With the gathering of students, professors, and large numbers from the non-Columbia Egyptian and Arab community, it was clear that the movement of enthusiasm and energy lit by the revolutions themselves were mirrored by a surge of academic and practical interest among those outside the country.

With Egypt’s constitutional assembly beginning the following day, Saturday’s Egypt Symposium, hosted by Turath, the Arab Students Association, could not have been hosted at a better time.

In the past year, revolutions have swept through Northern Africa and the Middle East in what has been dubbed the Arab Spring. How has this wave of reformative spirit affected the condition of countries around the Middle East, either in terms of internal or diplomatic change? What do you foresee as potential reconciliation for the instability and popular dissatisfaction that persists?