Products tagged with 'american university of beirut'

This unique photographic compilation, taken from long-forgotten glass plates, was published in commemoration of AUB's 140th anniversary, and depicts scenes from Lebanon, Syria, and AUB in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries, when Dr. Franklin T. Moore taught at the Syrian Protestant College (now the American University of Beirut). Moore's camera captured the seemingly vast size of the new campus, the undeveloped northeastern mountains, and an unpaved Bliss Street, in sharp contrast to the growth and changes that have taken place since then. The volume includes an introduction by former AUB president John Waterbury, a socio-historical account of Ras Beirut and AUB by Professor Samir Khalaf, a history of the Moore Collection by the artist Helen Khal, a description of the restoration process along with comments on Moore's photographic techniques by Professor Marwan El-Sabban, and a brief history of the AUB Medical Photography Department by Professor Emeritus Raif Nassif.

AUB and Ras Beirut in 150 Years of Photographs began as a photographic exhibition organized by AUB's Neighborhood Initiative and Jafet Library in celebration of the university's 150th anniversary. The images, capturing so many of the changing faces of the university and its neighborhood, were drawn from a wide range of sources including both private and public collections, and various institutional archives. Two years on, this book represents an extended appreciation of the connections and the relationship between the American University of Beirut and its community over the past 150 years. ​The photographs reflect a diverse mix of people and place, focusing on views of Ras Beirut running along the sea-front from Raouche to Jal-al-Bahr and along the Corniche to Manara and 'Ayn al-Mreisseh. It also follows Bliss and Hamra streets, and includes views of the American University of Beirut campus as it has evolved through the years. The book's preface outlines the process through which the photographs are arranged as well as the book's evolution from the original exhibit. AUB and Ras Beirut in 150 Years of Photographs represents a beautiful documentation of the changing face of the neighborhood and its evolution over time.

The first book of its kind in Lebanon, Mute Movements, documents the emergence of a performance art scene in Lebanon. The book illustrates the collective work of students and artists under the direction of Cornelia Krafft, former assistant professor at AUB. Captured in high-quality photographs and narrated through the performers' own words, Mute Movements invites the reader to embark on an inspirational journey through modern-day Lebanon as seen through the eyes of these young artists striving to confront their internal and external challenges on the personal, national, and regional levels. Their “mute" performances, situated in provocative locations, demanded attention and triggered debate. Played out in unorthodox settings – abandoned buildings, war ruins, along the sea-shore, in city streets and run-down cinemas – these performances required almost as much of the spectators as of the players with their fundamental questioning of issues of collective relevance: social responsibility, personal and regional identity, cultural heritage, censorship, conflict, freedom, and repression. Across the pages of the book, each performance unfolds in documentary-like fashion. The underlying theme, the evolution of performance art in Lebanon across five fertile years of artistic endeavor, lays the groundwork for years to come. While the focus is Lebanon and its youth, the bigger picture is a work in progress which is applicable far beyond the borders of one small country, making Mute Movements a valuable as well as highly enjoyable reference work. ​The overall minimalistic aesthetic and design of the book envelopes an extraordinary sample of strong artistic encouragement through contemporary education in the fields of performance, set design, and visual arts; the result is a document of international importance.

​​​This is a collection of papers presented at a 2008 conference sponsored by the American University of Beirut's Sheikh Zayid bin Sultan Chair of Islamic Studies of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies and the Margaret Weyerhaeuser Jewett Chair of Arabic of the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages. The volume includes sixteen articles by scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Lebanon, and is divided into two parts: the first dealing with classical and premodern poetry, and the second with modern and contemporary poetry, with three articles focusing on the work of the poet Mahmoud Darwish. It serves to better illuminate some aspects of the relationship between the fields of poetry and history, and represents a significant contribution to the field of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies.

​​Over the last two centuries, the French dimension of Arab history has loomed large. The Arab world equally has played a major role in recent French history. Franco-Arab Encounters treats the many aspects of this interaction, tracing not just the political, but also the cultural, social, and intellectual. Twenty authors present these “encounters" in seven sections covering the Arab world, from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, over the past two hundred years. The book is dedicated to the memory of David C. Gordon, a pioneer and leader in this field of scholarship, who taught history at AUB from 1949 to 1955 and 1958 to 1975.

This publication contains the proceedings of a 2007 conference organized by the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies (CAMES) at the American University of Beirut and the Center for Antiochene Studies at the University of Balamand. It is divided into two parts comprising two respective chronological eras, reflecting the intention of the conference to pursue a dual and comparative focus with the hope of throwing fresh light on both eras – the early Islamic period, from the Islamic conquests of Syria until the fall of the Umayyad dynasty (632–750), and the period of Byzantine reconquest of Syria (969–1084).​​