Beshara Doumani () is a
Palestinian-American
Palestinian Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Palestinian descent.
There are around 160,000 Palestinian American refugees according to the 2023 American Community Survey, making up around 0.05% of the U.S. population.
Th ...
academic who previously served as the president of
Birzeit University
Birzeit University () is a public university in the West Bank, Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as a charitable organization. It is accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mini ...
from 2021 to 2023. Prior to that, he was the
Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish (; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinians, Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declarat ...
Professor of
Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
Studies at
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
. His research focuses on groups, places, and time periods marginalized by mainstream scholarship on the early modern and modern
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. He is also a public intellectual who writes on the topics of displacement, academic freedom, politics of knowledge production, and the Palestinian condition.
Biography
Doumani is a
Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
whose family was displaced from
Haifa
Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
during the
1947–1949 Palestine war.
He was born in
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
but spent his youth in
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
until moving to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1970.
[ He received his B.A. in History from ]Kenyon College
Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...
in Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
in 1977. In 1980, he earned an M.A. from Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
, where he would later receive his Ph.D. in 1990.
Academic career
Before coming to Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
Department of History in 2012, and helped establish the Brown Middle East Studies Program, he was a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
from 1998 to 2012, and a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
from 1989 to 1998.
From 1996 to 1997 he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...
in Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
. From 2001 to 2002, he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and from 2007 to 2008 at Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
. He was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...
in Princeton, New Jersey from 2018 to 2019.[
From 2012 to 2018, Doumani was the founding director of Brown University's Center for Middle East Studies.] From 2012 to 2020 he was the Joukowsky Family Distinguished Professor of Modern Middle East History at Brown.[ In July 2020, he became the inaugural Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies, the first named chair of Palestinian Studies in an American university.] The position is named for the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish (; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinians, Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declarat ...
.[
Doumani's specialty is the social, cultural, and legal history of the early modern and modern ]Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
.
His books include ''Family Life in the Ottoman Mediterranean: A Social History'' (2017), ''Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus 1700-1900'', ''Academic Freedom After September 11'' (editor), and ''Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property and Gender'' (editor). Doumani has also published numerous articles on Palestinian history and historiography, including "Archiving Palestine and the Palestinians: The Patrimony of Ihsan Nimr", "Palestine Versus the Palestinians? The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied", and "Rediscovering Ottoman Palestine: Writing Palestinians into History", among others.
Doumani is the founder of the New Directions in Palestinian Studies research initiative, and editor of its open-access book series, published by the University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
. He serves on the editorial committees of the '' Journal of Palestine Studies'' and the ''Jerusalem Quarterly''. In 2017, he received the Sawyer Seminar award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for his proposal, "Displacement and the Making of the Modern World: Histories, Ecologies, and Subjectivities," and organized the yearlong series of workshops, seminars, courses, and cultural activities for the Seminar.
From 2008 to 2010, Doumani led a team that produced a strategic plan for the establishment of a Palestinian museum in Birzeit.
Bibliography
*
*''Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900,'' University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 1995.
*''Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender'' (editor), SUNY Press
The State University of New York Press (more commonly referred to as the SUNY Press) is a university press affiliated with the State University of New York system. The press, which was founded in 1966, is located in Albany, New York and publishe ...
, 2003.
*''Academic Freedom After September 11'' (editor), Zone Books/MIT Press
The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
, 2006.
*''Family Life in the Ottoman Mediterranean: A Social History,'' Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 2017.
References
;Sources
Profile of Beshara Doumani at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doumani, Beshara
21st-century American historians
Historians of the Middle East
Writers on the Middle East
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
Kenyon College alumni
Georgetown University alumni
University of Pennsylvania faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
American people of Palestinian descent
1957 births
Living people
Brown University faculty
Historians from California
Academic staff of Birzeit University
Presidents of Birzeit University