Profile: The non-Egyptian Egyptologist

Picture taken from pbs.org

When she’s not analyzing of what could have been the possible lives of the petrified bodies found below Egypt’s sands, she resorts herself to reading fiction and tasting cuisines of the world.

Imagine taking an undergraduate level course on Egyptology where you have to mummify animals. Yes, real, live, animals. Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo (AUC), co-taught a course on the rituals taken during a burial of the ancient times. 

Ikram, who was born in Lahore, Pakistan, fell in love with Egypt every since she was nine-years-old. How many of us can say that we’ve already decided what we want at age nine, and actually accomplished it.

“It’s never a career that will make you rich but you do it because you love it,” said Salima in an interview given to the Caravan in early 2012.

From there on, she worked on several internships, jobs, scavenger hunts, traveled around and even underwent a year of study abroad at the AUC.

Picture taken from cd-cc.si

Her adventure started at the age of eight when her parents gave her a book called “The Timelife Book of Ancient Egypt”. At the age of nine, she visited Egypt with her family and was mesmerized by the country’s great history. 

Soon into her life as an undergraduate student, she joined Bryn Mawr College at the United States receiving a degree in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and another degree in History. She later joined Cambridge University in England where she received her M. Phil. in Archaeological Method and Practice as well as Museology. She didn’t wait long and decided to pursue a Ph.D.

During her undergraduate year, she was able to yet again, travel to Egypt as a study abroad student at AUC for one fruitful year.

Ikram’s stay at the AUC confirmed what she wanted to do and so ventured into that path. In addition to having Egypt as a working environment, she did manage to intern at museums in the United States.

However, this road is not always paved smooth and straight. 

“Always challenging working as an archeologist, because of funding challenges. Also, to balance the work in the university particularly administrative duties,” she said in her interview in early 2012.

In the long run, all her efforts paved off to be where she is now, an associate professor in the department of Egyptology at the AUC. Not to mention her marvelous adventures into different countries like Greece, Turkey and Sudan where she was one of many to work on important excavating projects.

She managed to work in museums and historical sites around Egypt, not only Cairo. Ikram would be recognized as one of the co-directors of the project Animal Mummies in the Egyptian museum, where she also gave her students the opportunity to participate in.

All the time she spent in being familiar with Egypt’s ancient past made Ikram a successful figure in the field of history. She has been interviewed several times and has a Bio page on the National Geographic. 

In this bio, she had been asked about her most cherished experiences to which she replied, “Finding new rock inscriptions, being the first to enter a tomb that has been sealed for over 2,000 years, trying to piece together the precise process of mummification.”

So what makes her so engrossed and dedicated in this field of work?

Picture taken from dailymail.co.uk

“Their (Egyptians) worldview and aesthetic sense resonates strongly with me, and it is never dull trying to find out how they lived, what they believed, and the technologies that they invented or adapted.”

History will continue to benefit from the discoveries made about this marvelous and vast ancient civilization, so long as historians like Ikram do what they do, for the fun of it.

LEAD: A scholarship for memories

Picture taken from Elias's Facebook profile

Who knew having all eyes on you would make you feel so different and unique? Caroline Elias, an undergrad in Communication and Media Arts at the American University in Cairo (AUC), feels exactly that when she’s on stage or in any of her theater classes.

“The LEAD program helps you to strengthen your character and your leadership skills,” said Elias. 

The Leadership for Education and Development (LEAD) program is a full ride scholarship that is given to accomplished Egyptian students every year to pursue an undergraduate degree. It covers tuition, housing and also provides a monthly stipend. This scholarship promises to enhance the student’s cultural experience, academic life and leadership skills.

The LEAD program has an office to cater to the student needs, in addition to their semester evaluations of their academic and community service components.

On the AUC website, the LEAD program’s webpage states their vision as “to prepare Egyptian students for the 21st century and qualify them to lead a positive vision of Egypt's future.”

“We learn how to develop ourselves and then our country. Also, we meet students from different backgrounds in Egypt, which helps us to be flexible and understand how people around us think,” said Elias.

The program gives the Egyptian students the chance to experience a vast array of activities, a different view on the world and the abilities and skills to equip themselves for the future.

Reem Khedr, a LEAD alumnus, who graduated with a Journalism degree on Fall 2011 had been impacted by this program by helping her spread her wings.

“During my high school days, I felt that I have a great deal of energy that's imprisoned and needs a space and a cause to fly. I felt different than many people I meet,” said Khedr.

Now that she’s a graduate, she explained that her studies at AUC has confirmed to her who she is, her beliefs and interests.

In addition to being granted this wonderful opportunity to undergo an education in one of the schools considered to be at the top, the LEAD program does require something in return from the students.

During their four years, or more, at the university, the LEAD students are expected to participate in community service, conferences, extra-curricular activities and much more. And yet again, another opportunity.

“I'm changing now and it's because of my work with street kids and underprivileged children in Cairo,” said Khedr.

She now works as a program assistant at the New Horizon Association for Social Development. She prepares activities and mentors street and working children. In addition to that, she has also received a fellowship, which is mentored and sponsored through the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at AUC.

Elias shares the same feelings about such activities. It is not merely additional work that overwhelms them, but an experience, a lesson in their lives.

Elias however would like to point out that it was not only AUC that has sparked the change in her, but also her friends who remained along her side for years, and the community services that she willingly participated in.

“The community service I have done has changed in my personality and has introduced different Egyptian social classes to me,” she said.

She has participated in mostly children-related causes, in addition to serving the Anti-Cancer Team and the Orphanages’ Teaching programs (both at AUC) for one year each. 

Elias graduates in the Fall of 2013. She is currently taking Mass Communication and Theater course. She writes a book called “Thoughts of Feelings”, which she explains as “a kind of a conversation between the heart and the mind”.

Aside from all the scholarship related work, Elias shares wonderful memories from catering to the needs of street children to the many friends she has collected over the years. 

The AIESEC internship in Ukraine and the study abroad semester at SUNY New Paltz makes it to the list of memorable moments in Khedr’s life as an undergraduate.

“The LEAD program prepares students who have the potential to be leaders, to become ones. It gives them the space to be freely creative and ambitious. It helps them realize that dreams do come true,” she said.