AUB Press

​​​This is the story of the Lewis Affair at the American University of Beirut (then the Syrian Protestant College). When Professor Edwin Lewis mentioned Charles Darwin in the course of a commencement address, there were drastic ramifications, including faculty resignations, student suspensions, the first student protest in the Arab World, a subsequent drop in student enrollment, and the imposition of a Declaration of Principles on AUB faculty members. It represents a momentous event in the history of the American University of Beirut, and its reverberations were felt in intellectual circles throughout the Arab world. A foreword by former AUB president John Waterbury outlines how the issues underlying the Lewis Affair, including the controversy generated by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, the struggle between conservative and liberal elements of academia, and the question of academic freedom, remain pertinent to this day.

This book showcases the work of twenty featured artists from the first group exhibition of contemporary ceramists in Lebanon, and thus is the first of its kind. Innovation in fine arts at AUB goes back at least to 1929, when the University hosted first solo exhibition in Lebanon with the work of Lebanese artist Mustafa Farroukh. ​This is a publication of the Project Steering Committee for an Arts Center at AUB.

​These twenty-nine papers, to quote the introduction by then-CASAR Director Robert Myers, “trace the complex interconnections between the collapsing categories of East and West at a pivotal moment in contemporary history." This book is the result of the proceedings of the Third International Conference Sponsored by The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut.