Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Khoury Appointed Humanities Dean

PROMOTION
Khoury Appointed HASS Dean

The provost, Professor Mark S. Wrighton, has announced the appointment 
of Professor Philip S. Khoury as dean of the School of Humanities and 
Social Science.

Dr. Khoury, professor of history in the History Faculty, has served as 
acting dean the past year and before that had been associate dean since 
1987.

Professor Wrighton, noting that he had been assisted in the selection 
process by an advisory committee chaired by Professor Suzanne D. Berger, 
head of the Department of Political Science, said the committee had 
"enthusiastically recommended" Dr. Khoury's appointment based on his 
"strong academic credentials, contributions to his field, and his 
experience and accomplishments in academic administration."

"I am completely in accord with their view that Phil is the best person 
to lead our School of Humanities and Social Science," Dr. Wrighton said 
in a letter to the faculty. "Phil's own scholarly interests have 
concerned the political and social history of the Middle East. His 
important contributions and involvement in such work prepares him well 
for the many important educational and research issues facing the School 
and the Institute."

The provost said he and President Charles M. Vest "are looking forward 
to working with Phil in the years ahead. His dedication to the Institute 
is quite evident, and we are fortunate to have him as one of our 
academic leaders."

Dean Khoury joined the MIT faculty in 1981. From 1984 to 1986, he held 
the Class of 1922 Career Development Chair, which recognizes excellence 
in teaching. His scholarly work includes a strong background in 
comparative urban history and politics and in comparative nationalist 
movements. He is widely regarded as a leading historian of the modern 
Middle East.

The 41-year-old native of Washington, D.C., received the BA from Trinity 
College in 1971 and the PhD from Harvard University in 1980. He spent 
1974-75 and 1976-77 at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, where he 
was an associate fellow and tutor.

He has received postdoctoral fellowships from Harvard's Center for 
Middle Eastern Studies, the Mellon Foundation, Aspen Institute for 
Humanistic Studies and the Social Science Research Council. He is also a 
member of Pi Gamma Mu, the honorary society in the social sciences.

He is the author of numerous publications, including Urban Notables and 
Arab Nationalism (1983) and Syria and the French Mandate (1987), which 
received the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical 
Association. He also is co-editor of Tribes and State Formation in the 
Middle East (1990). His current research is focused on the impact of war 
on society in the 20th century Middle East. 

Dean Khoury serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of 
Interdisciplinary History, History Abstracts, Arab Studies Quarterly and 
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. He is also on the board of 
directors of the Middle East Studies Association and is co-chair of the 
Middle East Security Project at the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences.

He is the co-author and director of the Burchard Scholars Program, a 
society of undergraduate fellows established in the School of Humanities 
and Social Science, which is now in its sixth year. In 1985, he 
established the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar at MIT, one of 
America's leading public forums for the examination of contemporary 
Middle Eastern affairs. As associate dean and acting dean of the School 
of Humanities and Social Science, he has been responsible for the design 
and implementation of the HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Science) 
Distribution and HASS Minor systems.