He is the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Former Professor of Sociology at the Faculty of Arts in Cairo University, and Head of the Sociology Department at the Institute for Arab Research and Studies, Arab League.

Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cairo University and Former President of the Supreme Council for Culture.

He is a recipient of the State Appreciation Award and the State Award for Excellence.

He is a Moroccan intellectual and academic. Dr Alaoui holds a Doctorate in philosophy from Mohammed V University in Rabat, and he is the author of several studies and books.

Professor of Classical and Modern Arabic Literature at Columbia University in New York in USA

Sheikh Zayed Book Award Literature Award Winner

Dr Reem Bassiouney is an Egyptian author, as well as a professor and chair of the linguistics department at the American University in Cairo since 2013. She previously worked as an assistant professor of linguistics at Georgetown University (2007-2013) and as a lecturer of linguistics at the University of Utah (2005-2007), in addition to teaching at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge (2002-2005), and serving as a member of the judging panels for the Excellence in Literature Award 2024 from the Supreme Council of Culture, as well as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2023.

Dr Bassiouney holds a PhD in sociolinguistics from the University of Oxford (2002), a master’s degree in sociolinguistics from the University of Oxford (1998), and a bachelor’s degree in English from Alexandria University (1994).

She has garnered acclaim by notable critics from Egypt, other Arab countries, and around the world. Dr Bassiouney has authored a collection of novels, which were all published in several editions. Most of her works topped the best-seller list and were translated by Dr Roger Allen, who also worked on the novels of the great Naguib Mahfouz.