The Cairo Tattoo Convention

By Samia El Khodary and Sara Elaraby

Egypt witnessed its second tattoo convention over the weekend at The Tipsy Teapot in Ma’adi. The event, held on November 6-7, from 3 p.m. to 12 a.m., welcomed over 400 attendees to its venue for the sharing of body art.

According to the official Cairo Tattoo Convention website, the convention was created in conjunction with the Nowhereland Tattoo Project , where founder Orne Gil set out to “to bring the art of tattoo (to) countries – mainly in the Middle East – where it has been limited”. To bring like-minded individuals together, Gil partnered with fellow artist and photojournalist Ines Della Valle to bring her vision to life.

Valle, who had witnessed and documented the January 25th Revolution, and Gil reached out to artists, both local and foreign, to bring visibility to the underground art form. As a result, 20 local and international artists, composed of tattooers, piercers, and temporary body painters, gathered to provide a site for body art culture: artists were able to display their personal previous works, and worked on new tattoos for people that attended the convention.

The taboo of tattoos has kept the art mostly in the shadows, but that has recently started to change. According to Gil, the “tattoo culture (started) to move since more or less 3 years…(while) there were some artists that were working already, (it) was more exclusive…I think Cairo is ready for this.”

According to Valle, Egypt has been witnessing the rise of the tattoo art form, with about 70% of those who attended being local Egyptians, and welcoming over 12 more artists to the convention compared to the previous year.

One tattoo regular and convention attendee, Ahmed Talaat, was “shocked by the number of tattoo designers” and people at the event, and believes that Egypt should focus on more pressing issues rather than “being strict about a design… on my own skin”.  

Talaat’s belief is slowly becoming the norm in the city. With the slow change in the taboo of tattoo, there is hope to embrace modern ideals, accept all art forms, and provide venues for self expression to everyone.

AUC's Employment Fair: A Glimpse into the Business World

By Nehal Sharaf, Nadine Ramadan and Daniella Banna

The Fall 2015 Employment Fair, organized by the Career Advising and Placement Services office (CAPS) took place at American University in Cairo on Nov. 7, 2015 to provide students and alumni various career opportunities.

There were 76 organizations present at the Fair. According to Malak Saleh, one of the event’s organizers, the CAPS office sends out invitations to various companies in which they respond to pay and partake in the Fair. Even though the Employment Fair changes every year, there are companies that are usually participating at the Fair. Maha El Moslemany, manager of Recruitment and Employer Relations stated “the recurring companies present at the Fair are a reflection of what’s in the job market.”

During the Fair, students approach companies, introduce themselves regarding their majors, their area of interest and share their CV’s with companies. Even though students and alumni came ready with their printed CV’s, they were not accepted by many of the companies such as Coca Cola, Mobinil, Procter and Gamble and the American Embassy.  These companies asked for CV’s to be submitted online.

After speaking with Mobinil and Unilever about what characteristics they look for when hiring employees, Mobinil’s Human Resources supervisor, Nancy Wahba stated that they look for someone who is friendly and dynamic. Whereas, Karim Kandil, the Manufacturing Excellence manager for Unilever Factories stated “they look for candidates with soft skills, such as leadership and team building and people with technical skills.”

A couple of attendees were unsatisfied due to the Employment Fair lacking in variety of companies, such as NGO’s. Lydia Matta who minored in Community Development and Organizing, was hoping to find an opportunity available at the Fair regarding this field, however, she expressed to us how disappointed she was with the Fair’s lack of choices in NGO’s. Attendees with a business background expressed the most satisfaction due to numerous opportunities provided by the present companies.

The Employment Fair has been going on since 1986, back then it was considered one of the first types of career fairs in the Middle East. There are two Employment Fairs a year, one in Fall and one in Spring. Each year there are different companies, however, there are several recurring companies that choose to be present at the Fair.

Philosophy Professor, Dr. Ernest Wolf-Gazo, Gives a Lecture about Monotheism

By Kenzi Bahgat, Farida ElSersawi, and Lobna El Shirbiny

(Cairo, Egypt) On Wednesday, November 4th, the Philosophy Professor, Dr. Ernest Wolf-Gazo, hosted a lecture on "Monotheism" where the lecture took place at The American University of Cairo.

The lecture focused on Max Weber and the world historical significance of ancient Egyptian monotheism. It also discussed how this affects individuals’ actions today.

Dr. Gazo has been a Philosophy professor at AUC for twenty-four years. He is well-known for his volume on, A.N.Whitehead -- Einfuehrung in seine Kosmologie, which is a basic text at the German Universities.

The event was co-organized by the Office of Student Development (OSD) and the Philosophy Club. The Philosophy Club is known for organising the series of lectures addressing various philosophical topics since 1992.

Before the speech, the audience, who were about 50 people, had to fill a signup sheet with their information based on the registration. The Executive Assistant to Chair, Aya Morsi, and the Secretary, Amanda Naguib, were responsible for organizing the events and distributing giveaways, which were zipper bags with the logo of the Philosophy Department.

Monotheism focuses on one principle, which is that there is one deity that does everything. This goes back to Akhenaten, the pharaoh who established monotheism by making Aten, the Sun God, the only God.

Dr. Gazo started off by explaining how monotheism could be understood within the context of ancient history. The speaker mentioned that one principle affects our actions.

Monotheism is "the emergence of formal rationality," he said. This doesn't mean that polytheism is irrational. When asked about this, he explained how in ancient history, there was a division of labor among the Gods whether it was in Egypt, Greece, or any other country.

"They’re not irrational, they have a practical intelligence," he explained.

Throughout his lecture, Dr. Gazo was focusing on how religion affects individuals’ actions rather than arguing about whether religion makes sense or not.

"We need it today more than ever before," he said.

"It was a little bit complicated, but overall useful. I have enjoyed it to an extent, but it was so hard for me to understand and comprehend completely," said Ahmed El Semary, a Mechanical Engineering student at AUC.

Horror Fiction Helps Us Psychologically, Says Bestselling Egyptian Author

By Youssef Shaalan, Yehia Shaalan and Mahmoud Abdel Latif

NEW CAIRO- Horror in novels enables people to cope with their problems, said prominent Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Towfik during a public lecture at the American University in Cairo (AUC) on Wednesday.

The lecture, hosted by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies of AUC, was held in the Bassily Auditorium of the university’s New Cairo campus from 1-2 p.m. The auditorium was filled with professors as well as students.

The author of the bestselling Arabic novel “Utopia” talked about the rewarding nature of writing for the Egyptian youth and how issues in the country influenced him to write in the horror genre.  Writing for the young generation allowed him to use supernatural elements, like zombies and vampires, in tackling psychological issues. He believes that our problems start to become much less terrifying in comparison to the horrific things we read about in horror stories.

“Horror writing has always been a safety valve that helps people recover from their inner fears and phobias,” said Towfik. “People like stories about zombies; when you see the living dead, you forget your fears.”

“I think horror could help us forget about our problems, but only when we’re reading the story,” said Farah Lotfy, a junior psychology major at AUC. “After we finish the story and return to reality, nothing has changed. We’re back to our problems again.”

A big fan of horror novels, Towfik explained how he started his career of writing fiction, “I said to myself, ‘if you want more horror, write it’.”

His exploration of the horror genre led him to create a series of literary works named “Fantasia”. After years of writing horror, Towfik found that writing about these supernatural elements were not enough to help him face his own fears.

“I had to stop writing about ghosts, werewolves and vampires, and start talking about something more scarier: the future of Egypt,” he said. “That’s how ‘Utopia’, a great dystopia, came to life.”

“Utopia,” released in Arabic in 2009, dealt with social and political issues in Egypt, issues that led to the 25th of January revolution. Predicting a chaotic revolution in his novel, Towfik was surprised by how peaceful and well organized the 2011 revolution was.

Towfik advised other writers by saying that nobody is perfect and that success in writing takes a lot of time and effort. Open to criticism, Towfik said that it’s the people who offer him feedback, whether negative or positive, that make him feel alive.  

Since the beginning of the Fall Semester of 2015, “Utopia” is the focus of the AUC Common Reading Program. A motion picture based on “Utopia” is currently in the pre-production stage.

Egyptian TV presenter, Ramy Radwan: I’ll quit if I’m ever forced to give up my principles!

By Farah Zalat and Hussein Shaker

(Cairo, Egypt) - Ramy Radwan, TV presenter of El Beit Beitak and alumnus of The American University in Cairo (AUC), spoke at AUC about the challenges facing young media professionals on Monday, November 2, 2015.

Radwan was the guest speaker and around 50 people attended, ranging from current AUC students and faculty to AUC alumni. It was planned by The AUC Alumni Association, which strives to connect the AUC alumni with one another as well as with the university.

After a brief introduction of Radwan by Dr. Naila Hamdy, associate professor and chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department (JRMC), he began his speech by clarifying how he was choosing to speak in Arabic because his respect for his native language has significantly grown lately. He jokingly, yet informatively, mentioned some of the challenges he has faced in the field.

He reassured the audience by using a personal example that making a mistake will not be as severe if you take the right measures to correct it and apologize. He also talked about how hard it is now to stay grounded ethically, stating how this problem has become increasingly evident in the Egyptian media.

In 2015, The Guardian published an article focusing on the increasing number of Egyptian media professionals who are becoming “mouthpieces for the government.” Which further proves Radwan’s point about the ethics in Egyptian media.

Rawan Lasheen, a JRMC graduate who attended the event; stated, “The government restrictions they put on the media. To say this and say that, don’t say this and don’t say that,” is the biggest problem she is personally facing in the field.

During the interview with Radwan after the event, he advised, “If you stick to your own beliefs, you will always gain more than just doing like a chameleon” to further emphasize the importance of principles in media.

Radwan is on El Beit Beitak on TEN TV at 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Tune in to watch him apply his personal ethics as a TV presenter.

Web 2.0: Sharing, Teaching, and Learning in the 21st Century

By Ahmed Refai, Moataz Al-Qammari and Alia Sallam

The Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) at The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted a workshop titled “Web 2.0 as a Transformative Learning Tool” Sunday afternoon at the AUC library. The workshop was facilitated by Gihan Osman, assistant professor of instructional design and technology at the Graduate School of Education (GSE) and CLT, and Nadine Aboulmagd, online content developer at CLT.

The workshop included a detailed overview of how to use “Web 2.0” tools, a label that has been given to websites that emphasize sharing and user-generated interaction (such as blogs and wikis) by instructors to strengthen student-teacher relationships and encourage responsible, productive sharing of content between peers.

The workshop was attended exclusively by AUC professors, the majority of which were either interested in learning how to better implement advanced web tools in their course curricula, or were IT and instructional design enthusiasts.

“The use of Web 2.0 tools allows for the manifestation of a 21st century framework of learning,” said Osman. “The student of today is very different, the landscape of learning is very different and learner-centered, focusing on collaboration and information literacy. This is the world in which our students were created, and we can’t ignore that.”

“[Students] feel very comfortable in that [digital] world, and when they leave our school they need to be capable of interacting in it,” Osman remarked.

“The most important contribution of Web 2.0 [is] that our students could become creators of knowledge,” she expressed.

“I’m using blogs for the first time in my courses,” said Heba El-Deghaidy, associate professor at GSE. “It allows my students to share their thoughts and ideas, and I was lucky to have support from CLT members, who conducted hands-on training for my students.”

The emergence of user-friendly, content sharing websites which utilize Web 2.0 tools was a revolution in itself, giving birth to the digital age of social media and free, globalized sharing of information.

“People realizing that they, themselves, could be content creators helped in the developing of these online tools,” said Aboulmagd. “The need to learn computing languages such as HTML deterred most people from sharing online content, but the more user-friendly these platforms became, the more they gained in popularity; exploding from five million users before 2006, to nearly one billion in less than a decade.”

According to a study conducted by Forrester Research in 2008 titled “The Growth of Social Technology Adoption”, 75% of adult males in the United States reported using Web 2.0 tools in their personal and professional lives, a percentage which, in 2007, stood at 56%.

The growth does not seem to be stagnating, either; intrinsic characteristics of an even more advanced era of information, conveniently named “Web 3.0”, are starting to gain steam.

“Cloud storage and tools for computer-generated content that emerged in the past four years are, at the core, identifiers of Web 3.0,” said Aboulmagd.

It is intriguing to note how some of these tools (such as cloud storage) are already being utilized in pedagogical contexts and enhancing intra-classroom sharing due to the ease with which students can upload content.

Boraie and Abdelrahman Session at the AUC Social Media Conference #AUCSMC

By Shahd Amr, Amina El Khadem and Omar Salem

The AUC Social Media Conference (#AUCSMC) took place in The American University in Cairo on Tuesday, 31 March from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Jameel Building.

The two social media related courses at The American University in Cairo (AUC): JRMC 4490 Social Media Management (#JRMCSMM) taught by Professor Kim Fox from The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and RHET 3250 Digital Rhetoric (#AUCnow) taught by Juleen Keevy from The Department of Rhetoric and Composition co-organized the event.

The conference hosted several speakers including Sarrah Abdelrahman, an AUC alumna, who graduated with two degrees, Theatre and Journalism and Mass Communications. Abdelrahman is known on Twitter as @Sarrahsworld. Rami Boraie was also a speaker. He is a standup comedian and a social media and advertising creative. He is @ramsville on Twitter. Abdelrahman and Boraie presented their experiences concerning social media in the last hour of the conference.

Abdelrahman is the second female video blogger from the Arab world. She started her first video on YouTube focusing on the issue of sexual harassment right after the Jan.25, 2011 Revolution.

After receiving many offensive and negative comments, Abdelrahman decided to suspend activity on her YouTube channel which has been inactive for the past two years.

Following Abdelrahman, Boraie presented his talk ‘Don’t take social media personally’. He added that some of the negative comments might actually be constructive comments that could be helpful. He said, “Sometimes haters are just people who are correcting you.”

Boraie also noted that people should only focus on one media channel to be good at, “Know your channels because people who try to be really good on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, end up average in all,” he said. Boraie referred to his Instagram account  as his 'safe haven' and private time.

In an interview with Abdelrahman following the conference she mentioned that she chose her first topic, sexual harassment, because it bothers her on a daily basis more than any other social problem.

In an interview with Boraie after his speech, he elaborated on his opinions about the impact of social media on people nowadays. He said that now you can know people’s feelings, beliefs, and interests just by checking what they follow and what they like.

According to Kanzy Mahmoud, a Journalism major attendee, "I never knew how social media is so powerful that you can start up your career, and that through social media you can brand yourself."

Over 100 people attended the conference throughout the day, which featured blogger Mahmoud Salem as the keynote speaker. The conference, #aucsmc, had more than 400 hits on the day of the event.

Professors Ask Students to Create Their Own Exams

By Nada Helmy, Nour Eltigani and Lobna Shrief

(Cairo, April 1) - The Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) held a workshop about student-generated exams facilitated by Professors Fady Morcos and Ezzeldin Yazeed on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

Both professors shared their stories about the topic. Morcos created a Facebook page for one of his classes and let students ask and answer questions so the questions can appear in their final. On the other hand, Yazeed allowed his construction students to create a midterm with its model answers. Both professors found their techniques very effective.

According to Yazeed, a professor of structure of engineering in the construction engineering department, “This strategy helps the professor to know how much the students digest from this course.”

Also, Morcos, who teaches scientific thinking and creative thinking courses, emphasized to his small audience of professors, “Student- generated questions enhance knowledge gaps and identify inaccurate expectations.”

The CLT has facilitated several workshops that promote the application of technology in classrooms and coursework including “Gamifying Your Classroom” that was held in November 2014 and featured Morcos. The CLT will be holding other workshops during the spring 2015 semester.

At the end of the workshop, both professors sat down with the rest of the attendees and started sharing their feedback on the workshop. Even though the workshop only lasted for an hour, all of the attendees shared positive comments about the new examination technique. 

Associate Professor of Practice Maha Bali recalled that the idea of student-generated exams was sparked in another CLT workshop that she facilitated. Bali assured, “I feel that more people should try that kind of thing, I was really happy with the workshop.”

Attendee Hadya El Minyawi, an instructor of rhetoric and composition, believes that “the workshop today gave me a new idea of having students study for the exam and make them cognitively involved in the material as they generate their own exams and taking ownership for their own learning.”

Student-generated exams are found to be effective by Morcos and Yazeed. Both professors will keep using this approach again in their future courses and advise other professors to do so too.