Current Issue – Spring 2023
Letters

Views from Campus
From the President - Spring 2023 After eight years as president of the American University of Beirut, I see more than ever how AUB can contribute to the development of a sustainable economy in our host nation, Lebanon, where we have deep and permanent roots. As...
Features

Analyzing Arabic Dialects for Peace
Analyzing Arabic Dialects for Peace Spring 2023Martin Waehlisch and Daanish Masood Alavi were interested in how to make sense of political conversations in Arabic on social media as part of their work for the Innovation Cell of the United Nations Department of...

Face to Face: Building an active community
Face to Face: Building an active community Spring 2023Discipline, character, and perseverance. These are some of the foundational tenets that have guided Tarek Abou Omar, newly appointed director of the Charles Hostler Student Center, throughout his life.“ I developed...

Campus Snapshots
Campus Snapshots Spring 2023

An Ode to Nicely 500
An Ode to Nicely 500 Spring 2023Still the same anxiety. Who hasn’t experienced it? One can bet all AUB students have been initiated in that cavernous chamber. Some thirty years ago, I waited many times on its stairs, heart racing, sweating, gazing at other students’...

Creative Minds: Featuring original works from the American University of Beirut community
Creative Minds: Featuring original works from the American University of Beirut community Spring 2023Reverie: A Soaring Soul That’s Free and Light “My son was in a daydreaming state while he stood for a moment behind the curtains moving slowly with the breeze. The...

Digitizing Our History
Digitizing Our History Spring 2023Above: A Qur'an section produced in Konya, Anatolia dated A.H. 845 / A.D. 1441. Manuscript Collection, Archives and Special Collections Department, AUB Libraries Among the many artifacts from the newly digitized personal archive of...

Moving and Impactful Beyond Our Wildest Expectations
Moving and Impactful Beyond Our Wildest Expectations Spring 2023The global telethon on December 22, 2022, was, as President Fadlo Khuri noted in a message he sent to the AUB community the next day, “moving and impactful beyond our wildest expectations. ” Thousands of...

The Power of Hope
The Power of Hope Spring 2023“I am very grateful to God because I prayed for one baby, and He gave me two, ” Mohammad Eid declared as his baby girls were being cared for at the NICU at AUBMC. After giving birth to conjoined twins, his wife, Mireille, is ecstatic to be...

Design Rooted in Heritage
Design Rooted in Heritage Spring 2023Architects are often called upon to make a mark, to showcase their artistic muscle by bending and shaping the environment. But for Carl Gerges (BArch ’11), scarring the land in such a way is antithetical to his work. “My mission is...

Unlikely Peers: Father & daughter graduate together
Unlikely Peers: Father & daughter graduate together Spring 2023Above: Mohamad Daouk (BBA ’88, MSBA ’23) and his daughter Dima (BS Finance ’20, MSBA ’22) It was Mohamad Daouk who convinced his daughter, Dima, to enroll in AUB’s master’s degree in business analytics...

The Story of a Scholar: Honoring the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh
The Story of a Scholar: Honoring the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh Spring 2023Shatha Hanaysha was with a group of journalists, including iconic Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, reporting on the raid within the Palestinian Jenin camp in the West Bank on May 11,...

Welcome to the Hub
Welcome to the Hub Spring 2023Rudina Antoun (BArch ’09) used to be fascinated by designing buildings. Now project manager of AUB’s Abdulla al Ghurair Hub for Digital Teaching and Learning, she focuses on designing processes. “We are creating online learning...

Aiducation
Aiducation - Samer Karimeh Spring 2023Samer Karimeh grew up in a middle-class family in Tripoli. His father, who retired recently, was a medical laboratory doctor who provided well for his wife and three sons. Like many families in Lebanon, however, Samer’s family has...

Check Up: Beyond Braces
Check Up: Beyond Braces Spring 2023Joseph G. Ghafari, DMD, Professor and Founding Chairperson at the Department of Dentofacial Medicine What does the Dentofacial Department at AUBMC do? The Dentofacial Department was originally a specialty orthodontics department...

The Struggle Against Early Marriage
The Struggle Against Early Marriage Spring 2023Photo above courtesy of Amenah Portrait Exhibit in Van Dyck Hall, 3rd floor Inspiring portraits of Syrian refugee girls who participated in the Amenah Project. The civil war in Syria has devastated the country and created...

Medicus Revived
Medicus Revived Spring 2023Jaafar Hadi (BS ’20) may have too much to do like all third-year medical students, but that hasn’t stopped him from mulling over life’s biggest questions. “I am fascinated by the great Russian writers and their lasting impact on subsequent...

Published & Produced
Published and Produced Spring 2023 Le Barrage Film Screenplay by Ali Cherri (BFA Graphic Design’ 00), Geoffroy Grison, in collaboration with Bertrand Bonello Set in Sudan, near the Merowe dam, Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every...

Getting to Know AUB Mediterraneo: Rector Wassim El Hajj
Getting to Know AUB Mediterraneo: Rector Wassim El Hajj Spring 2023When did you begin working on the AUB Mediterraneo project? I was appointed executive director of this project in September 2021. I have been the rector of AUB Mediterraneo since January 2023. What has...

The Silent Rise of HIV in the Middle East
The Silent Rise of HIV in the Middle East Fall 2023The state of HIV today is far better than it was during the epidemic’s early decades. Death rates and new infections have significantly declined, and some researchers believe a vaccine against the virus is feasible....
Alumni & Friends

Checking In with Our Alumni: Where are you now? What do you most value about your AUB experience?
Checking In with Our Alumni: Where are you now? What do you most value about your AUB experience? Taghreed A. Najjar (BA English ’73) I live in Amman, Jordan, with my husband, Shakir Shakhshir (BBA ’68). We have three daughters and three grandchildren....

WAAAUB Events and Announcements
WAAAUB Events and Announcements Recently Elected Chapter Presidents Boushra Yaghi Rahal, Health Sciences Chapter President President: Boushra Yaghi Rahal (BS Biology ’98, TD ’99, MPH ’01, EMBA ’15) Vice President: Maysaa Chaouki Jaafar (BS Medical...

Celebrating the Ties That Bind Alumni Medical Professionals to AUB
Celebrating the Ties That Bind Alumni Medical Professionals to AUB Spring 2023Seventy-four AUB alumni medical professionals working in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Ohio were honored by their alma mater, their colleagues, and by other AUB alumni during a tribute and...

In Memoriam
In Memoriam Nasrat Fadda (BS ’45), PhD, passed away on August 5, 2022. He was born in Akka, Palestine. After graduating from AUB, he worked and studied in Jerusalem for two years until receiving a full scholarship in England. Following the occupation of...

Class Notes
Class Notes Souhail Chamieh (BBA ’43, MBA ’46), recipient of the first MBA awarded by AUB, writes, “I began my career at the Trans Arabian Pipeline Co (Tapline) in 1944 and, after a series of advancements, was appointed Tapline’s top representative in Lebanon,...

154th Commencement Exercises
154th Commencement Exercises Spring 2023Commencement exercises took place on June 9 and 10.