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.
Co-curating the City explores the role of universities in the construction and mobilisation of heritage discourses in urban development and regeneration processes, with a focus on six case study sites: University of Gothenburg (Sweden), UCL East (London), University of Lund (Sweden). Roma Tre university (Rome), American University of Beirut, and Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. The aim of the book is to expand the field of critical heritage studies in the urban domain, by examining the role of institutional actors both in the construction of urban heritage discourses and in how those discourses influence urban planning decisions or become instrumentalised as mechanisms for urban regeneration. It proposes that universities engage in these processes in a number of ways: as producers of urban knowledge that is mobilised to intervene in planning processes; as producers of heritage practices that are implemented in development contexts in the urban realm; and as developers engaged in campus construction projects that both reference heritage discourses as a mechanism for promoting support and approval by planners and the public, and capitalise on heritage assets as a resource. The book highlights the participatory processes through which universities are positioning themselves as significant institutions in the development of urban heritage narratives. The case studies investigate how universities, as mixed communities of interest dispersed across buildings and urban sites, engage in strategies of engagement with local people and neighbourhoods, and ask how this may be contributing to a re-shaping of ideas, narratives, and lived experience of urban heritage in which universities have a distinctive agency. The authors cross disciplinary and cultural boundaries, and bridge academia and practice.
This book discusses architectural excellence in Islamic societies drawing on textual and visual materials, from the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT, developed over more than three decades. At the core of the discussion are the efforts, processes, and outcomes of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA). The AKAA recognises excellence in architectural and urban interventions within cities and settlements in the Islamic world which are continuously challenged by dramatic changes in economies, societies, political systems, decision-making, and environmental requirements. Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies responds to the recurring question about the need for architectural awards, arguing that they are critical to validating the achievements of professional architects while making their contributions more widely acknowledged by the public. Through analysis and critique of over sixty awarded and shortlisted projects from over thirty-five countries, this book provides an expansive look at the history of the AKAA through a series of narratives on the enduring values of architecture, architectural and urban conservation, built environment sustainability, and architectural pluralism and multiple modernities. Architectural Excellence in Islamic Societies will appeal to professionals and academics, researchers, and upper-level students in architectural history and theory and built environment related fields.
This new, thoroughly updated third edition of Bradt’s Lebanon remains the only English-language guide dedicated to the smallest country on the Asian continent. Comprehensively updated throughout to reflect recent economic, political and social changes, it includes revised and new listings for hotels, restaurants, and what to see and do, catering for all types of travellers and budgets. Although only half the size of Wales, Lebanon offers extraordinary diversity. Some of the world’s oldest human settlements, including the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Byblos – two of Lebanon’s five World Heritage sites – sit alongside modern Beirut. The absorbing capital is popular for its world-renowned cuisine, eclectic nightlife, mosaic of peoples and kaleidoscope of religions. In Lebanon's second city, Tripoli, busy medieval souks are watched over by a vast Crusader castle. Nearby, snow-capped mountains and the lush Qadisha Valley with its snaking river and waterfalls provide entertainment for skiers and hikers (the latter also well served by the Lebanon Mountain Trail, which runs virtually the length of the country). Three hundred days of sunshine per year makes Lebanon a ‘go anytime’ destination, with the Mediterranean coastline particularly drawing sun-seekers and watersports enthusiasts. Wildlife-lovers can enjoy Shouf Biosphere Reserve (with its famed cedar trees, the national emblem) and the Aammiq Wetlands, while Lebanon has become a major destination for religious tourism, and vinophiles can visit numerous Bekaa Valley wineries of international repute. Bradt's Lebanon offers detailed coverage of areas ignored by other guides, particularly the country’s south, as well as more extensive cultural and practical information. New for this edition are specialist features on aspects of Lebanese cultural life, additional background information, updates on work to rebuild Beirut following the 2020 explosion, extended and revised coverage of the Aammiq Wetlands, new and updated maps, and new visitor attractions including the MIM mineral museum and the Middle East’s first chocolate museum, both in Beirut. With a comprehensive language appendix covering both Arabic and French, detailed historical and religious background that helps visitors travel with awareness and sensitivity, and in-depth travel information, Bradt's Lebanon is an indispensable practical companion to visiting this excitingly varied country.
Since the American University of Beirut opened its doors in 1866, the campus has stood at the intersection of a rapidly changing American educational project for the Middle East and an ongoing student quest for Arab national identity and empowerment. Betty S. Anderson provides a unique and comprehensive analysis of how the school shifted from a missionary institution providing a curriculum in Arabic to one offering an English-language American liberal education extolling freedom of speech and analytical discovery. Anderson discusses how generations of students demanded that they be considered legitimate voices of authority over their own education; increasingly, these students sought to introduce into their classrooms the real-life political issues raging in the Arab world. The Darwin Affair of 1882, the introduction of coeducation in the 1920s, the Arab nationalist protests of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the even larger protests of the 1970s all challenged the Americans and Arabs to fashion an educational program relevant to a student body constantly bombarded with political and social change. Anderson reveals that the two groups chose to develop a program that combined American goals for liberal education with an Arab student demand that the educational experience remain relevant to their lives outside the school's walls. As a result, in eras of both cooperation and conflict, the American leaders and the students at the school have made this American institution of the Arab world and of Beirut.
The Arab Revolutions that began in 2011 reignited interest in the question of theory and practice, imbuing it with a burning political urgency. In Revolution and Disenchantment Fadi A. Bardawil redescribes for our present how an earlier generation of revolutionaries, the 1960s Arab New Left, addressed this question. Bardawil excavates the long-lost archive of the Marxist organization Socialist Lebanon and its main theorist, Waddah Charara, who articulated answers in their political practice to fundamental issues confronting revolutionaries worldwide: intellectuals as vectors of revolutionary theory; political organizations as mediators of theory and praxis; and nonemancipatory attachments as impediments to revolutionary practice. Drawing on historical and ethnographic methods and moving beyond familiar reception narratives of Marxist thought in the postcolony, Bardawil engages in "fieldwork in theory" that analyzes how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and authorizes political practice. Throughout, Bardawil underscores the resonances and tensions between Arab intellectual traditions and Western critical theory and postcolonial theory, deftly placing intellectuals from those traditions into a much-needed conversation.
"The American public is losing trust in its higher education institutions. Americans are increasingly divided about the purposes of a college education, with opinions split along partisan lines. The country's higher education leaders have responded with a litany of conferences, op-eds, and commissions aimed at regaining the public trust. While these efforts are necessary and important, they are more likely to be successful if supplemented with a view from abroad. The independent American university abroad is the oldest and most successful expression of U.S. higher education outside the United States. First established by Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire during the U.S. Civil War, American universities abroad have since spread across the globe. Many enjoy widespread popularity in their communities and bipartisan support in the U.S. The Emergence of the American University Abroad explores the development of this model as a distinctive institutional form in the U.S. higher education landscape. It traces the long history of support by American private citizens, the U.S. government, and stateside colleges and universities for these overseas institutions, and shows how leaders of American universities abroad have periodically come together to make sense of their changing environments and strategically align their messaging with potential supporters. The author demonstrates that what is most valuable about American higher education emerges clearly when it is practiced outside the United States. While discourse about higher education in the United States and around the world has shifted unequivocally toward its conceptualization as a private good, leaders of, and advocates for, American universities abroad have been remarkably consistent in promoting their public benefits. As such, study of these institutions represents a unique opportunity to reflect on underappreciated, yet essential features of American higher education"--
Combining insider and outsider perspectives, Women in Lebanon looks at Christian and Muslim women living together in a multicultural society and facing modernity. While the Arab Spring has begun to draw attention to issues of change, modernity, and women's subjectivity, this manuscript takes a unique approach to examining and describing the Lebanese "alternative modernities" thesis and how it has shaped thinking about the meaning of terms like evolution, progress, development, history, and politics in contemporary Arab thought. The author draws on extensive ethnographic research, as well as her own personal experience.
