Professor Ahmad Dallal from Georgetown University is AUB’s next Provost

Professor Ahmad Dallal

American University of Beirut President Peter Dorman has announced that Ahmad Dallal of Georgetown University has been appointed provost of the University, effective July 1, 2009.

“I am delighted that Ahmad has agreed to join us in Beirut. He is a widely respected, multi-disciplinary scholar who will bring a rare range of interest and knowledge to the full spectrum of our academic programs,” said Dorman. “I look forward to working with him on important issues that will further strengthen AUB’s position as the region’s premier academic and research institution.”

Dallal will join AUB from Georgetown University, where he has been chairman of the Arabic and Islamic Studies Department since 2003. He previously held teaching positions in the Department of History at Stanford University, in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Yale University, and Arabic Language and Culture at Smith College. He received his PhD in Islamic Studies in 1990 from Columbia University and his BE from AUB’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1980.

His academic training and research cover the history of the disciplines of learning in Muslim societies as well as early modern and modern Islamic thought and movements. His books and articles are focused on the history of science, Islamic revivalist thought, and Islamic law. The author of An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy: Kitab Ta’dil Hay’at al-Aflak of Sadr al-Shari’a (E.J. Brill) he is currently finishing a book-length comparative study of eighteenth-century Islamic reform entitled Islam Without Europe, Traditions of Reform in Eighteenth Century Islamic Thought.

The committee responsible for the nearly year-long, global search was chaired by AUB Trustee Philip S. Khoury and included representatives from the Board of Trustees and AUB faculties. “The strength of the applicants for this position has been outstanding, and the search committee was thrilled to find a candidate with the distinguished academic background, strong administrative experience, acute cultural awareness, and commitment to diversity that is necessary in this position,” said Philip Khoury.

The provost is the University’s chief academic officer responsible for all aspects of AUB’s academic and research programs and assumes a strategic role in university life. In addition to overseeing academic support units (the library, admissions, interfaculty programs, and research), the provost works with senior administrative officers to define and fulfill the academic potential of the University. AUB’s vigorous research platform includes eight PhD programs that were launched in 2007. Since 2003, total research funding for AUB faculty members has increased by 78 percent to $7,649,933.