Alumni
My master’s degree in Arabic Studies from the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at AUC helped me to lay the foundation for my doctoral research and current academic pursuits. The ARIC department emphasizes primary source research, which is truly invaluable, and it brings together a strong core team of faculty - perhaps the best all-star team in any university. Being in Egypt is another major bonus to an ARIC master’s degree. Learning about history in the classroom is reinforced by being able to visit sites throughout Egypt. Additionally, Cairo has a number of the world’s premier research centers in our field, and their events complement classroom education.
Anthony T. Quickel '15
Project Research Fellow/Doctoral Candidate - Islamic Studies Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Marburg
The broader ARIC curriculum both supplemented and complimented my own particular specialization in Islamic Art and Architecture. Meaning, my specific interest was not divorced or taught in isolation from the relevant history and literature of the region. This approach certainly cultivated a more holistic understanding that goes well beyond aesthetics, and one that has been of benefit to me in the present time. Furthermore, as an international student, which I was at the time, the ability to carry out an empirical study of buildings, monuments and associated museum artifacts in Cairo and its greater environs was and remains an experience unique to ARIC at AUC.
Iman R. Abdulfattah ‘04
PhD Candidate, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
I am currently an associate professor at the University of California in Davis. My first position was as an assistant professor at Columbia University in New York. After I left AUC I went for a PhD at the University of California in Berkeley. AUC was truly a game-changer for me. I was an economics major as an undergraduate and it was the Center for Arabic Studies that fueled my passion for the Arabic language and gave me the foundation needed for a career in literary studies. I will always be grateful to Samia Mehrez, my MA advisor who has continued to be my mentor since then.
Noha Radwan ‘94
Associate Professor, UC Davis
Thanks to my M.A. in Arabic Studies from AUC, I was able to earn a full assistantship from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to apply my knowledge for various projects within the School of Information Studies there, until I entered the field of Middle East librarianship as head of the Middle East Area Studies Collection at University of Pennsylvania Libraries, until 2009 when my real dream job to run the Cairo Overseas Office of the Library of Congress became a reality.
William J. Kopycki '96
Field Director, Library of Congress, Cairo Overseas Office
The program gave me the skills, knowledge, credibility, and insights that enabled me to transform my passion into a vocation. It was also a wonderful experience to become part of a welcoming academic community, through which I made great, long-lasting friends.
Seif El Rashidi '99
Director of The Barakat Trust, and Project Manager, The Institute of Historical Research, London
My training during those two years provided me with a solid foundation for all of my subsequent research in the field at the PhD and Post-doctoral levels, something for which I am truly grateful.
Amar Salem Baadj '06
Post-Doctoral Researcher at Bonn University and Trier University
The course structure is so much better and more stringent than a similar one in the UK; added to which, with the excellent Museum of Islamic Art and all Cairo’s monuments to hand, there is a veritable cornucopia of extant examples within easy reach to visit and study.
Rosalind A. Wade Haddon '92
Research Associate, SOAS, University of London Hon and Secretary of the Islamic Art Circle, SOAS
I spent two formative years in AUC’s Arabic Studies MA program, from 2000-2002, and I took another year to write my MA thesis while on a Fulbright grant in Morocco. The professors I worked with at AUC, many of whom are still engaged members of the AUC community, were some of the best graduate student mentors I have since encountered in academia. I have since maintained close contact with several of my AUC mentors, to my great honor even participating in conferences and publications with some of them. After AUC, I pursued a PhD in African history at Northwestern University, and my MA degree in Arabic Studies/Middle East History gave me a distinct advantage in understanding the Arabic textual tradition of Africa and Muslim societies on both sides of the Sahara
Zachary V. Wright ‘03
Associate Professor, History and Religious Studies Northwestern University in Qatar