2008 Honorary Doctoral Degrees Announced

Left to right: Pamuk, Hatoum, Khan, Tomeh, and Ashrawi

The American University of Beirut announced on June 2 five recipients of the 2008 honorary doctoral degrees. The award ceremony, was held on commencement day, June 28 and coincided with the University's 139th Commencement. The degree recipients were introduced by outgoing AUB President John Waterbury, who reestablished the tradition in 2003, after it was suspended for several years due to the 1975-1990 war.

This year's recipients were:
Hanan M. Ashrawi, official spokesperson for the Palestinian Delegation during the Middle East peace processes from 1991 to 1993, earned her BA and MA degrees at AUB and a PhD from the University of Virginia. A tireless peace activist for the independence of Palestine and promoter of Palestinian culture, she is also an author and an academic. She established the English Department at Palestine's Birzeit University in 1973, taught and chaired the department, and served as dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1986 to 1990. Recognized as one of the most influential women in the Arab world, she is currently a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and remains active in Palestinian economic, social, political, and cultural organizations to this day.

Mona Hatoum's avant garde art installations are known throughout the modern art world. Born in Beirut in 1952 of Palestinian parents, Hatoum settled at the outset of the Lebanese civil war in London, where she studied art from 1975 to 1981. She now lives in London and Berlin. Since her first successes in the mid-1980s, her unconventional art work (performance, photography, video, sculpture, and installation) has brought her enthusiastic acclaim in solo and group exhibitions in many countries around the world. Having long ago abandoned figurative art, Hatoum shows a marked tendency in her work to disturb, discomfort, and dislocate her viewers.

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International since August 2001, has worked constantly to promote human rights for individuals (with special emphasis on women's rights) to mitigate the infringement on human rights caused by "the war on terror," and to regulate impunity for human rights abuses. Born in Eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and educated at Manchester University and Harvard Law School, she spent twenty years with the UN High Commission for Refugees before taking the helm at Amnesty. She has received many fellowships, prizes, and awards, including the Sydney Peace Foundation Prize in 2006.

Georges Tohme, president of the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research since 1993, is a dedicated champion of the flora and fauna of Lebanon. Frequently working with his wife, Henriette A. Sabbagh, he has written about Lebanese mammals, birds, and flowers-and about the Lebanese University, where he taught for many years and served as head of three departments. From 1977 to 1980 he was dean of the Faculty of Science, and in 1980-88 he was president of the university. For many years, he has been devoted to the preservation of the "wonderful and irreplaceable diversity" of Lebanese flora and fauna.

Orhan Pamuk, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, is Turkey's best known author. While still officially studying journalism, Pamuk immersed himself in the writing of novels, the best known of which are Snow and My Name is Red. Although he avoids direct confrontation with political issues in his work, Pamuk in 2005 was indicted on the charge of "insulting Turkishness" and faced imprisonment. In January 2006, the case was abruptly dropped on a technicality. Pamuk, who has received many prizes for his novels, has taught at Columbia University, been a fellow at the University of Iowa, and writer in residence at Bard College.