Farouk Y. Seif

Antioch University
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Farouk Y. Seif, PhD, AIA, is Past President of the Semiotic Society of America (SSA), former Executive Director of the SSA, a registered architect, and a Fellow of the International Communicology Institute. His main interests are design for social and cultural change, paradoxes, semiotics, transdisciplinarity, and transmodernity. He is the founder and director of the Isis Institute and originator and organizer of the Intercultural Study Program, “Journey into the Dawn of Time”, in Egypt. His doctoral dissertation, “Semiotics and Urban Morphogenesis”, is a transdisciplinary inquiry designed to reinterpret the ancient Egyptian experience for thoughtful reflections on contemporary life. He taught in universities and lectured at conferences in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and the USA. He was the recipient of the 2010 Fulbright Specialists Program at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. He is the author of more than 50 articles and a dozen book chapters. His newly published book De-sign in the Transmodern World is a state-of-the-art integration of design and semiotics.

farouk y seif

Professor Emeritus

Graduate Programs in Leadership and Change

[email protected]

  • BArch, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
  • MArch, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
  • PhD, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

“Not only is Antioch a true learning community, it’s also a place for a remarkable personal and professional transformation.”

  • De-Sign in the Transmodern World: Envisioning Reality Beyond Absoluteness. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, 2019.
  • “Beyond Forecasting and Prediction: The Role of Phantasmagorical Memory in Imagining the Future”. Вісник КНЛУ. Серія Філологія. Том 22. № 1. 2019 (Journal of Kyiv National Linguistic University, Kiev, Ukraine), ­2019, 88–99.
  • “Wholophilia: Design and the Metamorphoses of the Absolute”. In Metamorphoses of the Absolute, Daina Teters and Otto Neumaier (eds.). UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, 237–256.
  • “Imaginary Dialogue with John Deely: Playing with Boundaries Across Space and Time”. The American Journal of Semiotics, TAJS 34.1–2 (2018), 2018, 189–227.
  • “Erotica and Semiotica: What’s Love Got to Do with Edusemiotics?” Chapter 19. In Edusemiotics – A Handbook, Inna Semetsky (ed.). Singapore: Springer Science+Business Media Singapore, 2017, 263–275.
  • “Foreword: In Loving Memory of John Deely (1942–2017).” In Semiotics 2016: Archaeology of Concepts, DOI:10.5840/cpsem20162, 2017, v­–vii.
  • “Transdisciplinarity of Edusemiotics: Revealing Mutual Reciprocities Between Design and Semiotics”. Chinese Semiotic Studies, de Gruyter Mouton, DOI 10.1515/css-2017-0002, 13 (1), 2017, 15–29.
  • “What Is Real Is Not Always True! Reconstructing Reality in a Transmodern World”. in Is It Real? Structuring Reality by Means of Signs, Zeynep Onur (ed.), UK: Cambridge Scholarship Publications, 2016, 46–65.
  • “Semiotic Animal on the Path of Evolutionary Love”. The American Journal of Semiotics, Special Issue on the Semiotic Animal, TAJS 32.1­­­–4 (2016), 2016, 127–142.
  • “A Prelude to Wholophilia”. In Festschrift, Deely in Review, Paul Cobley (ed.), Chinese Semiotic Studies, de Gruyter Mouton, DOI 10.1515/css-2016-0038, 12(3), 2016, 395–406.
  • “Can Design Inquiry Advance Edusemiotics? Rethinking Factual Information and Imaginative Interpretation”. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, Special Issue on Edusemiotics, de Gruyter Mouton, DOI 10.1515/ sem-2016-0122, 2016, 219–238.
  • “Resilience and Chrysalis Reality: Navigating Through Diaphanous Space and Polychronic Time”. In Changing Worlds & Signs of Times, E-Book. Eleftheria Deltsou and Maria Papadopoulou (eds.), Volos, Greece: Hellenic Semiotics Society, 2016, 52–66.
  • “Reality Beyond Humanities–Science Schism: Revealing the Mutuality of Design and Semiotics”. The American Journal of Semiotics, 3–4, DOI: 10.5840/ajs20161124, 2015, 311–336
  • “Communication in the Age of the Great Turning: Understanding the Role of Analog and Digital Modes in Liberating Imagination.” Proceedings of the 9th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies -Association Internationale de Sémiotique (IASS/AIS), Helsinki-Imatra, Finland June 2009. Download a PDF (new window.)
  • “At Home with Transmodernity: Reconstructing Cultural Identity in a Globalizing World”. In Transmodernity: Managing Global Communication, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of the Romanian Association of Semiotic Studies (ROASS), Slanic-Moldova, Romania, 23–26 October 2008, Bacãu, Romania: Alma Mater Publishing House, 2009, 248–256.
  • “Eros of ‘Leader-fullness’: The Seductive Nature of Leadership and Global Reality.” Proceedings of the International Conference: L3 Global Leadership, Shanghai, China, April 2006. Download a PDF (new window.)
  • “Social Change in The ‘Aperspectival World’: The Paradox of Social Reproduction and Cultural Innovation”. International Conference: Innovation and Reproduction in Cultures and Societies (IRICS), Proceedings of the 9th World Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies – Association Internationale de Sémiotique (IASS/AIS), http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/01_2/seif16.htm Vienna, Austria, December 2005. Download a PDF (new window.)
  • Member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS/AIS), 2019-present
  • President of the Semiotic Society of America (SSA), 2018–2019
  • Executive Director of the Semiotic Society of America (SSA), 2014–2017
  • Fellow, International Communicology Institute, Washington, DC, 2014-present
  • Visiting Faculty, Organization Systems Renewal – Organizational Development and Leadership Graduate Program, Seattle University, Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Washington; Fielding Graduate University, California, 1999-2015
  • Member of the International Society for Systems Sciences (ISSS), 1992–1996
  • Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), 1991-present
  • Registered Architect, Texas State, 1990-present