Three AUI students were recognized at the ceremony awarding the Prize for Gender and Intersectional Justice, which was presented by the Association Lina ben Mhenni and AREACORE, on December 9, 2021, in honor of Lina ben Mhenni's legacy. Lina ben Mhenni was a Tunisian activist, blogger, and scholar (lectured in Linguistics at Tunis University and taught Arabic at Tufts University). Her work identified her as a citizen journalist, documenting the details of the uprisings against the Tunisian regime and during the Arab Spring. Ben Mhenni died of a stroke on January 27, 2020.  

Dr. Anna Antonakis, who delivered the welcoming speech at the ceremony, stressed the importance of independent research and networking, and said that "the prize gives hope and encouragement for future researchers in the field" and "pointed [sic] out the value of such international meetings to remember Lina ben Mhenni as an activist, writer and academic whose memory and work can be kept alive and continues to inspire a young generation of researchers," as quoted by AREACORE in the article "Prize for Gender and Intersectional Justice in Honor of Lina ben Mhenni."  

AUI student Fatima Zahra Bassim earned the Best Capstone award. Bassim's capstone project was titled "The Construction of Moroccan Women's identity in Moroccan Films." Her work was supervised by Dr. Kenza Oumlil and her reader was Professor Noelia Santos. Two other AUI students, Soufyane Moussaoui and Jamal Khalil earned the Best Student Film award for a documentary that focused on gendered media representations. Dr. Oumlil, with Professor Santos, also supervised Moussaoui and Khalil's project. AUI is proud of these capstone students for their outstanding work and for bringing home two of the three awards presented at this ceremony. 

More details can be found at: https://www.areacore.org/research/lina-ben-mhennni-prize-en-ar-fr/