AUC is home to students from around the world, many of whom celebrate Ramadan with traditions different from what is typical in Egypt. International students at AUC shared what their traditions look like at home and how they’re spending Ramadan here in Egypt. 

Mustafa from Sudan

I am an electronics and communications engineering sophomore, originally from Sudan. In Sudan, people are far less active than in Egypt during Ramadan. They are very relaxed and spend lots of quality time with family, generally opting not to go out. Schools typically close during Ramadan, so it’s extra easy to stay home and spend time with friends and family. Of course, I also love to eat Sudanese dishes during Ramadan. I love molah tagila, a type of soup; dakoa salad, a green salad with peanut butter; roub salad, a salad made of yogurt with cucumbers; agashi, spicy charcoal meat; and abree, a sweet and sour drink made of sorghum. This year, I am looking forward to joining a Ramadan football league, one of my favorite traditions in Sudan. 

Ahmed from Syria

I am a first-year public administration master’s student, originally from Syria. Ramadan in Syria isn’t too different from Egypt, but there are various foods and traditions I’m used to. I spend a lot of time with my community during Ramadan, volunteering in service activities such as cleaning mosques and feeding those in need. I love hearing the iftar cannon go off, which means it’s time to eat my favorite food — labaniyeh, a Syrian yogurt-based dish. Here in Egypt, I go to the Syrian store to get all the ingredients to break my fast. It’s challenging to get all the ingredients to make the foods from home, but after a long day of fasting, it’s worth it.

Nadine from the United States

I am a half Egyptian, half Palestinian electrical engineering student on a year abroad from the University of California Merced. In the United States, I have a large iftar on the first day of Ramadan, when all my family comes together to celebrate. Ramadan in the United States doesn’t mean a lot of change to the schedule, and in fact, a lot of people don’t even know it’s Ramadan. Now in Egypt, I am enjoying the Ramadan decorations and am excited to eat my favorite Ramadan food: rice pudding.

Jena from the United States

I am a Libyan-American biology freshman from Wisconsin. For me, the first day of Ramadan is the most significant. In the United States, I’d take it off school and cook all the traditional foods with my family. There isn’t a big Muslim community in my area, so it’s really important to spend time with my family. The mosque near me hosts lots of community-service events, which is nice. It’s a bit difficult to fast at school, where there are less accommodations than in Egypt. Fasting could be difficult during lunch periods, but the Muslim Student Association at my school made sure there was an area set aside for us. And it was all worth it to break my fast at the end of the day with my favorite Libyan dish, aseeda. I’m excited to get celebrate with a big community here in Egypt, and have a schedule that reflects Ramadan. 

Rahil from India

I am a history and political science junior from India. Ramadan in Egypt looks rather different from Kashmir, where I’m originally from. Here, there are lots of lanterns, whereas I’m used to decorating with lights, flowers and garlands. There are lots of unique Ramadan traditions in Kashmir. At sunset, people distribute babri treysh (basil seeds soaked in water with sugar and milk), dates and cut-up fruits to people on the street. My favorite Ramadan food is kashmiri phirni, a sweet dish made with semolina and milk. My favorite tradition is a man called Sahar Khan. He goes around to neighbourhoods, playing his drum and screaming at the top of his voice that it is sahar (sohour - pre-dawn meal) time. Ever since I was very young, this has been a very entertaining and precious aspect of Ramadan for me. 

For the banks of the Rhine to the Nile’s corniche, students have crossed borders to discuss border crossings. University of Cologne students spent the final week of their winter course alongside AUC students, studying migration within the Global South. 

The Dialogue on Migration Governance in the Euro-Mediterranean (DiaMiGo), now in its third year, has brought Egyptian students to Germany and German students to Egypt, allowing them to discuss the transitory nature of migration across the Mediterranean. With migration rooted across the world, students analyzed Egypt as a gateway, a hub and a home. 

“The experience was impactful for not just the students visiting from Cologne, but also the AUC students who came from not just a CMRS [Center for Migration and Refugee Studies] program, but multiple different programs,” shared Emma Stotlemyer, CMRS graduate student and research assistant.  Stotlemyer coordinated DiaMiGo’s winter session alongside fellow research assistant Alaa Kasmo and Fatima Salah, Reem Adel and Hiba A.aseem M.Sharif. “We're able to bring their expertise, perspectives and experience to the program, and they were able to learn a lot more about refugees in Cairo.”

DiaMiGo encouraged participants to focus on integration in the everyday — dissecting Egypt’s role as host and transit hub for migrants, as well as the intersection of heritage, labor, health, activism and local governance on integration. 

Students attended lectures at AUC Tahrir Square, led by CMRS and SEA faculty Amira Ahmed and Gerda Heck, discussing the Egyptian social context, the role of media, culinary connections to migration and musical heritage. Dialogue encouraged participants to analyze what makes a place a home, and how they can expand these lessons into place-making for migrants and refugees. 

“The DiaMiGo Winter School was a truly enriching experience for our AUC scholars and students, as well as for the students from University of Cologne,” shared Ahmed, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology. “It created a dynamic and engaging environment where participants could delve into the key issues affecting migrants and refugees in both Egypt and Germany.”

While the lectures were an important facet of the winter school, what was perhaps more impactful was the dialogue between the German and Egyptian students as well as the refugee fellows who participated. Ahmed added, “One of the highlights of the school was the incredible diversity of backgrounds and experiences, thanks to the refugee fellowships, which offered a unique opportunity for refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Somalia and Eritrea to present their perspectives and insights.”

One CMRS student, Rya Hammuod Hamuod Alhosin, described how important it has been for her to share her migrant background in an academic setting. “Writing my thesis on my experience as a Syrian refugee put me on a journey to find my own voice,” she said. Participants in DiaMiGo uncovered the ways that centering migrant history, culture and heritage in integration can be both successful and empowering. 

Narratives around migration often revolve around the Global North. Engaging in migration dialogues while being based in the Global South helped reframe the field for students and decolonize migration perspectives. “Egypt is one of the most important actors in the region to understand global migration routes,” shared Hannah Walsken, a student from the University of Cologne. “Talking to students and refugees in Egypt gives an important perspective. It’s not theory alone, but also the everyday lives of people.”

The variety of perspectives from refugees based in Cairo displayed how important the Egyptian context is as a case study for global migration. The refugee fellows got to share their stories with both AUCians and German students, lending their perspectives and humanizing otherwise abstract concepts. 

“It was impactful because the narratives around integration often focus on how refugees can change themselves in order to fit into a community or society,” said Stotlemyer. “Speaking with the refugee fellows and scholars allowed us to see how refugees are continuing to integrate within their new society in a way that involves their skills, talents, experiences, traditions, customs, food, language, dialects — how they make a place for themselves.”

Partnerships like DiaMiGo lend perspectives between the Global South and Global North, which is essential in an inherently international field like migration studies. Egyptian and German students will continue building global conversations when they meet up for DiaMiGo III this summer in Cologne. Until then, they will continue unpacking the important lessons they learned from engaging in dialogue with one another.

“Being able to unpack and learn how refugees engage in place-making in Cairo is incredibly important for migration studies, for refugee studies and for anybody who engages with any sort of migrant and refugee population — so that we can continue to de-center the narratives of the Global North and re-center narratives coming from the Global South and the refugee community. This allows refugees to create those narratives themselves,” affirmed Stotlemyer.

A total of 42 student organizations as well as members of the First-Year Experience program assembled 6,000 food packs on campus in an initiative organized by the Office of Student Life. This year’s collaboration created almost double the number of food packs from last year.

United by a desire to do good, a human conveyor belt of students assembled pasta, rice, oil and lentils into bags to be distributed to families in need in Heliopolis. “I personally came because I wanted to give back to the community,” said psychology senior Mariam Elbatran, a member of the Political Science Students Association.

Rawan Sherif is a junior studying electronics and communications engineering at the University, and serves as the vice president of Resala AUC. She has attended every Ramadan packing event for three years in a row and has helped distribute the packs in Heliopolis. The act of giving is what keeps her coming back. “Seeing the happiness on people’s faces and seeing how they truly live is really touching. I think this is one of the things that keep me going to be honest.”

After the packing, students joined President Ahmad Dallal and Dean of Students Yorgun Marcel for a community iftar in the AUC amphitheater. The Musicana student organization performed Ramadan songs and created a festive atmosphere.

Help came from all corners of the AUC community. Pilar Jordan, a junior studying abroad from Wayne State University in Michigan, came to Ramadan packing to support the community she has found in Egypt. “I decided to join because there are so many people outside of compounds and this community that don’t have the resources to get what they need. So as long as I’m able to walk, I’m able to give back.”

Ramadan packing has been a longstanding tradition at AUC. Sophomore Salma Hagras, vice president of the Help Club, attended her first Ramadan packing last year, and the event’s combination of good energy and community service brought her back.

“Even last year, I brought my sister. She’s out of University but came to help. I really love how people gather to do khayr (good),” Hagras said.

As many members of the student body were fasting while packing, mechanical engineering senior Karim Elzahby felt positive energy through the shared experience. 

“The community here is really connected. We have an intrinsic bond we didn’t know existed between us, and it's coming out all here.”

It was also a great opportunity to put Elzahby gym gains to use. “It’s really great using all the power I’ve been gathering in the gym, channeling it here feels like I’m benefitting people. There’s a greater good.”

Recent alumni of the Department for Journalism and Mass Communications and Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism Center were recognized for their achievements in student media at the in the 2026 Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts Competition.

The 2026 winners were selected from an international pool of 2,250 entries, representing over 300 colleges and universities, with the student competitions featuring an overall acceptance rate of 20%. 

For the second year in a row, AUCTV received an honorable mention at BEA's Dr. Marjorie Yambor Signature Station Competition. Awardees will be celebrated in Las Vegas this April at BEA2026.  

Students in audio courses taught by Professor of Practice Kim Fox have built a strong track record of winning in BEA competitions, contributing to AUC’s 12th place position in the 2025 BEA School Rankings for Audio and 18th place ranking in the News category. This year, two awardees were recognized for undergraduate audio projects produced in Fox's classes and received top honors in their categories.

Read more about the awardees below.

Student Radio News Feature:

Ouahiba Ait Elhaj Mhand ’25, Multimedia Communication and Journalism 

3rd place:  Permission to Leave: Christian Divorce in Egypt

Student Audio Narrative: 

 Judi Yassin ’25, Multimedia Communication and Journalism 

Award of Excellence: Podcast Promo-21st Philosophy

Graduate Sports Category :

Yasmin Nabil '25, Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism

2nd place, "Egypt Breathes Football"

Graduate Student Documentary:

 Nour Wael '25, Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism

3rd place: "The Nubian Code"

Bianca Carrera Espriu '25, Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism

 Award of Excellence: "The Artist of the People"

In just 10 weeks, a cohort of students from the University of Chicago have explored every corner of Egypt. From Alexandria to Luxor, the students from the Windy City are dodging subzero temperatures back home to spend a winter studying Cairo’s history and Arabic at AUC.

“You’re really living with history here,” says UChicago linguistics senior Sam Contreras.

Both daytrips and weekend excursions to Luxor, Khan El Khalil, the White Desert, Tahrir Square and the Grand Egyptian Museum have brought students face to face with Egyptian history.

"I feel like we've gotten to see so much of the country. We went way down south, west into the deserts and even on excursions in the week. We've seen different parts of the city."

“Driving an hour or two, you’re at the pyramids, which are thousands of years old. During that time, you pass through Coptic and Islamic Cairo, which are thousands of years old themselves,” Contreras says.

The students are enrolled in Cairo: Middle Eastern Civilizations, a three-class UChicago sequence taught at AUC New Cairo, which takes students through the city’s history from pharaonic to modern times. The core classes are taught by UChicago faculty Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology Anna Latifa Mourad Cizek, Assistant Professor of Classical Arabic Literature Pamela Klasova and Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies Abdallah Soufan. In addition to studying Cairo’s history, students take Arabic classes taught twice a week by AUC instructors.

UChicago economics junior Teddy Robinson grew up in an Arabic-speaking area of Miami, Florida, but came to Cairo to continue improving his Arabic. “The Cairo program isn’t talked about enough in terms of how great it is. We have a campus in Paris, we have a campus in Hong Kong. Students there feel like they’re still at UChicago, whereas here we get to come to AUC. We go on all these excursions. Other programs don’t really have all the travel we get to do, and that’s been very enlightening,” Robinson says.

The students also explored Cairo and practiced Arabic with the help of cultural partners, Egyptian students in their age group who previously studied at UChicago and now live in Cairo. “You get a different perspective on young people’s experience in the city,” Kruger says. 

Egypt’s fair weather plus AUC New Cairo’s campus have allowed students to enjoy luxuries  usually locked off by a Chicago winter: working outside, practicing their sports and even stargazing.

A group trip to the White Desert was eye opening for Ashley Hayase, a UChicago economics junior also minoring in astronomy and astrophysics. “In the desert, especially, being able to see  all the constellations —  I didn't realize the size of them. I'd never seen them so clear before.”

Robinson and Hayase are both student athletes, running track and playing soccer, respectively. Hayase says AUC’s facilities have let her stay sharp in the offseason. “Utilizing the facilities has been great. During the winter back in Chicago we rarely are able to actually practice outside at all,” Hayase says.

A yearlong civilization studies requirement is needed to graduate from the University of Chicago, and students can meet this requirement by studying abroad for one quarter. Camille Kruger, a UChicago junior studying public policy, chose the Cairo program to experience a new culture beyond the popular study-abroad destinations peers sought out in Europe. 

“I feel like we've gotten to see so much of the country. We went way down south, west into the deserts and even on excursions in the week. We've seen different parts of the city,” Kruger says. 

“A lot of us have gone and explored Cairo on our own. But even if you didn't do that, you would walk away from this program having seen so much of the city and the country and gaining a lot of knowledge.”