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2 ELITE Vol.1 No.23 September 2020 |

Prof.Dr. Ahmed Youssef Ahmed in an ELITE Interview
Colonial Israel is the Arabs' 1st Enemy. Iran & Turkey

can be deterred and encouraged to cooperate

Cairo : Ramy Magdy, Nadeen Hesham and Jozeph George The limited number of students at the Faculty played a role in
structuring the relationship between professors and students. The
1. How did your relationship with the Faculty of Economics size of the batch wasn’t more than 150 students; thus, with three
and Political Science begin and why did you choose it? main departments, theoretically, no more than 50 students were
present in the lecture hall. This allowed for deeper and greater
I joined the Faculty based on two considerations. First, there interaction between professors and students. Furthermore, we had a
was a subjective consideration; in high school, I was able to sizeable number of faculty members directly involved with the
determine the field where I could excel. And I belonged to a students and caring about their issues. For instance, Dr. Ibrahim
generation whose youth coincided with the achievements of the Sakr was the first to actively implement the idea of office hours;
July 23rd Revolution, the defeat of the Tripartite Aggression, his office was full of students before the lecture discussing with
the Egyptian-Syrian unity, and the nationalization of the Suez him everything from the general issues of the day to specific
Canal. It was thus a period of landmark political events with issues. The same applied to many of our professors such as Dr.
which I was fully engaged, so I felt a tendency to study these Mohamed Zaki Shafi, the Faculty’s first dean, Dr. Fathallah al-
subjects. Furthermore, I didn’t notice that I was particularly Khatib, Dr. Abdel Malek Ouda, and Dr. Boutros Ghaly; hence, it
talented in math or natural sciences. Perhaps the only other was a general phenomenon.
faculty I considered joining was that of medicine, which I could
have easily been accepted to given my score, but I thought Concerning the activities at the Faculty, it was an anomaly during
studying medicine was too long and I preferred to join FEPS. the Nasserist period. Despite the criticism directed at this period as
Second, there was an objective consideration; I joined FEPS in to being illiberal, it is striking to note that it was a period of
the academic year of 1965-1966 at a time when the Faculty flourishing arts such as theatre, novel, the establishment of the
enjoyed a powerful reputation as a mechanism to produce national television, the first ballet group and folklore groups. I
qualified researchers and diplomats. Therefore, the subjective mean that it was a rich period in spite of the criticism. This pattern
consideration met its objective counterpart leading to my of activity existed at the Faculty as well; so intellectually, we had a
Nourhan Osama, Youstina Ebeid, Maries Adel, Nadeen Hesham, Nouran Hossam, Mostafa Sayyed, Reem
decision to study at FEPS. society for socialist thought that included the students who adhered
Omran , Zeina Tarek, Hana Henien, Hania Bahaa, Yassmine Gamal Hussein, Salma Bayoumi, Mariam Sultan,
to this thought and who could be classified on the left of the
Nada Hosny, Jozeph George , Farah Ezz Eldin, Aliyaa Assem, Assile Mostafa, Rana Doss, Mirna Ossama,
2. Tell us about your relationship with your professors and Nasserist regime. We also had a society for nationalist thought
Farah Islam, Zeina Arafa.
the activities at the Faculty. whose members could be considered as being in line with the
| Vol.1 No.23 September 2020 |