Staff
Mahmoud Al-Batal
Director
Dr. Al-Batal is Associate Professor of Arabic in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Previously he was Associate Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where he held the Arthur Blank/ NEH Distinguished Teaching Chair in Emory College. He also currently serves as Associate Director and Chair of the Arabic Board of the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC) headquartered at Brigham Young University. He served as CASA Executive Director in Cairo from 1985 to 1987, as Director of the Arabic School at Middlebury College from 1991 to 1998, and as Director of the Emory College Language Center from 2000 to 2004. He holds a B.A. in Arabic Language and Literature from the Lebanese University, M.A. and Ph.D. in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Professor Al-Batal has coauthored the Al-Kitaab Arabic textbook series (with Kristen Brustad and Abbas Al-Tonsi) and has written a number of articles on aspects of teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language. Currently, he is involved in developing Aswaat Arabiyya, a web-based project for Arabic listening materials.
albatal@mail.utexas.edu
Selina Keilani
Stateside Program Administrator
Selina joined CASA in November 2007 as Stateside Program Coordinator. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001. Before joining CASA, she served as an Administrative Associate for various faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She continues to take courses at UT including Arabic and Portuguese language classes. She is interested in music and dance and has been a student and teacher of Brazilian dance for 4 years.
Office: WMB 6.116
Phone:471-3513
UTcasa@austin.utexas.edu
Zeinab Taha
CASA Co-Director at American University in Cairo
Dr. Taha is the Director of the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo, as well as the Co-Director of the CASA Program. She served as the CASA Executive Director during 1997-1999 and 2003-2005. Dr. Taha received her Masters from the American University of Cairo in 1981 and her Ph.D. in Arabic Linguistics from Georgetown University in 1995. She has taught Arabic since 1981, 7 years at Middlebury College, 3 years at Georgetown University and the remainder at the American University of Cairo. She has extensive experience in the field of journalism, where she served four years at the Cairo Bureau of the New York Times and two years editing the Arabic section of AUC's newspaper, Caravan. Dr. Taha's area of specialization is historical linguistics.
zeintaha@aucegypt.edu
Nevenka Korica
CASA Executive Director at American University in Cairo
Ms. Korica is a native of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She began studying Arabic in 1981 at the Department of Oriental Philosophy, Belgrade University, graduating in 1985. She worked as a translator and news announcer in the Arabic service at Radio Yugoslavia. Ms. Korica came to Cairo in 1990 on a scholarship granted by the Egyptian government. She completed the TAFL masters program at AUC in 1999 and has taught for ALI and CASA prior to becoming CASA Executive Director.
nevenka@aucegypt.edu
Khoulood Sakbani
CASA Executive Director in Damascus
Khoulood earned her diploma in Arabic Literature from Damascus University in 1997. She worked as an Arabic Instructor at the Arabic Language Center at the High Language Institute at Damascus University, and from 2003 to December 2005 she was an Arabic Instructor at the American Embassy in Syria. Khoulood specializes in teaching Arabic as a Second Language, both Modern Standard and Levantine Colloquial, especially at the advanced levels. She developed Units in Levantine Arabic for the Langnet program at the University of Maryland whre she also taught Arabic. She is now pursuing an MA in TAFL at the the University of Damascus and is training to become an ACTFL certified tester of Arabic.
kholod.sakbani@gmail.com
Wassima El-Shafie
CASA Program Coordinator at American University in Cairo
Wassima graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Cairo University in 2003. She joined the American University in Cairo (AUC) summer 1999, working in the AUC Library until summer 2003. She joined the CASA program in fall 2003, working first as a student assistant, then becoming a junior secretary. Starting Fall 2007 Wassima was promoted and assumed the responsibilities of CASA Program Coordinator at AUC. She is now working on her Masters degree in Mass Communication at the American University in Cairo.
casacasa@aucegypt.edu
Hany Yousry
CASA Program Junior Secretary at American University in Cairo
Hany received a bachelor's degree from the law school at Cairo University in 2004. He began working as cultural assistant to Students at CASA Program in April 2004. After that he worked as Laboratory Assistant at the Arabic Language Institute (ALI) in March 2006. Moreover, he worked as Technology Assistant at ALI during August 2006.
He became Junior Secretary at CASA Program in September 2007.
hysroufael@hotmail.com
Ebrahim Karmi
CASA Program Coordinator at The University of Damascus
Ebrahim graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Damascus in 2008. He is currently preparing to begin a Master's program in translation at the University of Damascus. Ebrahim first joined the CASA program in June 2007 as a student assistant. Starting in May2008, Ebrahim was promoted and assumed the responsibilities of CASA Program Coordinator at The University of Damascus. Before joining CASA, he worked for an internet service provider in the customer care department as a call center supervisor. His interests lie in learning various languages including English and Italian.
ebrahim_casa@yahoo.com
