AbDallah-Talib Donald Cole Oral History

AbDallah-Talib Donald Cole was a faculty member teaching anthropology at the American University in Cairo from 1971 to 2007, and served in leadership positions on the Faculty Senate and University Senate. Cole describes growing up in Texas, his Spanish language abilities and travels in Latin American and Spain, and pursuit of a PhD in anthropology at the University of California Berkeley. He recounts his field work in Saudi Arabia among a Bedouin community from 1968 to 1971, and his impressions of Riyadh in that period. Coming to AUC in 1971 through a connection with fellow Berkeley anthropology graduate Cynthia Nelson, Cole recollects AUC in the early 1970s: a small student body with many members of ethnic communities and a majority of women (he notes its reputation as a “girls’ finishing school”), modest academic admission requirements, and continued sequestration by the Egyptian government during a time of poor Egyptian-U.S. relations and few Americans resident in Egypt. Cole outlines the development of the Sociology-Anthropology-Psychology Department (later adding Egyptology and known as SAPE), including relations among faculty in its disciplinary units, and it governance (he notes it was the first department to elect chairs). The sociology-anthropology academic program is covered, from its place in the core curriculum to its graduates, a number of whom rejoined the department as faculty. Cole’s own research interests and interactions with international anthropologists are covered. He traces how AUC students changed over the years, in their socio-economic background, academic pursuits (he notes how professional programs produced graduate who helped Egypt’s development), religious emphasis (irrelevant in his early years, becoming more pronounced), and fashion and dress. Cole also speaks about student and faculty political activism, especially on the issue of Palestine and Israel. His role as Chairman of the Faculty and of the University Senate is addressed, along with the issue of inequality in compensation and retirement benefits between Egyptian and foreign faculty members. He observes how AUC’s growth, manifested by the Division into three schools, made for a less cohesive faculty. Cole discusses his conversion to Islam in the 2000s, the mosque and other prayer spaces on the downtown campus, and his efforts to push for their availability on the new campus. He speculates on what the new campus, outside the center of Cairo, will mean for AUC.