award. Issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the award is given to an individual whose contributions are seen as advancing art, science or technology as it relates to lifeline earthquake engineering. Haroun previously received the Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the ASCE. Locally, he serves on the committee that updates the Egyptian code of loads and has recently been named to the permanent committee for the development of the new Egyptian code of bridges.
Courses in comparative religion were introduced at AUC thanks to the Abdulhadi H. Taher Professorship in Comparative Religion. These courses increase students’ knowledge about the different world religions and promote tolerance and understanding among adherents of different faiths. Bradley Clough, an international expert in the field, was appointed as the first professor to fill this position in Fall 2003. Clough is a specialist on Buddhist studies and comes to AUC from Bard College in New York. He graduated with master’s and doctorate degrees in Buddhist studies from Columbia University and spent a considerable number of years in India and Sri Lanka conducting research on Buddhism and Hinduism.