Enid Hill Oral History

Enid Hill was a Political Science faculty member at the American University in Cairo from 1968 until 2007, and was the founding chair of AUC’s Law Department in the early 2000s. Born in Canada but an American citizen, she outlines her upbringing and education, including time spent in France. With her arrival postponed a semester due to the evacuation of foreign faculty members after the 1967 War, she recollects her arrival at AUC in early 1968 and local post-war conditions. Hill outlines the development of the Political Science academic program starting in the late 1960s, including the department’s own government Sequestrator pushing to institute a Bachelors degree, the emergence of Masters programs in the 1970s, and in the 1990s while she was chair the introduction of specializations made possible by an expanded number of faculty. Also covered is the rivalry and eventual separation of the constituent units of the Economics-Political Science Department, efforts to address space limitations by locating off-campus space for political science faculty, adoption of computers, and the emergence of the Office of African Studies. Political Science graduates’ career paths and preeminent alumni are mentioned, and the family and educational background and attitudes (including political engagement) of AUC students of different eras compared. Hill details her efforts that led to the establishment of law programs and the Law Department at AUC, including securing funding from donors like Ibrahim Shihata and lobbying for administrative approval and recruiting faculty, and describes the law curriculum, faculty, and students. She also assesses legal education in Egypt and recalls her own early interest in and late-career pursuit of legal studies. The links Hill established with universities outside Egypt, her involvement with Cairo Papers in Social Science, and aspects of administrative culture at AUC including women’s roles are addressed as well. According to Hill the new campus under construction would have advantages for undergraduate education, but explains why she lobbied to keep graduate programs like the Law program at the Tahrir Square campus.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.