Beirut: A Health Profile 1984–1994

​​This book incorporates the descriptive findings of a survey conducted by the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut as part of its efforts to establish a population laboratory in the city of Beirut. The Lebanese Civil War led to the disintegration of the crude health information system available prior to that time; thus this survey generates a unique dataset about a city and its population at a midpoint in the war. By recording the methodological and organizational issues faced during the war, the book serves as a reference source for courses and other training activities in health research. Its findings will interest public health workers, ministries of health, and the staffs of a variety of international agencies.

These are the proceedings of a January 1983 symposium organized by the American University of Beirut and the Goethe Institute at a midpoint in the Lebanese Civil War when the Beirut city center was being cleared of the destructive effects of the war in preparation for reconstruction. The ten papers address the damage sustained during the first part of the civil war, and make recommendations for reconstruction. Lessons from the post-World War II reconstruction of Europe and an overview of Beirut's previous history are included. This publication contains thirteen illustrations, four maps, and twenty-one photos.​

​​Food Composition has been a popular nutritional resource for more than 40 years. It is an informative handbook for both specialists and laymen and all those interested in Middle Eastern foods and their nutritive value. In addition to presenting valuable nutritional information, the book also provides helpful translations in English and Arabic of the names of many food items. In addition to the food composition tables, the book includes 104 recipes for Middle Eastern dishes and their nutritional composition. Nine appendices complete the work.

​​Traditional food recipes based on ancestral knowledge are a cultural treasure and deserve preservation. Such is the case with the recipes contained in this book, the outcome of a project entitled “Wild Edible Plants: Promoting Dietary Diversity in Poor Communities of Lebanon," conducted by AUB's Department of Nutrition and Food Science; the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) of AUB's Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences; and AUB's Nature Conservation Center (previously, IBSAR – the Initiative for Biodiversity Studies in Arid Regions). The project was funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC).

​The Profile of a Neighborhood presents an overview of the findings of the Ras Beirut Well-Being Survey, conducted in 2009–2010 by members of AUB's Faculty of Health Sciences. It represents the efforts of a multidisciplinary team drawn from across the American University of Beirut, and provides the first systematic portrait of Ras Beirut in the last forty years. The survey's goal was to provide up-to-date sociological, demographic, and health information about neighborhood residents, a valuable snapshot of life in Ras Beirut shortly before the conflict in Syria brought an influx of Syrian citizens to the neighborhood. The book presents a wide variety of statistical details about the residents of Ras Beirut, including marital status, nationality, household structure, religiosity, income and household wealth, education, and quality of life. Its findings suggest that even in Ras Beirut, which is considered an affluent neighborhood of which AUB is a part, it is possible to find extremes existing side by side—wealth and poverty, social and economic inequality, and the corresponding effects on well-being.