Profile: Salima Ikram

As the subject of our first profile we spoke with Salima Ikram, Professor of Egyptology, who has been with AUC in various capacities since 1995. Salima is a native of Lahore, Pakistan. A visit to Egypt in early childhood hooked her for life on the mysteries of the Egyptian past. She was educated primarily at Bryn Mawr College and Cambridge University, with a year in between as a Study Abroad student here at AUC. Salima is a powerhouse of productivity, with ten authored or edited scholarly books and six books for children, along with dozens of articles and conference presentations. She has also appeared in a staggering number of television specials and documentary films (since Egyptology is a beloved field around the world, after all). Among other honors, she was the 2007 winner of the AUC Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award. Salima is also known around campus for a friendly personality and an excellent sense of humor. For all of these reasons, she seemed like an ideal candidate to launch our new Faculty Profiles series with the following interview. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.