In their award-winning book, AUC faculty chart the evolution of Arab graphic design.

Some of the more than 600 visuals featured in A History of Arab Graphic Design: the anatomy of a horse in crimson and azure, labeled in elegant Arabic calligraphy and preserved on paper for six centuries; tiles in shades of cerulean, turquoise and ultramarine adorning the half-moon entryway of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran; an illustrated mermaid hugging a bouquet of paintbrushes on the first-ever Alexandria Biennale poster.

The first-of-its-kind textbook reminds us that for as long as humans have taken up space, we have insisted on decorating it. In doing so, Arab and Islamic artists have drawn, painted and etched a visual record of their history, whether they meant to or not. “Graphic design is part of a visual language that is itself the by-product and reflection of a culture and its society,” co-authors and Department of the Arts faculty Bahia Shehab (MA ’09), professor of practice, and Haytham Nawar, associate professor and chair, write. “We cannot discuss modern Arab graphic design and visual culture without understanding the region’s visual heritage.”

To read the full article, click here.

From pollution to illiteracy, graphic design graduation projects aim to educate, empower and make a difference.

Hessa fe Qessa (A Lesson in a Story) – Salma Elbarbary ’22

With Egypt’s illiteracy rate reaching 27% in 2020, Hessa fe Qessa is an educational app that teaches illiterate individuals how to read, employing an interactive story that discusses relevant social issues. The app includes an audio guide, exercises and an information bank.

Gowa El Hadota (Inside the Tale) – Salma Elbarbary ’22

We live in a visually abundant world where millions of visually impaired children are deprived of daily activities, simply because they were designed with the sighted consumer in mind. Opening the gates to worlds that can be seen through storytelling and sensory stimulating activities, Gowa Al Hadota is a multi-sensory playing experience for visually impaired children aged 6 to 12. The narrated game targets the child’s imagination to unlock a world that can empower them to play and explore their surroundings independently and safely.

To read the full article, click here.

Human-centered design thinking approach is a core part of the AUC educational experience.

By integrating design thinking into the curriculum, AUC is teaching students to approach complicated problems with a sense of empathy, creativity and resilience, explained Hoda Mostafa, professor of practice and director of the University’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT).

Design thinking is a methodology used by Fortune 500 companies, including Apple and J.P. Morgan, to transform their way of operating and develop innovative, customer-centric products and services. International development institutions, such as the World Food Programme and UNESCO, have employed it to create policies and programs that effectively address poverty, gender inequality and other complex global challenges.

To read the full article, click here.

Faculty uses AI and machine learning to create a universal pictographic human language.

Can humans communicate through a single unified language? 

Yes, according to Haytham Nawar, associate professor and chair of the Department of the Arts, who is using artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop a universal pictographic language that could bridge divides and enhance cross-cultural understanding.

Why pictographic? 

“The idea is that the machine creates a new language based on how humans in the past created pictographic languages, starting from hieroglyphics all the way to emojis,” said Nawar, who has long been interested in scripts and pictographic languages, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform scripts used in the Near East and ancient Chinese writing systems. These image-based languages were humanity’s earliest communication systems, the precursors to the script-based languages we use today.

To read the full article, click here.

AUC’s Board of Trustees has approved the tenure of three faculty members for their commitment to academic excellence and dedication to the proliferation of knowledge at all levels. The recipients are John Meloy (CASA ’85, ’87), dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and professor in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations; Dina Heshmat, assistant professor in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations; and Rasha Allam ’02, ’05, assistant professor and associate chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"The greatness of our University rests squarely on the talents and accomplishments of its faculty," said Provost Ehab Abdel-Rahman. "At AUC, we are blessed with faculty members who engage in groundbreaking research, scholarship and creative work. I am delighted to congratulate this year's tenured faculty who are all prime examples of AUC's commitment to excellence. AUC continues to be fully committed to tenure excellent faculty, [who] together with the many distinguished faculty members, contribute to realize the University's vision of excellence in teaching, research and creativity."

Dina Heshmat

Heshmat’s journey at AUC began in September 2013 when she joined the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations as assistant professor of Arabic literature. For Heshmat, teaching garners its own special rewards, namely rich interactions with students and the ability to impact future generations. “One of the things I enjoy most is that by teaching at AUC and interacting with its students, I feel I can make a difference for the new generations,” she said, adding that she is “overjoyed” about receiving tenure.

Building upon the research she has done while working on her book titled Egypt 1919: The Revolution in Literature and Film, a project facilitated by a grant from AUC’s Office of the Associate Provost for Research, Innovation and Creativity, Heshmat is now undertaking an ambitious new research project, for which she was awarded a fellowship at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study, which is part of the Some Institutes for Advanced Study consortium. 

“The project is tentatively titled Gender, Narrative and Nationalist Movement: Auto/biographical Narratives of Women in Egypt 1919. This work aims at retrieving the autobiographical narratives of the nationalist and feminist militants who were active participants in the anti-colonial revolution of 1919 by looking at a wide range of texts they authored, including memoirs, articles, poems, short stories and unpublished letters. I plan to turn the research I am doing for this project into a new book,” Heshmat explained. 

John Meloy

Meloy, who is a graduate of AUC’s Center for Arabic Study Abroad, expressed his gratitude for this recognition. “I’m honored to receive tenure. I appreciate the faculty and working with all my colleagues,” he said. 

When he first joined AUC in July 2021 as HUSS dean, Meloy emphasized the importance of critical thinking: “The critical skills our students acquire from our various disciplines give them the means to continue learning after they graduate. It’s not so much teaching them what they need to know now, but rather teaching them how to figure out what they need to know and giving them the skills and traits to teach themselves: sharpening critical thinking, cultivating curiosity and creativity, fostering individual and social awareness, and strengthening effective communication.”

With his attention primarily on administrative work at this time, taking the lead in various capacities to strengthen the pillars of a strong liberal arts education, Meloy hopes to get back to pursuing research. “My recent research has been on economic crises in the Mamluk period, how they were understood and how the authorities dealt with them,” he said. 

Rasha Allam

Allam joined the University full time in 2016 but has been part of AUC as adjunct faculty since 2005. “I was very happy to hear the news about tenure because it came after years of hard work, commitment and dedication,” reflected Allam, “I appreciate the high standards of education that AUC maintains throughout the years, the University environment as a whole that fosters education both personally and professionally, and certainly the liberal arts education that really distinguishes AUC from any other institution in Egypt.” 

For Allam, receiving tenure is a reflection of her continuous efforts to tailor teaching methods that keep students invested in the material taught and encourages them to think critically through case studies from the industry and beyond the classroom, acting as an ambassador for the University while gaining ground in areas that will be significant for her career. 

Outside AUC, Allam has served as a consultant to think tanks, media institutions, jounalists, international organizations, as well as public and private universities. These include Egypt’s Presidential Media Office, UNESCO, Supreme Council for Media Regulations, National Press Authority and Al-Masry Al-Youm news organization. 

“Working with such well-reputed entities has helped me in creating a strong network with academics and professionals on the regional and international level, where the flag of AUC has always been raised, and it has definitely contributed to the development of my personality as a teacher and researcher,” Allam said. 

Allam is currently focusing on expanding her research, especially in the field of media management, as the rapid pace of technological development shapes the media scene like never before. “It is vital to understand the new business and value creation models, as well as ways of adaptation to the consistently changing industry. I am also focusing on research that examines media policies and regulations, especially since we are now witnessing huge changes in the media legislative landscapes, whether in Egypt or the region,” she said.

Launched last week, AUC’s Climate Change Initiative capitalizes on AUC’s contributions to national and international efforts in tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time. The initiative includes research, student activities, teaching and learning, outreach, tracking and reducing our carbon footprint, writing school textbooks on climate change and providing climate change solutions in specific contexts within the country.

“Our aim in this initiative is to reinforce AUC’s role as an active academic hub on climate change and sustainable development in Egypt and the region, as well as an active contributor to global efforts addressing climate change challenges,” said President Ahmad Dallal. “Of course, COP27, hosted in Egypt in November, provides an incentive to catalyze AUC’s climate change initiative.”

Dallal outlined the initiative’s five main areas of focus that are fully aligned with national and regional climate change and sustainability priorities:

1. Water-related issues
2. Green architecture and sustainable urban development
3. Green finance
4. Global health
5. Energy transition

These areas of focus also overlap with a number of “cross-cutting issues” ––adaptation to climate change, resilience of communities, mitigation measures, education and a just transition –– that are relevant to Asia and the region. “We encourage a multidisciplinary approach in addressing challenges, including policy, regulatory frameworks, financing, scientific research and social science aspects,” said Dallal.

UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt and Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund Mahmoud Mohieldin, who was the keynote speaker at the event, highlighted five distinctive features of COP27, which AUC will participate in next fall:

• A holistic approach to climate change

“We cannot ignore poverty, hunger, job creation and an inclusive approach to the whole [climate change] agenda, including the impact of climate change on children, youth and women."

• Implementation of previous promises outlined in the climate change agenda and action plan

“We don’t need new frameworks; we just need to apply what we have. If there is a good idea, let’s projectize it. You [AUC] have good ideas, and you have been teaching about them, so [the focus now is] how to apply them on your scale, with the hope that this could be scaled up or replicated somewhere else.”

• For the first time in the history of COPs, there is an alignment between the COP agenda, G13 and the rest of the SDGs [UN Sustainable Development Goals], with five major events to correlate the promise of finance coming from different institutions with the pipeline of projects, especially those focusing on mitigation, decarbonization and race to zero.

“This is a very practical approach based on a country-platform design, with five regional roundtables [across the world] – and I’m inviting you to participate in any capacity you wish. … It’s not just about Egypt and the local community. It’s about the region, Arab countries, the Mediterranean, Africa  and beyond.”

• Localization (bottom-up approach): For the first time, Egypt’s 27 governorates will be participating through their big, small and medium enterprises, startups, as well as women-led community development initiatives in a two-month competition to choose the project that offers the smartest and greenest solutions, after which a team of national winners will be selected.
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“It’s not about the competition; it’s about [showcasing] the talents and skills in the governorates, and it’s a chance to demonstrate what they’re doing. … It is customary for rich countries to host big conferences to be attended by 30,000 plus participants, [including] heads of state, but ordinary people would always wonder, ‘What's in it for us? Why do we have this conference?’ And this is legitimate.” 
 

• Finance through partnerships, investments, international financial institutions, as well as public and private sector funding

“Without finance and investments, without the resources available to us –– not just financial resources, but technology and knowledge [as well] – nothing will really progress, and many of these ideas may end up with frustration. There will be some serious discussion about [funding] opportunities." 

“Students come to my courses with assumptions about what the Islamic tradition is and is not, and they go away with a broader horizon about the intellectual diversity of the Islamic world; an awareness of its community of interpreters who, generation after generation, refined and reshaped Islamic traditions; and an appreciation for the richness and complexity of the great classics of Islam in the realms of poetry, law, theology, Sufism and ethics,” said Ahmad Khan, assistant professor in AUC’s Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations.

Khan has been awarded the Arcapita Visiting Professor at Columbia University for Spring 2022, hosted by the Middle East Institute and the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia, where he is currently teaching the graduate course, Islamic Thought in an Age of Print.

“It is an honor to be awarded the visiting professorship,” Khan said. “The Arcapita Visiting Professorship has been a fantastic opportunity to think, research and write.”

Khan’s professorship is part of a long-standing and rich history between the two universities. Lisa Anderson, who served as AUC president from 2011 to 2016, and prior to that as AUC’s provost from 2008 to 2010, is currently dean emerita of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. Furthermore, AUC’s current President, Ahmad Dallal, received his PhD in Islamic studies from Columbia.

“I hope to use my appointment at Columbia University to explore opportunities to strengthen the ties between these two universities,” Khan said.

Khan enjoys teaching at Columbia and AUC alike. In his classes, he introduces students to the great classics of Islamic civilization via texts in classical Arabic, exposing them to major thinkers of the Islamic world like Ibn Khaldun, al-Shafi'i, Rabi'a al-Adawiyya and Ibn al-Farid.

“The students at Columbia are in many ways like my students at AUC: bright, curious and dedicated to learning more,” said Khan. “Nowadays, much of my research is shaped by my teaching at AUC. The discussions we have are helping me examine important topics in the field of Islamic studies and civilizations.”

Delving into Islamic Studies

Khan’s research interests stemmed from the interdisciplinary training he received during his PhD at Oxford. There, Khan was able to take a variety of courses in history, literature, poetry, religious thought, and Arabic and Persian classical texts. This led to him having a holistic and diverse range of thoughts and approaches to Islamic studies, history, theology and literature.

This year, his monograph, Heresy and the Formation of Medieval Islamic Orthodoxy: The Making of Sunnism from the Eighth to the Eleventh Centuries, is the first major book in the field dedicated solely to the development of orthodoxy and heresy within Sunni Islam. The work examines conflicting efforts by Muslims during the eighth to 11^th centuries, to define heresy and orthodoxy, finally giving way to a tolerant and diverse form of mainstream Sunnism. Khan looks at why and how Sunni Muslims, contrary to popular narratives, handled disputes over religious ideas often without recourse to violence.  The book is expected to be published in December by Cambridge University Press.

“In this investigation of discourses of orthodoxy and heresy, we learn how medieval scholars and textual communities were engaged in constant and rapid efforts to develop an indigenous apparatus through which consensuses could be reached about orthodoxy and heresy; how orthodoxy was not a later ‘communal fiction’ but entailed stages and processes that can be identified and were identified by medieval Muslims,” said Khan.

“Above all, we gain insight into how a formidable medieval society and religion negotiated conflict and disagreement without giving birth to a widespread culture of imperial councils, inquisitors and persecutions,” he said.

By the 11^th century, Abū Ḥanīfa, Mālik b. Anas, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal were regarded as representations, par excellence, of medieval Sunni orthodoxy. “As such, the legal schools that coalesced around them became markers of medieval Sunni orthodoxy, and they spawned a religious tradition that is almost unparalleled in its relevance and longevity throughout Islamic history,” said Khan. “The book shows how orthodoxy and heresy in the eighth to 11^th centuries may best be understood as processes.”

Working on this book also led Khan to study an array of medieval texts in Arabic and Persian. Many of these texts were edited and printed in the 19^th to 21^st centuries by modern scholars and editors in the Islamic world. He examined the processes by which these texts were transmitted in modern times, such as in Egypt, and how this helped shape the development of modern Islamic thought. This connection between his research on medieval Islam and Islamic thought in an age of print is explored further in the course Khan is currently teaching at Columbia.

The professor is also currently working on a book, Religion and Empire in Early Islamic Society, which discusses how Islamic law and its legal culture played a role in shaping early Islamic societies in regions like Iraq, Khorasan and Egypt, and is expected to be completed in 2023. Alongside these projects, Khan’s research includes the study of Quranic interpretation, the role of women in hadith learning, and Sufism.

The larger context of today’s society cannot be ignored when discussing Islamic studies. “The current sociopolitical context [of the global war on terror and sensitivities related to Islamic extremism] has resulted in major misrepresentations of Islamic traditions both from the inside and outside,” he said.

Towering in the middle of AUC’s Tahrir Cultural Center (TCC) is a metal sculpture containing intricate shapes made of iron, accompanied by three paintings on a nearby wall. Visual arts major Nour Tawfik ‘22, describes the installation, “Nostalgia is a Dirty Liar…” — which took her a year’s worth of research and creativity to make for her senior project:

“The sculpture represents memories, or a narrative, within space, whereas the paintings depict memories held onto the space,” she said. “This depicts the distortion of memories that occur in an architectural space.”

Her project visualizes the desperation and fear that propels one to hold onto false memories. “More broadly,” she described, “it is a surreal, dystopian illustration of the way in which the subconscious reconstructs memories, making people cling onto false depictions of reality.”

Tawfik’s work is one of 11 multimedia art projects from AUC’s visual arts program on display at the Margo Veillon, Legacy and Future gallery halls at TCC. The exhibition is titled “Liquid Gaze” — a multistage process of looking at or viewing an object described by Shady ElNoshokaty, director of AUC’s visual arts program and curator of the exhibition, in the show’s program.

“This sequence of transformation from one [modality of viewing] to another in moments is what makes the phenomenon of gazing one of the most fundamental human phenomena linked to imagination and creativity,” he wrote.

Be sure to stop by the Margo Veillon, Legacy and Future gallery halls at TCC before June 25 to view all of the 2022 final projects from AUC’s Visual Arts program.

The final projects are an integral part of AUC’s visual arts program, which launched in 2013. Each year, a panel of independent judges evaluates the group show, and ElNoshokaty releases a printed book documenting the creative and production practices showcasing the experience.

“Liquid Gaze” is the first senior project exhibition to be open to the public since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with last year’s show, “(K) for Cannibal” closed to outside viewers.

The projects are unique in that they encompass much more than a simple vision — they also follow a contemporary, experimental methodology with a philosophical reference. In order to reach this deep level of expression, ElNoshokaty has his students conduct one semester of research and another for creating the installations.

The entire process, ElNoshokaty described, is filled with long discussion sessions and ever-shifting goalposts as ideas and concepts evolved.

”The projects started in the fall of 2021, where students developed their individual ideas and conducted visual and knowledge-based research,” he explained. “The latter covered all the theoretical details of the idea, in addition to many other critical and analytical practices that helped develop special creative areas and translate them into theoretical writing for the first part of the project.”

“The research process was incredibly time-consuming, multilayered and complex,” noted Amira ElKouny ‘22, another artist who is displaying her animation work, titled “(IN)DIVIDUAL.” “Every decision had to be well-thought-out before I went along with it, due to the sensitivity of later creating a professional visual arts production based on an intricate research-based project.”

Moreover, ElNoshokaty added, “This group took the most important courses of their majors online due to the pandemic. This project was the first time for many of them to experiment in an actual physical space — which added another layer of pressure.”

Vision from Experience

Inspiration for Tawfik’s iron giant and accompanying paintings first came to her in an art gallery in Athens while viewing an installation by South Korean artist Do-Ho Suh, which allowed visitors an intimate view into the artist’s home. “That sparked my interest in ‘walking through’ memories, which eventually led me to create the installation,” she said.

After choosing her topic, Tawfik dove into studying human memory. “Memories are the foundation of an individual's identity, as they shape and build who a person is, and what they will become,” she said. “They are an integral part of human existence — yet the same memory can be experienced or recalled differently from person to person, or by the same person at different points in time.”

“(IN)DIVIDUAL,” on the other hand, was inspired by a research link visualized in a vivid dream ElKouny had after completing around two years of research on the concept of how our bodies and minds “act and react to spaces they are in, and how the power of authoritative systems affect an individual’s mind and body in moments of fear.”

She describes her installation in the program as a “surreal-morphing experience of fear while trying to escape and survive under authoritarian systems of power.” The work also explores the modern psychotherapeutic theory of the “inner child” and “adult self.”

Lights, Camera, Exhibition

Having just under three months to translate their research into art, the students and ElNoshokaty found themselves hard-pressed for time as opening day approached.

“During the week leading up to the exhibition, I was still finalizing some of the paintings,” Tawfik described. “Finishing a painting is very difficult generally — knowing when it’s done is challenging, because you can always add more layers. I was working on them until the last day.”

ElKouny shared a similar experience. “The week before the exhibition's opening was extremely exhausting and painful,” she said. “I had to re-do a whole part of the drawings, scanning process, video and sound editing process because it did not follow the rhythm of the whole piece — it wouldn't have been as effective as it is now.”

Despite the challenges, all three described the overall experience as extremely instrumental in their personal and professional development.

“Preparing for the grad show is an intense educational experience, not only for my students but also for me,” ElNoshokaty said.

“It was enlightening in a way,” ElKouny added. “I learned a lot about myself, my thought process, actions and creative process.”

“It made me think outside the box and really find out what ideas I’m passionate about,” Tawfik said. “This was also my first time creating a sculpture, so I learned that I can express myself effectively not just through paintings, but also through sculptures and installations.”

With their installations currently housed at the galleries and unalterable, Tawfik and ElKouny feel a mixture of pride and relief. “I can’t believe we were able to achieve this and be part of this exhibition,” ElKouny said.

“Thankfully, everything came together in the end,” Tawfik said. “Now that it is out of my hands to fix anything, I like it a lot more as it stands.”

Najla Badran, adjunct professor in AUC’s Department of the Arts, won third prize and received an honorable mention during the 12th Granshan Type Design Competition for her work in digitizing the typefaces of Egyptian calligrapher Moussad Khodeir, known as Khodeir Al-Borsaidy.

Khodeir is among the pioneers of Arabic calligraphy, with his work appearing often in the Egyptian cinema and theater scene in the 1970s and 1980s. Badran was introduced to the artist by Bahia Shehab (MA'09), professor of the practice and founder of AUC’s graphic design program, during a student trip to El Moez Street in Cairo, and it was during that first meeting that she suggested the project.

Badran explained that Arabic revival typefaces from previous decades, unlike their Latin counterparts, are not widely available. 

“Whenever you think of movies from past decades, there's a lot of specific typography that encompasses your mind and causes you to envision a specific style,” she said. “I was really interested in trying to bring back the beauty of the past into the present.”

Covering six typefaces hand-drawn by Khodeir decades ago, Badran began in 2020 to transfer the letters into Glyphs, a font editor she employed to draw the calligrapher’s manual works digitally, making sure that the letters matched and adding ligatures and stylistic alternatives.

She estimates that drawing each typeface took about three months — as each letter in Arabic appears in four different forms — and that was before getting feedback from Khodeir.

“It was a lot of back-and-forth between me and Khodeir, and switching between typefaces,” Badran recalled, noting that she also used credits from old movies and series that Khodeir’s work appeared in to offer alternative forms for letters.

“It has been a huge project, but at the same time, I’ve had fun and learned a lot,” she said.

Since December 2021, the duo’s project has been further developed as part of the Asil project by Tarek AtrissiDesign NL in partnership with AlQalam and with the support of Creative Industries Fund NL.

So far, two typefaces have been finalized: Resheet Khodeir and Modern Belya, both of which were prize winners at the competition — with the former winning third prize and the latter receiving a special mention. Modern Belya was also awarded a shortlist at the Design and Art Direction Awards this year.

“Najla is part an the emerging scene of professional designers from Egypt,” Shehab said. “In these competitions, she was competing against masters of Arab type design — some of whom have been practicing for 30 or 40 years. Our department is very proud of her accomplishment and cannot wait to see what else she will achieve in her career as a type designer.”

Winning alongside world-class designers felt nothing short of astounding for Badran. “Not only is it great to be beside such amazing people, but it is also nice to show Khodeir that his work can continue to dominate right now.”

Khodeir reported that he felt hesitant at first to embark on such a project, as he had never translated his hand-drawn letters into a digital format. “However,” he said, “after seeing Najla’s work, I was very impressed. Overall, I am very proud and happy about this project.”

Badran studied graphic design at the German University in Cairo and the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. She has been teaching typography at AUC since 2017, where she often encourages her students to enter design competitions.

“I always try to help my students think of how they can use what they create in the class now at a later time,” she said. “It’s also very nice to see how they creatively deal with projects because it might inspire me to do something different.”

Learn more about Badran’s work here.

Mahmoud El Kady ‘21 and Tia Ashraf, anthropology graduating senior, won third place worldwide in the 2022 Berkeley Undergraduate Prize for Architectural Design Excellence competition.

This year, participants were asked to incorporate social science research into architecture and to outline the design process for a housing project within a disadvantaged local community.

The team’s essay — “Economic Architectonics: Local Initiatives for Live/Work Housing” — introduces Cairo’s Coptic Christian community of Hay el-Zabaleen (the garbage collectors’ neighborhood), elaborating on the area’s history and the challenges facing inhabitants today. 

“Working on this essay was exciting and invigorating,” El Kady recalled. “It was liberating to write creatively and work toward a goal that I care about.”

The duo’s proposal constructs a design process that is, above all, inclusive of the residents.

“Powered by the residents themselves, the local initiative will not only provide services to the community but will also facilitate and moderate the design surveys conducted to solicit the resident’s opinions,” the proposal reads.

El Kady, who majored in architectural engineering and minored in theatre and economics, was glad to translate his work into real-life impact.

“Writing this essay with Tia was the perfect opportunity to do firsthand research and to take the readings, discussions, and design projects that shaped me the most beyond the classroom,” El Kady said. “I am grateful to have started a transdisciplinary research project before graduating — which I have wanted to pursue for a long time.”

He is also grateful for his time at AUC, attributing his success to the skills he acquired during his undergraduate studies.

“Being able to ask questions and challenge assumptions are the best tools that AUC gave me,” El Kady added. “Through my work for student government, I was encouraged to be creative, take the initiative and be persistent — all of which are qualities we practiced throughout the writing process.”

A former professor of El Kady praised his “phenomenal” project for her Spring 2021 thesis studio.

“Mahmoud exemplified the best of which AUC's architecture program has to offer — socially conscious, liberal arts-informed, technically sound and ethically responsible design for the communities most in need,” said Magda Mostafa, associate professor of design in AUC’s Department of Architecture.

Reflecting on the prize’s impact on his current and future work, El Kady concluded, “Winning has encouraged me to pursue grassroots urban and architectural development as a long-term goal.”