Spring 2008 Vol. VI, No. 3

Remembering Iliya Harik (BA '56, MA '58)

Our Legacy

When we first met as students at AUB in 1957, I was soon impressed by Iliya Harik's promise as a scholar. His parents, of limited education themselves and of modest means, were determined to educate each of their nine children; and thanks to financial aid that Iliya received at AUB, he was able to realize their dreams for him. A year at the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of Chicago (1964) prepared him for his career as a political scientist at Indiana University, with shorter sojourns in Cairo, Tunis, and Beirut, and at Cornell University. An original thinker with many books and articles to his name, Iliya often challenged conventional assumptions about governance and political theory, particularly with regard to Lebanon and the Arab world.

Soon after his sudden death in February 2007, friends approached me about gifts in Iliya's memory. Education was the natural answer: a scholarship, based on both merit and need, for an AUB student-or students-in the social sciences and possibly from Iliya's home town of Dhour Shweir. I hope that the scholarship fund we started in his honor will help keep his intellectual contributions alive through the shaping of tomorrow's young scholars.

Mrs. Elsa Marston Harik (former student, 1958)
Bloomington, Indiana
Founder of the Iliya F. Harik Memorial Scholarship Fund

Giving makes a difference. Contact giving@aub.edu.lb to learn more.