School of Humanities and Social Sciences | The American University in Cairo

Yasser Arafat at the United Nations, 1974: Palestinian Nationalism on the World Stage

Join Michael Reimer, professor of history, for a talk that reflects on the text and context of the speech, focusing on Arafat's interpretation of Zionist history and his comments about the nature of the conflict over the land of Palestine.

Oct

Alchemy of the Soul: Jungian Depth Psychology, Spirituality and the Transformation of Psyche

5:00 pm – 6:15 pm

AUC New Cairo

This lecture examines the convergence of Jungian depth psychology, spirituality, and alchemical symbolism as frameworks for transformation such as healing, integration, and individuation. The session discusses therapeutic implications of these traditions for contemporary psychology and mental health practice.

Oct

The Marketization of Economic Informality: Rooftops, Housing and Private Property in a Cairo Neighborhood

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

AUC New Cairo

By Amr Adly, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science The talk explores market making under conditions of widespread economic informality, applying it to a segment of Cairo’s housing market. I draw on rich ethnographic work involving a group of small developers who had actively engaged in building extra housing units on rooftops of already existing buildings in a middle- class ne...

Oct

Mainstreaming the Margins and Marginalizing the Mainstream in Contemporary Egyptian Culture

Oct 26 – Oct 28

9:30 am

AUC Tahrir Square

Bringing together practitioners and scholars working on entertainment, arts, literature and language, this interdisciplinary conference is devoted to the complex relationship between mainstream and margin in contemporary Egyptian culture. Egypt’s cultural industries have undergone profound transformations in recent years. How are these transformations serving to unsettle boundaries between ‘hig...

Oct

Public Finance Challenges: Debt, Public Spending and the Budget Deficit

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

AUC Tahrir Square

Don’t miss this timely talk with Egypt's Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk ’99, tackling Egypt’s fiscal reforms, debt and spending priorities.

Sep

What Time Is It Now?

6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

AUC Tahrir Square

Join Steffen Stelzer as he reflects on his lifelong journey as both a student and teacher of philosophy.

Sep

I Can Imagine It for Us: A Palestinian Daughter’s Memoir

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

AUC New Cairo

The Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations (ARIC) is hosting a conversation with Mai Serhan, 99’, 17’, about her newly published I Can Imagine It for Us: A Palestinian Daughter’s Memoir (AUC Press, 2025). Mai Serhan is also the author of the poetry collection CAIRO: The Undelivered Letters (Diwan Publishing, 2025), which won the Center for Book Arts Poetry Award in 2022. The conversation ...

Sep

Archive of Tongues: An Intimate History of Brownness

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

AUC New Cairo

In Archive of Tongues Moon Charania explores feminine dispossession and the brown diaspora through a reflection on the life of her mother. Drawing on her mother’s memories and stories of migration, violence, sexuality, queerness, domesticity, and the intimate economies of everyday life, Charania conceptualizes her mother’s tongue as an object of theory and an archive of brown intimate life. By ...

Sep

Power and Politics Through Keywords (And the Politics of Land)

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

AUC New Cairo

Power and politics do operate through keywords in everyday life. “No trespassing” is one of the most ubiquitous keywords we see in the world. It is deployed in order to claim and protect the ownership of something, often land, by someone. It is a keyword that excludes. Keywords neither self-interpret nor self-implement. Activation of keywords unfolds in the actual dynamics of social relations a...

Oct

Cities on the Edge

Oct 31 – Nov 1

9:00 pm

AUC Tahrir Square

Join Cities on the Edge, a two-day gathering of international scholars exploring the urban heritage of Egypt, Sudan and Palestine through roundtables and a Khalifa field trip.