Philip S. Khoury (born October 15, 1949) is Ford International Professor of History and Associate Provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut.

Life

Khoury was born on October 15, 1949, in Washington, D.C. the son of Shukry E. Khoury, a naturalized American lawyer, and Angela Jurdak Khoury, a Lebanese diplomat and educator. He was educated at the

Sidwell Friends School Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is ' ( en, Let the light shine out from all), a ...

(1953–1967) in Washington and then at the American University of Beirut,

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

(BA, 1971), and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(PhD, 1980). In 1981, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of history, rising to the rank of professor. From 1991-2006, Khoury served as Dean of the

MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. The school has over 20 departments, department-level programs, and f ...

. During his deanship, he helped to maintain the national leadership of his school's doctoral programs, introduced new master's programs in Comparative Media Studies and Science Writing, expanded its international studies faculty and programs, and raised considerable new endowment. In 2002, he was appointed the first Kenan Sahin Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT. He left the dean's office in 2006 to become Associate Provost responsible for overseeing MIT’s non-curricular arts programs and initiatives, including the

MIT Museum The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...

and the

List Visual Arts Center Established in 1950, the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) is the contemporary art museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is known for temporary exhibitions in its galleries located in the MIT Media Lab building, as well as its admini ...

, strategic planning for international education and research, the promotion of the public understanding of science and technology, and the

OpenCourseWare OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet. OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means ...

Publishing Initiative. Khoury established in 1985, and has chaired ever since, the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar, an MIT forum focused on contemporary Middle Eastern affairs. He also co-founded in 1986 and chaired until 2006, the John E. Burchard Scholars Program, MIT's undergraduate society of fellows in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Khoury has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Foundation,

Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

, Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and Thomas J. Watson Foundation. He has been a Visiting Associate of St. Antony's College in the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and a Faculty Associate of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Medal of the American University of Beirut, the Alumni Medal of Excellence of

, and the Distinguished Alumni Award of the

Honors

*1987;

George Louis Beer Prize The George Louis Beer Prize is an award given by the American Historical Association for the best book in European international history from 1895 to the present written by a United States citizen or permanent resident. The prize was created in 1923 ...

of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...

, ''Syria and the French Mandate'' *1998; elected President of the

Middle East Studies Association Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encoura ...

(MESA) *2002; elected Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. *2008; elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science *2016; Honorary Degree, Universidad EARTH *2021; Honorary Degree,

Other positions

*Chairman, Board of Trustees,

World Peace Foundation The World Peace Foundation or WPF, created in 1910, is a philanthropic foundation for research into peace processes affiliated with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Alex de Waal is the director , having become directo ...

, 2004-15 (Trustee, 1999-2018) *Chairman, Board of Trustees, American University of Beirut, July 2009-- (Trustee since 1997) *Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees,

(Hartford CT), 2007-- (Trustee, 2000-2019) *Trustee,

Underwriters Laboratories The UL enterprise is a global safety science company headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, composed of three organizations, UL Research Institutes, UL Standards & Engagement and UL Solutions. Established in 1894, the UL enterprise was founded as ...

, 2018-- *Trustee, Toynbee Prize Foundation, 1997-2019 *Trustee,

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any university or federal agency. The center was planned under the auspi ...

., 2007-2019 *Board of Overseers,

Koç University Koç University ( tr, Koç Üniversitesi) is a non-profit private university in Istanbul, Turkey. It started education in temporary buildings in İstinye in 1993, and moved to its current Rumelifeneri campus near Sarıyer in 2000. Koç University ...

2006-- *Trustee, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2006-2009.

Publications (partial list)

*''Urban Notables and Arab Nationalism'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

, 1983, 2003) ; *''Syria and the French Mandate'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...

, 1987), , received the George Louis Beer Prize George Louis Beer Prize Recipients
/ref> of the

. Khoury is co-editor of: *''Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East'' (University of California Press, 1991) ; *''Recovering Beirut: Urban Design and Post-war Reconstruction'' ( Brill Publishers, 1993), ; *''The Modern Middle East: A Reader'' (

I.B. Tauris I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It specialises in non ...

, 1993, 2004), ;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khoury, Philip S. Living people 1949 births Middle Eastern studies in the United States American University of Beirut alumni Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni Harvard University alumni 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences faculty American people of Lebanese descent Historians of the Middle East American University of Beirut trustees Sidwell Friends School alumni American male non-fiction writers