Saad Gadalla Oral History

Saad Gadalla was Assistant Director and Director of the American University in Cairo’s Social Research Center from 1962 until the mid-1980s. Gadalla recalls his childhood and the dedication of his father, a political party and parliament employee, to the education of his son, daughters, and wife, advocating for a school in their Delta village, then moving the family to Cairo for better schooling opportunities. His own school experiences, and involvement in student political activism, are mentioned. Gadalla speaks of his attending the College of Agriculture in Cairo, where he became close to later Minister of Social Affairs Ahmed Hussein and his wife Aziza Hussein, and was a founder of a national farmer benefit association. His participation in the 1950s in an exchange program to live with American farm families is recounted, along with his study toward MA and PhD degrees with the Sociology Department at the University of Missouri. He tells about marrying an American Catholic woman, and their move to Egypt and living in the home of his parents, outlining their interrelated home lives through the years. Gadalla explains how he came to work for AUC’s Social Research Center in 1962, coming from the Ministry of Agricultural Reform, discussing his close relationship with Director Laila El Hamamsy. He discusses his role as Assistant Director in managing Social Research Center personnel and projects, such as the family planning initiatives in Menoufia Governorate (location of his home village), funded by USAID. He addresses SRC administrative issues and relationships with AUC administrators. Developments at AUC are described, from the role of Gadalla and other Egyptians in administering the university after the 1967 War, to matters of university governance and conditions for faculty (taxes, benefits, and differences in salary between Egyptians and foreign faculty) in which he was involved. Gadalla’s departure from the SRC after over 20 years is discussed, along with his successors and the projects and positions he pursued afterward, in the United States and the United Arab Emirates