American University in Cairo

This course covers some of the major research techniques and tools which sociologists use to observe and interpret the social world. The first half focuses on issues of the logic of research and research design, the general procedures for research design, and research ethics. The second half deals more specifically with a variety of techniques of gathering data which may include survey research, field and observational methods, experiments, content analysis, and historical methods. Some of the software programs covered that are critical for conducting social scientific research in the 21st century may include those for statistical analysis, qualitative data analysis, database management, the creation of maps and timelines, and the presentation of research reports. The course develops more knowledgeable and critical practitioners, consumers, and evaluators of social science data and research.

How has the media covered the war on Gaza and what are the underlying political, cultural and business imperatives that have shaped this coverage? What narratives are being foregrounded by legacy Western and Arab media respectively? What role is alternative media playing and what controls are different Social Media platforms imposing on permissible content? What is it like to be a Palestinian journalist in Gaza when journalists are being killed by Israel at an unprecedented rate? These are some of the questions that students critically engage with throughout this course, through a combination of theoretical readings, case studies, multimedia analysis, documentary screenings and guest speakers from the field. The course encourages students to connect scholarship with practice through writing, media monitoring, and creative projects that interrogate the relationship between communication and power in one of the most mediatized conflicts of our time.

This course is the first semester of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, one of the oldest languages in the world. This class focuses on Middle Kingdom hieroglyphs (2055-1650 BC), when many scribes were trained and the writing was notably clear and grammatical. Students begin by learning the ancient Egyptian alphabet and how to write the letters, and go on to learning vocabulary, writing and translation. By the end of this class, students are able to understand, read, and write basic ancient Egyptian sentences; understand basic ancient Egyptian grammar; and read ancient Egyptian historical and biographical texts.

This course is an anthropological account of the culture and social organization of the people of the Middle East, with a special focus on the Arab world. Drawing on ethnographic accounts, visual representations and fieldtrips, it looks into how anthropologists have analyzed the transformation of the various structures – economic, political, social, and cultural – that are taking place in the contemporary period. The course analyzes of contemporary debates in anthropological engagements with and in the Middle East and North Africa. It explores the histories of ethnographic research in the Middle East and North Africa, colonialism and post-independence experiences, power and representation, performance and the arts, religious sensibilities, gender and kinship networks.

This course provides an in-depth treatment of selected issues of contemporary international law. It provides an understanding of specialized areas of international law including the use of force and dispute resolution, acquisition of territory, state succession, law of the sea, and international human rights law by focusing on specific issues relevant to the Middle East.

Food is far more than sustenance; it is a lens through which we can understand culture, identity, power, and meaning. This course introduces students to the anthropology of food by examining how what we eat, how we eat, and who we eat with shape and are shaped by broader social, political, and economic forces. Drawing on ethnographic studies and classic anthropological theory, the course explores food as a marker of identity and kinship, as a medium for healing and belief, and as a site of moral debate, political struggle, and cultural memory. Through weekly themes, including food and identity, healing, material environments, belief systems, kinship, politics, knowledge, language, science, and conflict, students engage with a range of case studies, from koshary in Egypt to bread and nationalism, from veganism to GMOs, from honey in healing practices to food wars. Readings pair theoretical texts with ethnographic accounts, encouraging students to think critically about food in both global and local contexts.

This is the second semester in a mainstream calculus sequence. It covers the calculus of inverse trigonometric and hyperbolic functions; applications of the definite integral for finding areas and volumes of revolutions; techniques of integration; improper integrals; sequences and series: Convergence tests, power series, Taylor series with applications; vectors and the three-dimensional space: Dot and cross products, lines and planes.

This course provides an overview of the psychology of love in the Egypt context. It explores psychological theories of love, attraction, attachment, and others. Topics include the relationship life cycle in Egypt, including courtship and marriage. A psychological lens is used to examine conflict and divorce within the Egyptian context, as well as interventions aimed at promoting healthy relationships.

This course examines the intricate relationship between religion and revolution, exploring how religion can simultaneously serve as a radical, messianic force for social transformation and as a guardian of the existing political order. It engages with foundational anthropological and philosophical texts that examine the intricate relation between revolution, religion and ethics — including works by Evans Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, Walter Benjamin, Victor Turner, Georges Bataille and Talal Asad — as well as writings on more recent revolutionary events, particularly in the Arab world, by authors such as Sami Zubaida, Asef Bayat, Walter Armburst and Alice Wilson (among others). The course addresses the following set of questions: how can anthropology enable us to understand the social (and political) transformations that take place over the course of revolutionary
events and their aftermaths? How have ethnographies examined the effects of revolutionary events on the level of the everyday life of communities that are experiencing them? How do ethnographers as witnesses or observers of revolutionary events (and sometimes as active participants in them) consider their own positionality in their respective field sites and in relation to the communities they wish to study? What kinds of moral and political stakes are involved in such positioning? What can ethnography tell us about our moral and political commitments (and disappointments)? 

This course covers the nature of digital logic and numbering systems. Topics include: Basic gates, Boolean algebra, Karnaugh maps, memory elements, latches, flip-flops, design of combinational and sequential circuits, integrated circuits and logic families, shift registers, counters, multiplexers, demultiplexers, decoders, encoders, and parity circuits, Number systems, 1’s and 2’s complements, arithmetic circuits, fixed-point and floating-point representations, memory types, design of circuits using ROMs and PLAs. The course involves exposure to logic design automation software and an introduction to FPGAs and HDL. Prerequisite: fundamentals of computing.