Discussing the Egyptian Revolution (2/24/11)

Posted on February 21, 2011 by grcctoday

GRCC Professor Roland Gani (Egyptian born) and Professor Keith St. Clair will facilitate discussion on the 2011 revolution in Egypt. The event will take place Thursday, February 24, 6p-8p, ATC 168 Auditorium on the GRCC Main Campus and is free and open to all.

Speaker Bios:

KEITH ST. CLAIR
Mr. St. Clair is a tenured Political Science Instructor at Grand Rapids Community College. He has been teaching political science there since 2002 and can be seen frequently on its cable channel 28. He teaches government and international relations. He holds two degrees from Illinois State University: a Master of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. While in graduate school, he interned in London working as a research assistant for a Member of the British Parliament. He has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East.

He has lived in West Michigan since 1997 with his wife Alice. Mr. St. Clair serves on the board of the Michigan Conference of Political Scientists. He remains active in the World Affairs Council of West Michigan and has been a guest lecturer for the National Issues Forum at the Dirksen Congressional Center.

ROLAND GANI
Mr. Gani was born in the suburb of Cairo, Egypt called Kubbeh Gardens in 1934 to European parents, who were also born in Egypt. Gani’s paternal grandparents, the father came from Greece, the mother from Italy. His maternal grandparents, the father from France and the mother from Spain. Their presence in Egypt was the result of the influx of Europeans who came at the invitation of the Khedive Ismail, the then ruler in Egypt in the late 19th century to modernize the country, and hence the reason for finding myself in that land.

As Europeans they enjoyed a somewhat privileged existence in many of their circumstances having to do with economic status, educational opportunities, and overall standard of living. This was an obvious difference that did not bode well for Europeans as Egyptians began to demand a greater say in their existence, especially after WWII. Gani was very fortunate to have attended a British school under the auspices of the Anglican church in Egypt. He graduated in 1950. The school was also attended by upper class Egyptian students, hence the dichotomy that often created the gap between the haves and havenots, so exemplified by the recent events.

After three generations of Gani’s family living in Egypt, it became obvious that it was not going to be very comfortable for most Europeans to continue to live in Egypt, especially with the advent of Col. Nasser and his 1952 revolution, overthrowing King Farouk, the first of what was to become the military rule with Anwar Sadat and till today with Hosni Mubarak. In 1956 Gani’s family emigrated to Canada and the following Gani traveled to the U.S. to attend Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. He graduated in 1961 with B.A. in political science and religion. After some interval of work back in Canada for three years Gani returned to the States to begin his pastoral role in Bedford, Indiana. In 1967 He attended Indiana University for a year and a half of premed and subsequently attended the I.U. medical school as a graduate student in anticipation of admission and earning an M.D.

Gani moved to Michigan in 1976 and after several stints of a pastoral role and medical practice, serendipitously became acquainted with Dr. Marinus Swets in 1988 who gave him his present job in the English Dept. at GRCC which he has held for the past 23 years.

Gani speaks five languages of which Arabic, French, and English are his mother tongues. This is typical of Europeans of his background and he has found it very useful in much of his teaching, which were in addition to English composition, included Humanities, Philosophy, and Multicultural literature.