The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a premier English-language institution of higher learning. The University is committed to teaching and research of the highest calibre. AUC is an independent, private, non-profit, apolitical, non-sectarian and equal-opportunity institution, fully accredited in Egypt and the United States. About 52,000 students attend AUC on a yearly basis. Dedicated to serving its faculty members, AUC has several support offices and resources in place solely for the purposes of promoting research and managing research grants. Through its Office of Sponsored Programs, AUC has managed over 900 awards over the last 25 years from the European Commission, foundations, corporations and others.
The American University in Cairo has served Egypt and the region for over 90 years and is deeply rooted in the Egyptian academic community. Its provost is a distinguished Egyptian professor of physics, leading a teaching staff 53 per cent of whom are Egyptians. Over 90 per cent of the students are Egyptian, with women outnumbering men 53 to 47 per cent. Its degrees are fully recognised in both Egypt and the United States, where its academic programs are accredited. The university serves as a vital bridge between the cultures of East and West and a regional think tank. AUC has partnerships on the national, regional and international levels and has extensive experience in conducting key projects across MENA, managing over 850 grants in the past 25 years through various sponsors. AUC’s downtown campus is uniquely situated overlooking Tahrir square, the symbol of the Egyptian Revolution.
AUC’s department of Political Science was in the forefront of the university’s engagement with the Revolution. Four edited books, three in English, and one in Arabic, about the revolution have been published with three international publishing houses, and with AUC Press in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The department encourages the free exchange of ideas and promotes open and on-going interaction with scholarly institutions throughout Egypt and other parts of the world. The department’s shared experiences of political change in 2011 give it special credentials for study of the ongoing Arab transformation.
Persons involved in the project
Dr Nadine Sika is Visiting Assistant Professor since 2010 and completed her PhD in comparative politics at Cairo University. She was previously a consultant to the UNDP regional Arab Office, and taught previously at Future University in Egypt. She was a guest scholar at the University of Tübingen during the summer of 2010. Her publications include Educational Reform in Egyptian Primary Schools since the 1990s: A Study of Political Values and Behavior of Sixth Grade Students (Edwin Mellen Press, 2010); “Youth Political Engagement: From Abstention to Inclusion”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 39, no. 2 (2012); “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Egyptian Women within the Confines of Authoritarianism.” Journal of International Women’s Studies vol.13, (2012). “Two Peaceful Revolutions Compared: The German Democratic Republic and Egypt,” in The Tahrir Revolution, eds. D. Tshirgi et.al (Lynne Rienner Press, 2013).
Dr Holger Albrecht is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa at AUC. His work focuses on the relationship between authoritarian regimes and societies in the MENA region. He received his MA and PhD degrees from the University of Tübingen, Germany, where he worked as a lecturer between 2004 and 2008. He has also been affiliated to the Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of Lüneburg, Germany, and the World Bank’s country office in Sana’a, Yemen. Currently he is the Jennings Randolph Senior Research Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. His recent publications include: Raging Against the Machine: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism in Egypt, (forthcoming 2013, Syracuse University Press); “Authoritarian Transformation or Transition from Authoritarianism? Insights on Regime Change in Egypt,” in: Korany, Bahgat and Rabab El-Mahdi (eds.), The Arab Revolution in Egypt and Beyond, (American University in Cairo Press, 2012); with Dina Bishara 2011, “Back on Horseback: The Military and Regime Change in Egypt,” Middle East Law and Governance, 3, 13-23 (2011). Editor, Contentious Politics in the Middle East: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism, (University Press of Florida, 2010).
Main tasks attributed to AUC
-Leader of WP3
-Partner in WP1, WP2, WP4, WP7, WP8 and WP9
