Professor, researcher, podcast queen -- these are a few of the many job titles you'll find in Kim Fox's email signature.
Since joining AUC in 2009, Fox has become a podcasting powerhouse, being named among Podcast Magazine's inaugural 40 Over 40 podcasters in 2022. Today, she is constantly on the move: flying to the United States to lead a meeting for the Broadcast Education Association, developing a new episode of her multi award-winning podcast Ehky ya Masr (Tell Your Story, Egypt) or delving into academic research across a number of current topics, from feminism in podcasting to teaching journalism online.
On the rare day that she isn't donning one of her professional hats, you can find her on the lush island of Zamalek, where she has lived since moving to Cairo.
I often spend weekends socializing and doing things in the city. Last semester, I went to the Art d'Egypte exhibit at the pyramids with a posse of friends, had a Thanksgiving potluck and took a Nile Taxi ride. Zamalek has been unraveling, you know. The cool places change.
I ride my bike around Zamalek on Friday and Saturday mornings. Living in Egypt, I often miss going to green spaces and just hanging out and walking around without the tension that one experiences while moving in Cairo. You have to seize the window when there isn't too much traffic or people out. On a tough morning, I get up before the rest of the city wakes up, get on my bike and am like, "Yeah. This is what I'm here for. More of this, please and thank you." Riding around warms my heart; it's a bit of freedom. There's nothing like it.
Cairo is a crazy place, so you definitely have to find your pocket of people who will help you out. The people I've met at AUC and in Cairo are amazing, and the list keeps growing. If we didn't have that kind of a support system, it would be really difficult to survive the antics of the city, work and life. Everyone's trying to look out in the best way. I try to encourage this in my classroom at AUC, building a community that cares about each other. I've also grown a global community, which is something I'm really proud of. Podcast scholars, creatives -- I've got pockets of people everywhere.
I've found that if you don't champion yourself, no one else will. As a creative scholar, I'm usually working in the realm of podcasts, but I also publish a lot of academic research in quality journals. My biggest achievement is being the first ever winner of two BEA Festival of Media Arts Awards in the same year for my podcast, which has no budget. My students have won more than 80 international awards. The length of my email signature is a testament to the work that I am doing. Let people know what you do.
Kim Fox is a professor of practice in AUC's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.
