Elias Khoury, Global Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (Fall 2005)

The Lebanese writer Elias Khoury was born in Beirut in 1948 and studied Sociology and History at Lebanese University in Beirut and the University of Paris. He began his career as a literary critic by publishing his book, Searching for a Horizon-The Arabic Novel After the Defeat of 1967 (1974). Professor Khoury then published his first novel "On the Relations of the Circle" (1975), and became part of the Beirut vanguard in modern Arabic literature, which was seeking to create new dimensions in the movement of modernism which began in the late forties with a revolution in poetry. He served on the editorial board of Mawakif Quarterly, and as the managing editor of Shu'un Falastinia (Palestine Affairs) and of Al Karmel Quarterly.

Professor Khoury has published 11 novels, many of which are translated into English, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, and Hebrew, and he has published 4 books of literary criticism and many articles and reviews in Beirut, Paris, New York, and Berlin. He is also known as a playwright, and his three plays have been performed in Beirut, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Basel. He has participated in writing two films and worked as a journalist, serving as Director and Editor-In-Chief of Mulhak, the weekly literary supplement of the An-Nahar Daily in Beirut.

Professor Khoury is a public intellectual, who plays a major role in the Arabic cultural scene and in the defense of the liberty of expression and democracy, and he is a cultural activist who directed the theatre of Beirut and co-directed The Ayloul Festival of Modern Arts in Beirut. His academic career includes his work as a Professor at Columbia University, the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, and the Lebanese American University.

Elias Khoury's appointment as FAS Global Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in 2004-2005 has been made possible by an anonymous gift in memory of J. William Fulbright.