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What Do You Need in a Relationship?

Honey El Moghazi September 03, 2024
Arts and Culture

The way you relate to your friends, romantic partners and family today may well have something to do with how you learned to connect with your caregivers growing up, and Nour Zaki, assistant professor in AUC’s Department of Psychology, is determined to help us understand how and why. To this end, Zaki has launched AUC’s Attachment Lab, the first of its kind in Egypt and the Arab world, as part of the psychology department’s Hub for Action and Research in Psychology.

The Attachment Lab has garnered significant recognition both from within AUC and across other universities due to its unique capacity to conduct research within an Arab context and enable culturally inclusive understandings of relationship dynamics. “The lab aims to be a hub for research related to attachment studies, including romantic and family connections, attachment to God, parent-child dynamics, perinatal psychology, as well as interpersonal acceptance and rejection,” said Zaki. “What makes it unique is that it contributes to the significant gap in literature by representing our culture and exploring research findings in this context.” 

“It is pivotal to address the imbalance in attachment studies by examining and collecting prevalent data within the Egyptian context to add to the literature. Further understanding the role of cultural norms and family dynamics is of utmost importance when it comes to understanding attachment patterns in different parts of the world.” 

So why is region-specific research important? As Zaki explains, attachment patterns are not the same internationally. Culture plays a huge role in mother-child relationships, including the prevalence and manifestations of attachment styles as well as parenting norms. However, research on attachment systems has previously been dominated by studies centered exclusively on Western cultures. 

“Having conducted a pilot study on the Strange Situation Procedure in the past semesters, I secured a grant from AUC for a more elaborate study using this methodology, which then led to launching the Attachment Lab.

“It is pivotal to address the imbalance in attachment studies by examining and collecting prevalent data within the Egyptian context to add to the literature,” Zaki says. “Further understanding the role of cultural norms and family dynamics is of utmost importance when it comes to understanding attachment patterns in different parts of the world.” 

Zaki’s current primary focus is on studying mother-child dynamics to explore their relationship and attachment interactions through an observational protocol called the Strange Situation Procedure while investigating the concept of ‘intergenerational transmission of attachment.’ This is particularly important as no reliable study on this methodology has been published before in Egypt or anywhere in the Arab world. “Having conducted a pilot study on the Strange Situation Procedure in the past semesters, I secured a grant from AUC for a more elaborate study using this methodology, which then led to launching the Attachment Lab. This study involved observing 60 mother-child dyads who came to the lab,” Zaki says. 

The lab also gives students from AUC and beyond the opportunity to get involved in exciting new developments related to attachment theory and gain hands-on experience to equip them for their postgraduate careers.

“It was through this life-changing opportunity that I discovered my passion for attachment theory, which I now plan to pursue further and hopefully specialize in throughout my career. I have also been given the opportunity of co-authoring a paper that is now published in a highly-ranked, peer-reviewed journal.”

“Students enrolled in my Advanced Lifespan Development graduate course get to experience firsthand being part of a research team. They attend observations with me, and I train them on how to code what they observe. As for my undergraduate students, I take them for a tour in the lab and explain what kind of research is conducted there,” Zaki says. She also trains students (both undergraduates and graduates) to be part of her research team, which adds significantly to their knowledge of attachment theory and developmental psychology.

The chance to get involved in research at the Attachment Lab has a positive impact on the students involved and is highly sought by students interested in research. “I started working with Dr. Zaki two and a half years ago on the pilot attachment study that was the groundwork for the Attachment Lab,” said Maya Shehata, an undergraduate psychology student and member of the research team, “It was through this life-changing opportunity that I discovered my passion for attachment theory, which I now plan to pursue further and hopefully specialize in throughout my career. I have also been given the opportunity of co-authoring a paper that is now published in a highly-ranked, peer-reviewed journal.”

The lab is now one of Shehata’s favorite places on campus. ‘Working here has led to a lot of personal and academic development for me, which I can primarily attribute to Dr. Zaki’s style of mentorship. She has created an ideal environment for learning and growth,” she stated. 

 

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“I always insist on the collective because this is how you change history,” says Bahia Shehab (MA ’09), professor of practice in the Department of the Arts and co-editor of Revealing, Recording, Reflecting: Graphic Women from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), the first publication of its kind to document the work and legacy of contemporary women designers.“This landmark book is about the ‘us’ of women,” says Shehab, who founded AUC’s graphic design program in 2011. ‘When people hold the book, I want them to recognize women’s voices in the Arab world. They are beautiful, they are colorful and they are varied. And they’re not limited to the geography of the Arab world. We are everywhere.”Full of vibrant images, the book emerged from a collaborative initiative aimed at documenting and celebrating the contributions of SWANA women in the field of design. It all started when four women graphic designers from different institutions — Shehab from AUC in Egypt, Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès from Khatt Foundation in the Netherlands, Yasmine Nachabe Taan from the Lebanese American University in Lebanon and Soukeina Hachem from Shape interior design studio in Morocco — decided to research and showcase the work of Arab women designers. “We are four women from various parts of the region who came together to reflect, collect and reveal stories of Arab women designers,” says Shehab. Not only were they tapping into an undocumented frontier, but their research process was atypical. “The normal route usually involves archives and a lot of reading,” explained Shehab. “But for this book, we decided to do something else: We opened up our research to a bigger community. So we were four curators, not authors. The idea is that it is a collective story of over 80 Arab women graphic designers that we are telling together, so there isn’t a single authority or voice.”The first step for the co-editors was to focus on themes, the types of stories they want to tell. For Shehab, the choice was clear. “I love everything about Arabic design — its calligraphy, letters and typography — so I chose to work on Ladies of Letters: women who are as passionate about Arabic letters as I am. Each of us worked on a topic that she felt eager to explore in-depth.” The book explores themes of Visual Storytelling by Women, Engaged Image-Making for Social and Political Commentary, Ladies of Letters (connecting generations of women writers and designers) and Navigating Diasporic Identities. Focusing on the work and impact of Arab women graphic designers, illustrators, calligraphers and typographers, the book includes critical writing, testimonials, primary documents and artwork. The co-editors proposed the project online, collecting reflections on the different themes through Zoom panels and collaboration with a cultural space in Berlin, Germany for people to share their insights and recommend women in the field who can be featured in the book. “That physical space became our living research space, with sticky notes, observations, posters and new books. It was the first time for us to experiment with collective crowd-sourced research, and it was an enriching experience,” Shehab says.Questionnaires were then sent out to women graphic designers, asking them to tell their own stories. “In the book, we are not reflecting on how they feel or assuming the meaning of their work. They are choosing what stories they want to tell — in their own words,” affirmed Shehab. 
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The year was 1964 when alumna Leila Saad, soon to be Miss Egypt, first fell in love with theatre and launched an acting career that has lasted 61 years (and counting) A tall wooden door guards the Heliopolis apartment where, on a Saturday afternoon, Leila Saad ’66 checks emails on her iPad and prepares for a day of work. Amid the funky statues, potted plants and fairy lights that furnish her apartment, Saad fills the space with a smile, her white hair and pixie cut accentuating her vibrant energy. She insists on coffee — for her, karkade — and an hourlong chat before beginning the interview.Donning black leggings, a colorful blouse and a cross necklace alluding to her Coptic roots, Saad is adamant that she would never leave Heliopolis as she gives us a tour of her old Cairo home. “God will take care of the destination and the rest,” insists Saad, relying on her faith in the present as she has during much of her eventful life.The octogenarian’s career is going strong — she has an acting job later today, and she recently wrapped up a project she directed for AUC, The Importance of Being Earnest.Church bells ring in the vicinity as she takes a seat on her balcony, a private garden filled with greenery. The first question — “Who is Leila Saad?” — prompts the actress to spring to life, her voice heavy and animated with conviction: “Leila Saad is an 88-year-old who is passionate about theatre and has been on a journey doing theatre for 61 years, since she was cast in a 1964 AUC rendition of Oklahoma in Ewart Memorial Hall.” She laughs that her first role caused three music directors to quit after Bob Harper, the casting director, insisted that she sing in the play (“I can’t sing,” says Saad). Thus began a love for theatre, which has since colored every aspect of Saad’s life. A New Life in North AmericaSoon after Oklahoma, Saad opened up a cafeteria called Greedee’s in the basement of the newly acquired Greek Campus, where she started meeting with AUC’s theatre group: “There was no theatre department at the time, but there was something called the Maskers Club,” she reminisces. “I have the best memories with them.”Saad was majoring in English literature at first, but following Harper’s guidance, she soon received a full scholarship to study theatre at the University of Southern California (USC) — an offer she couldn’t refuse. She knew then she had to follow her dreams, even though she was sad to leave AUC in 1966.“I was scared and nervous and hesitant, but I went. I took my suitcase and $11 because during Nasser’s rule, we were only allowed 5 Egyptian pounds (equivalent to $11 at the time),” says Saad. “I didn’t know anybody except a friend of mine whom I knew from Cairo and who happened to be studying television and film, and we lived together as roommates.”Saad’s journey in the United States was one that spanned decades: She loved USC but disliked California, so she moved to Oregon, where she joined a graduate program in the theatre department and Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University. After a few years, Saad relocated again. “I was thriving in Portland, but it was time to move to the East Coast where there was more opportunity in theatre,” Saad says. She worked at Boston University (BU) and joined a professional theatre company in the city, where she remained for 25 years. 
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