Academic professor and author Fawaz Gerges gives a lecture at the American University in Cairo

 By Sama El Feky and Amina El Farnawany

Cairo-Egypt- Lebanese American academic and author with expertise on the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, Fawaz Gerges gave a public lecture on American foreign policy towards the Middle East change and continuity at the American University in Cairo (AUC) on Monday, March 30.  

Gerges is not just a professor of Middle East Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science, University of Oxford but he is also a holder of the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. Gerges, one of the top Middle East’s scholars, was the inaugural director of the LSE Middle East Centre from 2010 until 2013.

A former regular Middle East analyst for ABC News, Gerges, appeared on many famous shows including The Charlie Rose Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He wrote many books including The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda, Obama and the Middle East: The End of America's Moment?, and The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World.

During his lecture, Gerges focused mainly on the foreign policy of the United States. He demonstrated the point that the United States does not want to be involved with the Middle East. He used phrases like ‘uninterested’ to describe how Obama feels towards this region. However, he mentioned Obama’s interest in Iran due to the fact that it is the most important nuclear portfolio at the moment.

Gerges shared his opinion on the issue of the Middle East and the United States by saying that the Middle East should not wait for the United States’ intervention in matters. “It’s about time we take ownership and stand up for our region,” said Gerges. He later on shared his opinion on Egypt who he has been paying close attention to. “If you really want to know the situation in the Arab World, always look at Egypt. I teach my students, wherever Egypt goes, the Arab World follows,” said Gerges.

Gerges did not just cover the topic of the lecture but he also humbly answered questions from the AUC audience.

Psychologist and author Philip Zimbardo discusses Time Perspective at the American University in Cairo

By Norhan Tawil, Abdelhamid Mahmoud and Tamer Hegab

CAIRO- Internationally recognized scholar, psychologist and author, Philip Zimbardo, gave a lecture at the American University in Cairo (AUC) on Monday, March 9.

Zimbardo, 81, is a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for the Stanford prison experiment, and since then, became an author of many books including The Lucifer Effect and The Time Paradox, which he discussed in his lecture under the title, “The Secret Power of Time to Influence our Decisions and Impact National Destinies."

The study of time perspective investigates how the human experience is dispersed over different categories and time frames of the past, present, and future. According to Zimbardo, “Your time perspective is the most important thing about you.” He explained how one’s time perspective is even more important than their personality and the way in which it shapes their behavior.

Zimbardo believes that time perspective is easy for anyone to understand. He made that clear by saying that “People from any education can understand time perspective.” Mariam El Sawy, a student of the SAPE Department at AUC believes that, “Understanding time perspective and psychology, makes you understand life, yourself and the people around you in a better way.”

An individual’s time perspective is so important it “can influence therapy,” according to Zimbardo. Dina Hassan, psychologist, and AUC alumni said, “I have a lot of patients with PTSD, and I think I should apply methods of time perspective to my therapy.”

The psychology unit at AUC, nominated Dr. Zimbardo as a Distinguished Visiting Professor for the SAPE Department. He communicated his work to his audience via intriguing and active presentation slides, that were full of bright images and funny videos. The 225-seat Mansour Lecture Hall at AUC was overpacked with excited students, faculty and attendees. 

This is the second lecture for Zimbardo at AUC . He gave a lecture on Sunday, March 8, at the Tahrir campus under the title "My Journey from Creating Evil to Inspiring Heroism." According to Hassan, Zimbardo has the ability to “take something that could otherwise be very bland and make it interesting.”