AUC Psychology Department

We are excited to share the Psychology Department Annual Newsletter, highlighting a year full of achievements, growth, and community impact ✨

This edition celebrates our faculty’s accomplishments, research contributions, departmental milestones, and key highlights from across the year. It also showcases the incredible achievements of our students, including the initiatives led by the Psychology Association, alongside the many events and activities that brought our community together.

In addition, the newsletter features updates and impactful work from HARP and the Psychological Counseling Center, reflecting our department’s continued commitment to mental health, engagement, and support.

We are proud of everything our community has accomplished this year and grateful to everyone who contributed to making it a meaningful one 🌟

What does it mean to support survivors while also protecting the wellbeing of those doing the work?

Join the students of AUC Community Psychology capstone course in collaboration with UN Women Egypt Country Office for an engaging discussion on secondary trauma among professionals and advocates working with sexual abuse and sexual violence in Egypt.

The session will begin with a presentation exploring the personal, relational, organizational, and cultural impacts of secondary trauma, drawing on consultations with experts across different organizations and initiatives.

The discussion will also highlight potential approaches for resource development and capacity building to better support helping professionals.
An open discussion will follow, inviting participants to reflect on actionable strategies for fostering a healthier, more resilient workforce.

🗓 Wednesday, May 20, 2026
⏰ 2:30 – 4:00 PM (UTC+3)
🌐 Online Event
🗣 Event will be conducted in English

Register now to receive the meeting link 👉 https://tinyurl.com/TraumaDiscussion

Looking to fulfill your Humanities & Social Sciences CORE requirement this summer?

The Department of Psychology invites AUC students to register for:

PSYC 2099: Selected Topics in Psychology
📊 Truth, Lies, Data and Decisions
👨‍🏫 By Dr. Hassan Zaky

This course explores how data is used — and sometimes misused — in real-world contexts such as media reporting and COVID-19 coverage. Students will also learn practical skills in descriptive data analysis, including creating tables and graphs in Excel.

🗓 June 7 – July 16
⏰ 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM

✅ Counts toward Core Curriculum
Secondary Level – Category 1: Humanities & Social Sciences

📌 No prior background in psychology, statistics, or data analysis is required.

For more information, contact Dr. Hassan Zaky at [email protected]

Join us on Wednesday, May 6th for TWO engaging talks by Dr. Amanda Clinton, Senior Director at the American Psychological Association, exploring the intersection of psychology with today’s most pressing global challenges.

1️⃣ Engineering, Earth, and Psychological Science: Necessary Partners in Addressing Climate Change
Discover how integrating psychology with engineering and earth sciences can help tackle climate change through human-centered solutions.

🕐 1:00 – 2:00 PM

2️⃣ Psychology & Technology
Explore how psychology is evolving alongside rapid technological advancements, addressing digital challenges and the impact of artificial intelligence.

🕔 5:00 – 6:00 PM

📅 Wednesday, May 6, 2026
📍 Hatem PO24 (Mansour Hall), AUC New Cairo Campus

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into the role of psychology in shaping a more sustainable and technologically adaptive future 💫

Join us for a public talk by Dr. Mathilde Perray exploring the psychosocial processes that shape health inequalities across marginalized communities.

Drawing on research conducted in Mali, Senegal, and France, the talk will examine how empowerment, social identity, and community engagement can contribute to reducing health inequalities and improving well-being.

🗓 Monday, May 4, 2026
🕐 1:00 – 2:00 PM
📍 Waleed CP75

We look forward to welcoming students, faculty, researchers, and all those interested in community psychology, social justice, and public health.

Join us for an insightful talk: Expanding Life Chances: Community-Engaged Research and Structural Change

By Dr. Deborah Perez, Senior Research Associate and Lecturer at University of Miami, as our guest speaker.

In this talk, Dr. Perez will explore how community-engaged research can address systemic inequities and create meaningful opportunities for marginalized communities. Drawing on over a decade of work, she will share real-world examples and strategies for fostering inclusive and sustainable change.

📅 Thursday, April 30, 2026
⏰ 1:00 – 2:00 PM
📍 The Sullivan Lounge, HUSS Building

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into community psychology, structural change, and participatory approaches that empower individuals and communities.

How do psychologists understand pain and suffering—and what can science teach us about coping with them.

Join us at for a public presentation by Dr. Michael Penn, exploring what we are learning about suffering in the clinic, the lab, and the community.

📅 Sun. April 19th, 2026
🕐 1 – 2 PM
📍 Waleed CP74

This talk is open to the public!

Join us for an inspiring talk by Dr. Maysa Akbar 💫

Urban Trauma: A Framework for Collective Healing explores how communities experience and respond to trauma shaped by structural conditions and lived realities—and how psychology can be transformed into culturally grounded systems of care.

📅 Monday, March 30
⏰ 1:00 – 2:00 PM
📍 Waleed CP75

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with a powerful perspective on collective healing, research, and community impact 💫

🧠 Attention and Memory in Early Development: Evidence from Face Processing
with Dr. Aslı Bursalıoğlu

From birth, infants learn about the world through the faces around them. In this talk, Dr. Bursalıoğlu will explore how audiovisual experiences shape infants’ attention and memory, and how early exposure influences face recognition and the development of the other-race effect (ORE). The session will also highlight key implications for early cognitive and social development.

📅 Monday, March 2, 2026
⏰ 3:15–4:15 PM
📍 Waleed P071, AUC New Cairo Campus

Dr. Bursalıoğlu is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist specializing in early cognitive development and face processing in infancy. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University.

🔹 Open to the public
🔹 We look forward to welcoming students, faculty, and anyone interested in developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience!