History

Establishing an Arab Studies program at the American University was the brainchild of the late sociologist, Samih Farsoun, according to whom the Arab World requires a separate approach, contextualizing its distinctive historical, cultural, and political interactions that in turn produced the conflict-ridden region. Professor Farsoun left American University in 2001 and passed away in 2003.

Farsoun also happened to have been dissertation advisor to Randa’s father, Bassem Serhan. In 2010, while still at the American University of Beirut, an ad for Arab Studies at American University appeared and Randa knew she wanted to bring to fruition Farsoun’s project; it felt like completing a circle.

Building a program on the Arab World was mired with the conflicts that one normally associates with the region except that this was a territorial contest in the realm of ideas and academic legitimacy. There were several directors of Arab Studies following Farsoun, who despite great effort, were unable to bring the program to fruition as a degree granting program. Conflicts abound for years, nonetheless it was finally under Randa’s leadership that the program came to be.

In the fall of 2011, Randa became the director of Arab Studies. Based on her experiences at Columbia University and the American University of Beirut, she spent several years developing an interdisciplinary curriculum that pays attention to international politics without losing sight of the building blocks that compromise the Arab World. This means recognizing not only the places and affects of colonialism. but also the familial, gender, literary, social and musical traditions within the context of the newly emerged nation states. Arab World Studies was officially launched as a degree granting program in March 2014 with keynote speech by His Excellency, Dr. Mohammed Al-Sharif, Ambassador to the League of Arab States.

To learn more about the program, please click below or contact me to learn about program design and/or the field of Arab Studies: