William Shakespeare once asked, “What’s in a name?” Wafeek Wahby, an assistant professor in the school of technology, is changing that question around and asking, “What’s in a dress?”

Wahby believes the way a person dresses tells a lot about that person.

“Show me your dress, and I’ll tell you who you are, in a sense,” he said.

A one hour media presentation on Egyptian clothing, ancient and contemporary, will be held at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the Kansas Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

The presentation is presented jointly by Wahby; Jean Dilworth, school of family and consumer sciences; and Allison Witt, international programs.

Wahby plans to show Egyptian dress to attendees through photos and carvings from ancient Egypt and present-day Egypt. Wahby also plans to bring actual Egyptian clothing and artifacts, so students can touch the items and know how the materials feel and see what the items actually look like. He also plans to let the students listen to Egyptian music.

Wahby said he is going to inform the students about the history of Egyptian dress and tell them how Egyptian dress evolved to what it is today.

“There’s a lot in dress,” Wahby said. “You can tell things like their family, religion, profession, vocation, location, education and culture setting.”

He also said things like whether that person lives in a village, desert, city, etcetera can be determined through dress.

Wahby also will discuss the itinerary of a study abroad course, “Egypt 2001,” that consists of an Eastern sponsored 13-day trip to Egypt, beginning Wednesday, May 30.

The cost for the trip stands at $3,880 per person and includes tuition for three credit hours, round trip travel between Chicago and Cairo, three domestic flights inside Egypt, a four night Nile cruise, four star hotels, all breakfasts, four lunches and six dinners, all English speaking guided tours and entrance fees, Wahby said.

Students on the trip will witness the creation of a New Valley for the River Nile in the western desert of Egypt. Students also will meet the project’s engineers and officials to study the valley’s far reaching effects on engineering, technology, geography, ecology, archaeology, society, business, trade and economy, Wahby said.

Students also will visit classic sites in Egypt, such as The Pyramids and The Great Sphinx, along with numerous museums and archaeological sites, Wahby said.

The trip is open to all undergraduates, graduates, colleagues, professionals and their companions, Wahby said. The deadline for registration is Feb. 15. For registration, students should contact Pamela J. Collins, interim director of office of off-campus, and contact credit programs at 581-6697 or e-mail her at cspjc@eiu.edu.