News

President Marina Tolmacheva opened AUK's 2nd Academic Showcase at noon on Monday, 11th December, in the Multipurpose Room on the AUK campus, with a brief speech in which she thanked all the students and faculty involved for their tremendous efforts in organizing the program of the showcase, which was put together on fairly short notice. She was very impressed, she said, with the diversity of the presentations and the amount of creativity shown.

Dr. Marina gave brief overviews of the scheduled presentations, and then introduced the keynote speaker, Mr. Clifford Chanin, who will present a lecture titled "Building Liberal Arts" later in the day.

Clifford Chanin is an honored guest at AUK this week. He is founder and president of The Legacy Project, a non-profit organization in New York dedicated to documenting contemporary responses- in visual art, literature, film and public debates about memory- to historical traumas in societies, around the world. For ten years, he was associate director of Arts and Humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation. He is also the editor of a monthly op-ed column, Islam and the World, for Project Syndicate, an association of 289 newspapers in 114 countries. Chanin has worked as a journalist and as a spokesman for the Mayor of New York.
 
The Academic Showcase program is part of Liberal Arts Week at AUK which is a celebration of the AUK Mission and the academic excellence of our faculty and students. The program of the Showcase runs for two days, December 11-12, and includes presentations, short film productions, and art exhibitions prepared by AUK students representing all academic fields at the university.
 

President of the American University of Kuwait Dr. Marina Tolmacheva gives an opening speech

A student presents his project to AUK students and visitors

Clifford Chanin, president and founder of The Legacy Project in New York, was visiting AUK during its eventful Liberal Arts Week. He was here to celebrate with the AUK family the official opening of the new Liberal Arts building, as well as to deliver the keynote speech aptly titled "Building the Liberal Arts."

Chanin expressed his pleasure in being part of this ceremonious event and noted that it is important for him as an American to acknowledge the honor of visiting a university in Kuwait that has chosen to call itself American. "The choice of name states what you are doing in Kuwait, but it also poses a question about the meaning of education and its role in our society and in your society. By posing this deeper question, AUK's founders have crossed fully into the realm of the liberal arts," he said.

There's nothing exclusively American about the Liberal Arts approach, he noted. Liberal Arts anywhere in the world extends an intellectual and ethical tradition that goes back to Antiquity and passes through various civilizations. It extends back from American universities into Enlightenment Europe, medieval monasteries, Arab humanists, and the Greeks.

Chanin explained that "the term 'liberal arts' is derived from Latin and was intended to denote the knowledge that a 'free man' needed to live freely and live well." He noted that this loftier form of education has now been eclipsed by what were once known as the 'servile arts', since the demands of Globalization have given more importance to vocational training. However, a liberal arts education remains crucial because, as he explained "it is not the particular content of the disciplines that forms the liberal arts. The means of learning is their defining feature."

The skills learned through a liberal arts education, which include critical reasoning, self reflection, and problem solving, have the capacity to enrich any field of study or profession. He emphasized that in order to truly succeed, one must not only be able to master a discipline but be able to "think: creatively, critically and adaptively" which is the strength of the liberal arts.

Addressing the students of AUK he said "It is important that, on graduation, each of you be prepared to participate in and contribute to Kuwaiti society and the global economy.The question, though, is how best to prepare yourself, and what you might expect from the university to which you have entrusted this preparation," and in closing added "let's think about the world that your generation will inherit - and the need you will have to engage fruitfully with people different from you, where difference will, in fact, be more a part of your lives than it has been for any generation that came before."
 

Our AUK delegates, representing various countries from around the world, went to the Bahrain University's Model United Nations Conference (BUMUN), and competed against fourteen other universities in parliamentary debate and negotiation. Issues discussed ranged from nuclear terrorism and non-proliferation in the International Atomic and Energy Agency Committee to the degree of acceptable intervention for humanitarian purposes, HIV / AIDs prevention, and the increase of the use of bio-fuels in the General Assembly Committee.


AUK delegates in Bahrain

Despite there being over 200 students at BUMUN, AUK stood out and made a positive impression. Fahad Mohammed, representing Norway, won the General Assembly's First Place "Diplomacy Award" for passing his resolution on a crisis situation involving North Korea testing a missile off the coast of Japan, for leading debate on all issues, and for his exceptional diplomatic negotiating skills. Fahad Al-Tukhaim, representing South Korea on the IAEA, single-handedly got North Korea to disarm its nuclear program, passed a resolution, and got several clauses and amendments passed.

Also in the General Assembly, Bader Al-Shammaa, representing South Korea, maintained a strong stance against North Korea, while Abdul Aziz Al-Adwani, representing Cyprus, brought forward key networking skills to unite the delegations during unmoderated caucuses. Abdulla Al-Shanfa, representing the Seychelles in the General Assembly, researched critical information to put forward when the crisis situation involving North Korea occurred.

AUK received certificate awards for the participation of all MUNAUK delegates, and has been invited to return to Bahrain for its 2007 BUMUN conference, once again to be hosted by the President of the General Organization for Youth and Sports (GOYS), Shaikh Fawaz bin Muhammed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa.

AUK was mentioned twice in the Gulf Daily News and the students of MUNAUK gave two television interviews to a local Arabic Bahraini news station.

MUNAUK would like to thank the American University of Kuwait for believing in the team and for giving MUNAUK the opportunity to make a successful international academic impact.

Released by the PR & Marketing Department on 12th December, 2006

The Gulf Studies Center at the American University of Kuwait recently sponsored a lecture by Dr. Elsadig Abunafeesa, Senior Political Advisor to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and long-time advisor to the UN on conflict prevention and resolution in Cambodia, South Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq and Ghana.
 
Approximately 60 students, faculty, staff and guests gathered at the American Corner in the AUK library to listen to Dr. Abunafeesa speak about the challenges of peace-building, democracy and national reconciliation in war-torn Iraq.

Abunafeesa began the lecture by examining some of the recent historical events that have contributed to Iraq's current instability, focusing on the post-Cold War and September 11th rise of American unilateralism that led to the 2003 invasion. He commented that the United States continues to dominate Iraq's political arena, ultimately constraining the role of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq.

Until now, the United Nations has not been able to effectively carry out its mandate, backed by Security Council Resolution 1546, of aiding Iraq's peace-building and reconstruction efforts. The organization's activities have been limited to helping with electoral commissions and distributing vaccinations to 5 million children.

The United States is the "greatest" country in the world in terms of resources, he noted, and therefore is most able to make a positive change in Iraq. He urged U.S. policymakers, particularly the incoming Democratic leadership, to consider two very important issues when deliberating a change in Iraq policy. First, there must be a timetable for troop withdrawal. Second, there must be amendments to the Iraqi constitution, which he called "very divisive" in its current form for not ensuring equal distribution of oil revenues among the country's regions. Abunafeesa warned that without these measures, Iraq will split into sectarian parts.

He lauded current Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's 34-point program introduced in May of this year, which includes plans for accelerating the training of Iraqi forces to speed up the departure of foreign troops and for fostering national reconciliation. Currently Baghdad suffers from "invisible borders" separating Sunnis from Shi'a, a situation that requires many Iraqis to carry two identification cards as a form of protection, each bearing a typically Shi'a or Sunni name.

To those who argue that there is "no imposition of democracy in Iraq," Abunafeesa highlighted several factors indicating otherwise, namely that the constitution was drafted by the United States; the recent parliamentary elections did not take place in an environment conducive to elections; the UN was not asked to supervise or monitor the elections; and preparations for the elections were not done in the proper way. He underscored his argument by affirming, "Democracy is a home-grown issue. It cannot be imposed."
 

Dr. Abunafeesa gives a lecture at AUK

"Majors Fair" took place once again on AUK's campus yesterday, November 28. It was a perfect day to be outside. Food and drinks were provided by our new "Wildcats Diner" and prizes were to be won. A winning raffle ticket could reward a student anything from dinner coupons to airline tickets. Prizes were graciously provided by the following companies: Edo Restaurant, Four Points Sheraton Hotel, Marina Hotel, IKEA, Kuwait Scientific Center, JW Marriott Hotel, Lufthansa Airlines, Najd Travels, National Offset Company, Teshkeel Comics, and National Bank of Kuwait. AUK would like to thank all those companies for contributing to the success of the event.

All academic departments were represented by their faculty. Their individual tables provided brochures, leaflets, major declaration forms, and displayed videos and various publications. Faculty members of each department were available throughout the duration of the Fair to answer students' questions and offer insight about their respective fields.

It's important to note as well, that seven AUK students have formed a local chapter of a coalition called STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) which spans over 600 universities, colleges, and high schools. Those seven students gave a presentation in the Multipurpose Room during Majors Fair in an ambitious attempt to raise awareness of the situation in Darfur and to move other students to help out by donating to the cause. Best of luck to them in this noble cause!
 

The American University of Kuwait will be closed

from Sunday, October 22 until October 25,

2006 for the Eid Holidays.

AUK had a brief but compelling talk from a very charismatic Dr. Sarah Brewer, Associate Director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University in Washington DC, and author of numerous notable publications such as Gendering American Politics: Perspectives from the Literature, Women Campaign Consultants: A New Actor in the Campaign Process, and Women in Politics: Outsiders or Insiders?

Approximately 50 students, faculty and staff members gathered at the American Corner at the library to listen to Dr. Brewer speak about the challenges of Women's Political Participation.

Brewer noted that much of what stands in the way of women's political participation are societal barriers. Women are generally not ambitious enough, this is partly due to them being part of societies that don't look favorably upon strong, ambitious women, and having historically not been socialized into politics.

A poll in the United States showed that only 40% of women have ever thought about running for office, while nearly all men said to have thought about it at some point in their lives.

Access problems have been eradicated, both in the US and now in Kuwait, but there still exist many structural barriers that keep women from entering the political sphere, she said. There are business and social networks that govern politics which are traditionally dominated by male society, and those are the most difficult barriers to deconstruct.

Brewer said it was very important to mention the work of one organization which was built on the idea of empowering women nation-wide to enter politics. Emily's List, founded by Ellen Malcolm in the mid-1980s, sought to raise funds and sponsor women all over the US who were running for public office. The methods of Emily's List were revolutionary at the time because they did not limit funding to any particular district.

She went on to describe the ability barrier in women. A self-inflicted problem, the ability barrier stems from a woman's own self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy. Studies showed, she said, that men despite how unqualified they are, always feel like they can do the job. Women, on the other hand, no matter how qualified, tend to feel like they don't know and can't do enough. Women need a lot more encouragement than men to run for office, and are quickly discouraged by not winning, and often don't try again.

Brewer commended Kuwaiti women for their recent enfranchisement and urged them to make use of their rights and to not shy away from entering the political arena. She congratulated Jawaher Ali-Redha, President of AUK's student body, for having won the title and encouraged her to stay politically active, noting that people who start practicing politics at the university level are more likely to succeed in making a political career for themselves later in life.