Philip S. Khoury
Encyclopedia
Philip S. Khoury is an historian of the Middle East
, presently Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut
.
Khoury was born on October 15, 1949, in Washington, D.C. the son of a naturalized American lawyer and a Lebanese diplomat and educator. He was educated at the Sidwell Friends School
(1953–1967) in Washington and then at the American University of Beirut
, Trinity College
(BA, 1971), and Harvard University
(PhD, 1980). In 1981, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of history, rising to the rank of professor.
From 1991-2006, Khoury served as Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
. During his deanship, he helped to maintain the national leadership of his school's doctoral programs,, introduced new master's programs in Comparative Media Studies and Science Writing, expanded its international studies faculty and programs, and raised considerable new endowment., In 2002, he was appointed the first Kenan Sahin Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT. He left the dean's office in 2006 to become Associate Provost responsible for overseeing MIT’s non-curricular arts programs and initiatives, including the MIT Museum
and the List Visual Arts Center, strategic planning for international education and research, the promotion of the public understanding of science and technology, and the OpenCourseWare
Publishing Initiative.
Khoury established in 1985, and has chaired ever since, the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar, an MIT forum focused on contemporary Middle Eastern affairs. He also co-founded in 1986 and chaired until 2006, the John E. Burchard Scholars Program, MIT's undergraduate society of fellows in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.,
Khoury has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Foundation
, Social Science Research Council
, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies
, and Thomas J. Watson Foundation
. He has been a Visiting Associate of St. Antony's College in the University of Oxford
and a Faculty Associate of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Medal of the American University of Beirut
and the Alumni Medal of Excellence of Trinity College.
Khoury is also a trustee and/or member of:
Khoury is co-editor of:
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, presently Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT). He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
.
Khoury was born on October 15, 1949, in Washington, D.C. the son of a naturalized American lawyer and a Lebanese diplomat and educator. He was educated at the Sidwell Friends School
Sidwell Friends School
Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker private school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through secondary school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas Sidwell, its motto is "Eluceat omnibus lux" , alluding to the Quaker concept of inner light...
(1953–1967) in Washington and then at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
, Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
(BA, 1971), and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(PhD, 1980). In 1981, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of history, rising to the rank of professor.
From 1991-2006, Khoury served as Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The school has 13 departments, department-level programs, and faculties granting the S.B., S.M., and the Ph.D. degrees. The...
. During his deanship, he helped to maintain the national leadership of his school's doctoral programs,, introduced new master's programs in Comparative Media Studies and Science Writing, expanded its international studies faculty and programs, and raised considerable new endowment., In 2002, he was appointed the first Kenan Sahin Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT. He left the dean's office in 2006 to become Associate Provost responsible for overseeing MIT’s non-curricular arts programs and initiatives, including the MIT Museum
MIT Museum
MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is the museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, artificial intelligence, robotics, maritime history, and the history of MIT. Its holography collection of 1800 pieces is the largest in...
and the List Visual Arts Center, strategic planning for international education and research, the promotion of the public understanding of science and technology, and the OpenCourseWare
OpenCourseWare
OpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet. The movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online in the context of its timms initiative...
Publishing Initiative.
Khoury established in 1985, and has chaired ever since, the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar, an MIT forum focused on contemporary Middle Eastern affairs. He also co-founded in 1986 and chaired until 2006, the John E. Burchard Scholars Program, MIT's undergraduate society of fellows in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.,
Khoury has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Foundation
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
, Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
, and Thomas J. Watson Foundation
Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship is a grant that enables graduating seniors to pursue a year of independent study outside the United States. The Fellowship Program was established by the children of Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM....
. He has been a Visiting Associate of St. Antony's College in the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and a Faculty Associate of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Medal of the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
and the Alumni Medal of Excellence of Trinity College.
Honors
- 1987; George Louis Beer Prize [9] of the American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical AssociationThe American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
- 1998; elected President of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
- 2002; elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. - 2008; elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
Other positions
- Chairman of The World Peace Foundation, 2004-- (Trustee since 1999)
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of BeirutAmerican University of BeirutThe American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
, July 2009-- (Trustee since 1997) - Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Trinity CollegeTrinity College (Connecticut)Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
(Hartford CT), 2007-- (Trustee since 2000)
Khoury is also a trustee and/or member of:
- the Toynbee Prize Foundation, 1997--
- the National Humanities CenterNational Humanities CenterThe National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. It is the only major independent institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities in the United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any...
in Research Triangle Park, North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
., 2007--
- Board of Overseers of Koç UniversityKoç UniversityKoç University is a private, non-profit institution, founded in 1993 and located in Istanbul, Turkey. One of the top universities in Turkey, it is supported by the financial resources of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, set up by Vehbi Koç, a leading Turkish businessman, “to serve humanity by increasing...
in Istanbul, Turkey., 2006-- - Academic Research Council, SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, 2008-- - the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, 2006-2009. - Director of the Harvard Cooperative Society, 1998-2003.
Publications (partial list)
- Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism (Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 1983, 2003) ISBN 0521533236; - Syria and the French Mandate (Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 1987), ISBN 069105486X, received the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical AssociationThe American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
.
Khoury is co-editor of:
- Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (University of California Press, 1991) ISBN 0-520-07080-1;
- Recovering Beirut: Urban Design and Post-war Reconstruction (Brill PublishersBrill PublishersBrill is an international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes more than 134 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year...
, 1993), ISBN 9789004099111; - The Modern Middle East: A Reader (I.B. TaurisI.B. TaurisI. B. Tauris is an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York.-History:I.B.Tauris was founded in 1983. Its declared strategy was to fill the perceived gap between trade publishing houses and university presses—that is, to publish serious but accessible works on international...
, 1993, 2004), ISBN 0520082419;