Abdul El-Sayed’s Oxford years: PhD, political awakening and sporting distinction
Summary
Abdul El-Sayed won a Rhodes scholarship in 2008 and later studied for a medical PhD at Oxford, where he captained the university’s lacrosse team. Though he initially struggled with the course, he later wrote warmly about his classmates and praised aspects of British democracy.Key Facts
- University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman praised El-Sayed at a 2008 send-off before his Rhodes scholarship studies at Oxford.
- El-Sayed arrived at Oxford in autumn 2009.
- He captained Oxford’s lacrosse team, and teammate Elias Rothblatt described him as a fierce competitor and a good leader.
- El-Sayed initially disliked his course and returned to Michigan two weeks before the end of his first term.
- In his memoir, El-Sayed wrote that his Oxford classmates taught him more than he could learn in a classroom.
- He wrote that UK democracy had the upper hand over the US and recalled a 2010 election event in Tower Hamlets.
- A café owner in Oxford named a coronation chicken sandwich after El-Sayed, who later thanked him in his doctoral thesis.
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