CASAR One–Day Seminar_ Helwan
On Thursday, April 3, 2014, Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and
Research at AUC in collaboration with the Department of English. Faculty of Arts at
Helwan University hosted a one–day seminar titled “American Studies, Egyptian
Scholarship.” The conference was held from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm at Helwan
University. Around 40 people attended the seminar including faculty members from
both the AUC and Helwan University, in addition to graduate students from both
institutions and others in Egypt. The seminar consisted of three panels in addition to
the opening session and an open forum that concluded the sessions. Each session
was followed by a series of questions from the participants
In the opening session, Dr. Mona Fouad, Chair of the Department of English,
faculty of Arts at Helwan University, started by welcoming the guests. Dr. Ira
Dworkin, Associate Director of CASAR at AUC, talked about CASAR and the
importance of this sort of collaboration between universities especially in this
particular time in Egypt’s history. Dr. Ted Purinton, Associate Provost at AUC,
pointed out the importance of such events in enhancing the relationships and
understanding between countries. He also talked about the importance of art and
literature in “removing the barriers between societies and inviting dialogue and
harmony.” And he highlighted the fact that the AUC encourages this kind of
collaboration between universities in order to build stronger networks of
scholarships and research.
The first panel, “American Studies, Egyptian Pedagogy,” moderated by Dr.
Areeg Ibrahim (Helwan University), discussed different techniques of teaching. The
panel started with Dr. Riham Bahi (Political Science, AUC), whose paper, "American
Studies in Egypt: A Model of Active Learning,” discussed innovated teaching
techniques she uses in a political science course she teaches at AUC. Dr. Bahi
explained that she is using a video conference technology to engage students from
different parts of the world and how such techniques help the students to “become
citizens in a global community.” The second speaker was Dr. Muhammad Hesham
(Helwan University) who presented a paper titled “’Palpable and mute’: A Reading
of Archibald Macleish's Ars Poetca” in which he discussed the techniques he uses in
teaching English poetry to undergraduate students and the problems he faces in the
CASAR One–Day Seminar_ Helwan
process. The third speaker was Dr. Fadwa Gad (Helwan University) with a paper
titled “Teaching A Pair of Tickets to Egyptian University Students” in which she
discussed how her methods in teaching modern novel to undergraduate students in
the Faculty of Education have changed after serving as Fulbright Scholar–in–
residence in St. Edward’s University in Texas.
The
second
panel,
“Graduate
Student
Initiatives:
Perspectives
on
Comparative Literary Scholarship from the AUC CASAR Workshop,” was moderated
by Dr. Maha Hosny (Helwan University), discussed CASAR workshop for graduate
students. It started with a word by Dr. Ira Dworkin explaining the idea of the
workshop and the program that encourages the participants to share their work
with others and get a feed back on their work. Dr. Dworkin added that “the idea and
goal of this is to create a community of people who are able to share their work and
learn from each other.” Three members of the workshop presented their works:
Sarah Mustafa (Helwan University): “Post-postmodern Revival of Morality in the
Post-Apocalyptic Worlds of José Saramago’s Blindness and Cormac McCarthy’s The
Road.” Asmaa Abdallah (AUC) “Anti-Marriage Plot: Confinement and Consumption in
the Fiction of Margaret Atwood and Hanan Al–Shaykh.” Nermine Sergius (AUC)
“Time Regained: Reading Alternative History in Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Najwa
Sha‘ban’s Al-Ghurr.” The session was followed by a series of questions from the
guests to further understand the idea of the workshop. Each of the panelists gave
her view on how the workshop, the discussions and feedbacks have helped in
shaping her work and encouraged her to continue on her project.
The third panel, “Media, Performance, and American Studies,” moderated by
Dr. Mounira Soliman (AUC), included three talks: Dr. Ebony Coletu (AUC), presented
a paper titled "Remembering Roots: Rethinking Global TV Studies in Egypt" in which
she discussed the Egyptian audiences’ different reactions to the mini series Roots
that was broadcast on Egyptian television in 1979, and how some of these reactions
were connected to the sociopolitical conditions of Sadat’s rule. Dr. Amani Youssef
(Helwan University), presented her paper “Metaphor in the Bear and Bull Markets:
A Corpus‐Based Study” in which she analyzed the language used in American
financial reporting. Dr. Ahmed Al‐Imam (Helwan University) presented a paper
CASAR One–Day Seminar_ Helwan
titled “Linguistic Analysis of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman” in which he discussed race
and language in Baraka’s play Dutchman.
The fourth session was an open forum titled “American Studies, Egyptian
Universities: Student Perspectives.” The session included students from four
different universities: Zainab Magdy (Cairo University/CASAR workshop), Heba
Ahmed (Minia University/CASAR workshop), Mohamed El Daly (AUC), and Hend
Hashem (Helwan University). Dr. Ira Dworkin, the session moderator, started the
forum by posing the question “what are American studies in its broadest sense?”
The students offered their personal definitions of American studies and their ideas
of how to establish dialogues with American or international students through
different channels and mediums that allow for exchanging different points of views.
The session was followed by a discussion; one of the questions discussed the issue
of academic associations taking a political stand, another question tackled the
multiculturalism of American culture. Other questions further discussed the
definition of American studies, politics, and literature among other things.
Written By: Nermine Sergius
Research Assistant, Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research