Professors at Work

Education Department Associate Professor Rola Khishfe has been training K-12 grade teachers how to teach students to argue, debate, and interact with one another on topics related to science and nature – in a way that allows them to disagree, but always in a civil manner. Evidence-based discussions on science and nature issues – like climate change, cloning, water resources, and many others – generate student interest because they impact people's lives and usually generate solid arguments for and against basic points. She explains how her work promotes debates and argumentation anchored in facts, while also teaching young people to accept other students' views because usually there are no explicitly right or wrong answers to seal a difference of opinion.

Dr Rihab Nasr, Tenured professor at the department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiological Sciences and director of cancer prevention and control program at the Naef K Basile Cancer Institute at the AUB Medical Center, has been internationally recognized for her breakthroughs in detecting leukemia and breast cancer at an early stage. She and her many colleagues' and students' innovations in early detection through simple blood tests promise good health and wellbeing for many people – but only, she explains, if the public education, policy-making, and commercial marketing worlds play their roles in working for the same aim.

Internationally renowned Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck's new collection is published this week by Penguin Poets – the first Arab poet they publish. She graduated from AUB with BA and MA degrees, and has been recognized and published across the world. In this discussion, she explains how the title of this book, ‘O', captures the 'o' in body, love, God, mother, joy, ode, home, memory, Lebanon, and other dimensions of people's lives. She reflects on how poetry amplifies the universal moments in life in the everyday sentiments and actions of people.

Food Security Program Director at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences Rami Zurayk analyzes the many dimensions of food security and insecurity, and how the Ukraine war has worsened stresses for many people around the world. Alongside Ukraine, he mentioned other factors that impact food availability, like climate change, sanctions, the Covid pandemic, local wars, and political economy decisions by predatory or corrupt governments in the north and south alike. Ukraine and Russia have reduced global food trade by just 3-5%, though grain importers like Lebanon and Egypt will suffer disproportionately. What's the solution? Enshrine people's right to a healthy diet, he says, and promote positive relationships between people and their landscapes, in order to safeguard both.

Ten years ago, English Department Lecturer in Creative Writing Rima Rantisi and some colleagues in a Hamra pub came up with the idea of launching a new student literary journal. Today, Rusted Radishes is published once a year in Arabic and English, and is open to AUB students and faculty and others across the Arab region. It has expanded beyond literary writing to include poetry, drama, essays, photography, graphics and other art forms. Rima Rantisi retraces this journey, which stresses training talented young writers and creative artists who address human, literary, political, artistic, and personal subjects, “without the interference of a censor – because literature and art get to the heart of issues that matter to people, and reflect the human condition.” The online selection of texts is at RustedRadishes.com, where the printed full version can be ordered.

Associate Professor of English Tariq Mehmood creates and teaches across a wide spectrum of original work, including poetry, novels for adolescents, films, documentaries, archival research, teaching and advising students, and analyzing, and now creating, video games. The new minor in video gaming at AUB aims to counter the gaming world's prevalent global portrayal of people of color from the global South as terrorists to be killed. The common thread in his life and work, he explains, is the struggle to find justice and his (and the non-White Global South's) place in this world, by breaking the norm of White supremacy and its legacy of imperialism. He says he wants to inspire young students to tell their own story, create their own heroes, “break the colonization of their minds” by the $200b gaming industry, and, ultimately, reclaim our own histories as a gift to future generations.

Who is responsible for alleviating or reducing the harm done to millions of people due to racism, colonialism, climate change, poverty and wars? AUB Philosophy professor and Mohammad Atallah Chair in Ethics Bashshar Haydar explains his research into this question and others, such as: what do we do about “innocent beneficiaries” of harmful conduct who did not contribute to the harm but gained from it? He also touches on the philosopher's role in raising public awareness about the facts and how they shape who does what to deal with the harm that lingers.

Dr Lana Salman, with her BA and MSc degrees from AUB, recently completed her PhD at University of California-Berkeley and is now a post-doctoral research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she is preparing a book on her research into local politics and citizen-state interactions in Tunisia. In this chat she retraces her journey in academia, the World Bank, and ethnographic research in Tunisia to share her lessons about Arab attempts at decentralization and democratization, with a local communities and urban lens. She debunks some prevalent tropes about democracy and how poor or marginalized people interact with their governments in Arab societies. Her conclusion: local government reforms are the easiest and least costly to do for countries that seek better governance and satisfied citizens.

Iman Nuwayhid's decades of experience as professor of environmental health, dean of the AUB Faculty of Public Health, and this year a visiting professor at Yale University, prompt him to call for a new way to address public health issues. In this interview he links three pivotal historical events in the USA and Arab lands – George Floy's killing in the USA that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, Mohammad Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia that triggered the Arab uprisings, and young Mohammad Durra's killing by Israeli soldiers in Gaza while he was in his father's arms, which sparked greater Palestinian popular resistance – that compel us to see people's pain, suffering and death as the consequence of deeper and global realities. Beyond isolated health issues that are counted and documented, we must grasp individual pain and death rather as reflections of systemic and trans-generational injustices. All over the world, going back centuries, these include racism, colonialism, occupation, corruption, and incompetent governance, which create “invisible wounds” that must be made visible, appreciated, and treated through political, social, economic and other means.

Dr. Jamil Mouawad, lecturer in the Political Studies and Public Administration Dept at AUB, has studied Lebanese politics for decades; he is publishing a new book on the nature of the state in Lebanon and how its citizens interact with the state. He explains his theory of Lebanon as a deliberately weakened and cannibalized state whose political elite governs through "shadow" institutions. Yet, he feels Lebanese citizens still yearn and work for a state that delivers its promise, and sees this as a moment to reconstruct the state in a way that allows it to serve all its citizens.

AUB Photojournalist-in-Residence George Azar in the Media Studies Program has covered the Middle Eats for the past 40 years for top Western and Middle Eastern media, including the New York Times, AP, Al Jazeera, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He explains how his ‘observational documentaries' strive to tell human stories that also shed light on larger political or social issues. Speaking from experience across continents and eras – from the 1980s Lebanon civil war to the ongoing uprisings in Arab lands – he shares what he has learned about political inclinations of different media firms. He also affirms the best practices he believes in, such as being fair-minded, listening to rather than judging people, and reporting on the ground from the perspective of ordinary men and women.

Marc Ayoub coordinated the energy policy and security program at AUB's Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, where he and colleagues worked on critical issues in the energy sector – which mostly remain unresolved. Now he's an Associate Fellow at IFI while mainly researching energy issues at the University of Limerick in Ireland. In this episode he looks back on attempts to engage and convince policy-makers to adopt more effective policies in fields like solar energy, electricity production, and others. He stresses that engaging with experts and citizens in all arenas is a critical step, for it allows public officials to develop trust in academic analyses that could help resolve critical issues that impact all citizens. That battle continues today, as experts in many countries try to solve the puzzle of how to translate technical knowledge into policy-relevant action.

Dr. Sonja Mejcher-Atassi, Associate Professor of English, has spent years documenting the story of an extraordinary group of young men and women, Christians, Muslims and Jews from Palestine, Lebanon, and Germany, who met weekly at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in the period immediately before the Nakba of 1948. Some of them went on to become internationally acclaimed writers, artists, and intellectuals, including Wald Khalidi and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. Dr Mejcher-Atassi explains some of the lessons she learned from her painstakingly slow research across many countries and disciplines, in official and private collections and archives. Her book on this historical moment brings to life these individuals' lives and what their group tells us about urban life in Palestine during a violent period of Palestinian and Zionist nationalist contestation and British colonial retreat.

Dr. Hiba Khodr, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Management, and a visiting scholar this year at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, is systematically analyzing how the four simultaneous crises in Lebanon have impacted society and how civil society has responded. She is exploring how three local organizations in thefields of health, finance, and humanitarian work responded in arenas where the state has failed to do so, and what the government is doing in some areas. outcome of her work will be an index to measure the impact of civil society in a crisis.  

Danyel Reiche, tenured associate professor of comparative politics at AUB, has studied for many years the relationship of sports to culture, religion, identity and other issues. He is on leave this year at Georgetown University-Qatar, where he directs the research initiative “Building a Legacy: Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022." He explains how the World Cup impacts different sectors in different ways and at different speeds, including migrant workers' rights, women's status, technological innovations. He also discusses how the boycott of Qatar by some Arab states and the World Cup activities both impacted the country in different ways.

Assistant Professor Nikolas Kosmatopoulos, in the Graduate Program in Public Policy and International Affairs and the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration, had led a research and teaching project on the hidden dimensions of the Mediterranean Sea, especially in politics and international relations. He explains how the sea matters in different ways to all the people who share it – in trade, migration, political protest, environmental conditions, labor, and other areas. But its prevailing rules and perceptions, set by modern European powers or centuries-old systems designed in imperial days for much larger oceans, need to be revised. His project on maritime politics in the Mediterranean also aims to make the sea visible again to the eyes of its citizens today.

Clinical Dietician May Sakr, with 20 years of experience at AUBMC's Department of Clinical Nutrition, speaks music to our ears when she advises us to “enjoy what makes you happy” – but she simultaneously speaks science when she says that while we eat what pleases us we must also balance among all the food groups and exercise regularly. She explains both the commercial and cultural dimensions of how we eat and the basic rules of healthy nutrition.

What do we know about the status of women in leadership positions in business? We now know quite a lot, thanks to Dr Lama Moussawi, tenured associate professor and associate dean for research and faculty development at the Olayan School of Business, and her colleagues at the Center for Inclusive Business and Leadership for Women. Three years ago they launched the center to find out exactly how women fared in this realm, and how more women could be hired, promoted, and retained. She explains the results of their regional research in 11 Arab countries, what they know about why women are not treated as well as men, why inclusive companies do better than non-inclusive ones, and how they plan to expand women's roles in business and leadership in the years ahead.

The career of Professor Salma Talhouk in the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management, started as a biodiversity conservation ‘lab scientist', and has transformed her into a ‘people scientist'. She explains her journey as one of understanding that we protect nature by getting people to directly enjoy nature. This requires changing behavior by understanding the drivers and contexts of people's lives, which is more challenging in today's mostly urbanized societies. So she seeks small victories in raising people's awareness and enjoyable experiences, even at the level of home balconies. She launched the AUB Botanic Gardens, having already directed the AUB Nature Conservatory, and now plans innovative projects like tapping grandparents as a positive resource, developing apps that raise people's awareness and enjoyment of nature, and interpreting the songs of Fairuz that touch on Lebanon's natural beauty and diversity.

Associate Professor and Psychiatry Department Chair Dr Fadi Maalouf expects a mental health pandemic to hit Lebanon and the Middle East after the COVID crisis recedes –at a time when just 5 percent of mental health patients receive treatment, compared to 50 percent globally. In this episode he reviews the growing worry and anxiety symptoms among children and adults, and explains why schools are so critical in addressing this trend. It's normal to experience heightened distress and negative feelings in today's conditions, he notes, but adds that such common mental health issues are treatable. Many people do not take advantage of mental health counselling due to cost and lack of availability, not shame, he says.

When the COVID-19 virus hit two years ago, AUB Associate Professor of pathology, virology and immunology Hassan Zaraket spiked to a new level of action. He adjusted his lab research -- on the genetic makeup of viruses and their spread, mutations, and vaccine responses -- to develop new diagnostic tests that can be used on the front line of public health action in Lebanon and across the region. He also shifted slowly to assess other respiratory transmissions, and the impact of masks and distancing. He talks about his research on infected patients and staff in the hospital emergency rooms, to determine the impact of more fresh air on the virus' spread, and shares what he has learned about the best ways to reach the public with practical tips on staying healthy.

Professor Sumru Altug, Chair of the AUB Economics Department, explores whether geographical proximity can stimulate economic growth and diversification in nearby countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Her analysis of the impact of trade, physical proximity, and institutions suggests that the spillover effect is limited, other than workers' remittances. This probably reflects the distorting dominance of oil and gas in MENA economies, and the political capture of states by their elites.

Associate professor of hydrogeology in the Geology Department, Dr. Joanna Doummar, explains the existing stresses on the limited and erratic quantities of groundwater reserves in Lebanon, which is the main source of fresh water for most countries in the region. By monitoring flows of water into complex underground aquifers, she models the operations of entire water catchment areas and springs that will also be impacted by population growth and climate change. Quality of water is also constantly monitored, which allows her and her colleagues to develop early warning systems and models to catch problems before they get out of control.

Professor Elie Shammas of the mechanical engineering department has investigated and created robotic and bio-robotic “shape controllable structures” that perform duties beyond the abilities of human brings – like remotely controlled snake robots that slide and slither wherever they are needed. He explains the progress he and his colleagues have made in areas like dangerous search and rescue operations and delicate medical work. His latest research includes medical forceps that retrieve objects from inside human bodies, and scanning technology that measures tooth movement during operations.

Economics professor and former director of the Institute of Financial Economics, Simon Neaime, sees hard times ahead as Lebanon's problematic political class shows no will to fix the country's economic decline. He sees added pressures from regional stresses of poverty, inequality, and unemployment, though countries like Jordan and Egypt have taken decisive measures that elude Lebanon. He sees hope in the students and young people he encounters daily, who insist on identifying the political changes needed to save the country, including reducing corruption.

Joseph Costantine, Associate Professors in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at AUB, helps chart the future of wearable electromagnetic devices that measure various human body conditions like blood sugar or cancer. He explains how he embarked on this path that has led to his being chosen one of ten World Economic Forum global young scientists, who each contribute to the development of technologies that could improve humankind's wellbeing.

Dr. Faysal Kak's research and policy interventions have covered a wide range of issues related to women's reproductive and sexual health in Lebanon and the region. This includes rising and falling maternal mortality rates, and empowering youth by integrating sexuality and rights into community life in conservative societies. As Senior Lecturer of Health Behavior and Sexuality & Public Health, and Director of the Women Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) Program at AUB Medical Center, he explains the different threats to women's wellbeing at home, school, work, and across society, and how training, laws, advocacy and shelters reduce some problems.

AUB chemical engineering MSc student Elsy Milan uses 3D computer modelling to investigate how CO2 in the atmosphere can be captured and safely stored underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Her pioneering work analyzes data from 42 projects around the world to determine if available subsurface spaces could safely store CO2 in the atmosphere that – if left unchecked – threatens the viability of life on earth. She explains that her next step in the research is to simulate if the CO2 can be safely captured and stored in individual underground reservoirs.

Senior lecturer in English and comparative literature Sirene Harb was just honored by the Arab American Book Awards for her publication Articulations of Resistance Transformative Practices in Contemporary Arab-American Poetry. She explains her analyses of Arab-American poets, especially women, who represent their own understandings of time, space, resistance, and identities, often in daring experimental forms of poetry. Arab-American poets' sentiments and perceptions of themselves in society also frequently link with similar attitudes among African-American and Arab women, especially in racial discrimination.

AUB Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Elias Ghossoub analyzed global research to identify high risk factors for homicide-suicides – when someone kills someone and then commits suicide – during high stress periods such as pandemics. Because these rare events have such serious consequences, Dr Ghossoub and his colleagues have analyzed data in Lebanon that matches known symptoms of homicide-suicides. These include higher rates of depression and suicide thoughts, as witnessed in Lebanon these days. This prompted him to design recommendations for psychiatrists and MDs to screen all their patients for` troubling symptoms. He also explains other high risk symptoms associated with this phenomenon, and his recommendations for immediate interventions.

Rida Elias, assistant professor at the Olayan School of Business, explains what she has discovered by researching top leadership succession in corporations. Too often CEOs, whose work is 75% with people and institutions outside the firm, refuse to leave power. This leads to messy successions, which is why she recommends 4-6-month-long transition periods for CEO changes. COOs, on the other hand, mostly deal with internal issues, where the succession is less complex.

AUB's Laboratories for the Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), directed by Associate Professor Mohamad Abiad of the Nutrition and Food Sciences Department at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, explains how the labs play a national role well beyond the university campus. They regularly sample and test food, water, soil, and air samples to identify dangers and affirm the safety of the many elements that ultimately end up inside our bodies. They now also test the grains left in the port after the 2020 explosion, to determine which could be safely consumed by humans or animals, and which can be recycled for compost, heating briquets, and other useful materials. Smuggled and untested imported food, though, remains a problem for the country.

Alissar Yehya is an assistant professor in AUB's civil and environmental engineering department whose research in Lebanon aims to bridge the gaps between engineering solutions, environmental sustainability, social justice, and gender equity. She does this by exploring technical and social dimensions of “period poverty” among women who lack access to menstrual products, water and sanitation facilities, or relevant knowledge. She explains how she and her colleagues create human-centered and eco-effective strategies to manufacture reusable menstrual pads that are affordable, effective, and not harmful to the environment. That's where local banana fibers enter this picture of pioneering efforts that join hard science and design with social and environmental equity.

Marco Bardus, assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences department of health promotion and community health, has spent his last 15 years at AUB exploring how digital technologies – cellphones, apps, laptops and others – can successfully promote health interventions. He has experimented with digital social marketing that targets individuals, families, or the entire community, always aiming to nudge citizens to adopt better health habits. The Covid-19 era, he explains, has opened new vistas of digital applications that can save time and money, and increase people's access to health care.

Lara Nasreddine, tenured professor of nutrition and food sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, has conducted research since 2007 that identifies alarming trends in diet-related diseases across Lebanon. She explains how diet is among the top three risk factors for death, how youth are a most vulnerable age group for food marketers, and why eating habits formed early in life critically shape lifelong habits – which is why she focuses now on early life nutrition habits.

AUB professor of chemistry Bilal Kaafarani describes how in his 18 years at AUB he has pioneered new means of “transformative education” that allow students to learn by engaging in activities beyond the classroom. He explains the benefits and power of “experiential learning” opportunities by which undergraduate students partner with alumni, professors, successful professionals, and other students, including in open chemistry competitions, that link teaching with students' real life experiences.

Dr Ghazi Zaatari, professor and chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at AUB Medical Center, is a world leader in studying the impact of tobacco on people's health and advocating for reducing the use of tobacco products. He founded the Tobacco Research Group at AUB and heads the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Products Regulation. In this episode he retraces his journey from a young scientist who was alarmed by the high rates of cancer in Lebanon to a global leader in advocating for control of the promotion and use of cigarettes, water pipes, vaping products and other damaging habits.

Dr Nuhad Dumit, Associate Professor at the Hariri School of Nursing and coordinator of the Nursing Administration and Management Track Masters degree, explains how she and her colleagues have spent years understanding the many factors that prompt Lebanese nurses to emigrate abroad – or from rural areas to Beirut – which has resulted in a serious shortage of nurses across the country. Salaries and the work environment play big roles in this, and she is now also exploring whether sexual harassment at work is also a factor. New models of nursing care have maintained health care standards to date, but danger lurks if the nursing sector continues along its current trajectory.

Joe Bahout, director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) and associate professor of Political Studies and Public Administration, analyzes the stresses and weaknesses of today's Arab states that largely ignored or marginalized their societies and citizens. The resurgence of society on the national stage today, he says, gives IFI and AUB an unprecedented opportunity to impact state policies in Lebanon and the region.

Sahar Assaf, on leave from her post as AUB Assistant Professor of Theater Arts and co-director of the Theater Initiative, is executive artistic director of the Golden Thread Productions company in San Francisco. She recounts her lifelong professional and personal journey from her youth in Lebanon, when she saw theater as an escape into an alternative world where one could remain happy; in recent years she discovered the transformative power of ‘documentary theater' – no longer a means of escape, but a way to fight forward and resist the stresses and injustices of the status quo. On her journey, she also seeks to show the ‘spaces of joy' in the Middle East that are not often portrayed abroad.

Tenured Professor of Pediatric Neurology and Neurogenetics Rose Mary Boustani has spent decades at AUB and Duke University tracking down the individual molecules, genes, and cells that cause rare childhood and adolescent diseases that had long been seen as incurable. She explains how she and her colleagues achieved several breakthroughs that have improved and prolonged the lives of many children, and patented several discoveries on the way. Her next frontier at AUM Medical Center is how we can best respond to autism, while also researching and testing new drugs.

Dr. Omar Sirri, affiliated scholar at AUB's Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, recently received his PhD degree at the University of Toronto. He discusses his years of research on the symbolism, roles, and fate of security checkpoints across Baghdad since the 2003 invasion, and how they link to issues of identity, sectarianism and power in Iraq and the wider region.

Professor Rima Habib, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Faculty of Health Sciences, has spent decades studying the health and living conditions of low-income marginalized communities in Lebanon. Her latest research reveals the many dangers facing Syrian refugee working children aged 8-18, including injury, verbal and physical abuse, and even death. The insecurities that plague poor Syrian refugees also are common among Palestinian refugees and low-income Lebanese. They all require a coordinated policy response from multiple state and international agencies, with strict enforcement, which are often elusive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2WVKAZWqWs (See this short video by Rima Habib and her team that brings to life the Syrian refugee working children in Lebanon and their difficult conditions.)

Assistant Professor of Medicine Carine Sakr-Chaptini, Director of the AUB Expert Committee on COVID-19, explains how she and her colleagues are continuously humbled to keep learning about how the virus operates and how people react to measures to contain it. Science and data drive AUB's policy response to protect its community and all Lebanon, but collaboration across sectors and medical personnel is also critical.

Fadi El-Jardali, tenured Associate Professor of Health Policy and Systems in AUB's Faculty of Health Sciences, founded and still leads the pioneering Knowledge To Policy (K2P) center at AUB, which identifies how scholars can channel their research knowledge to positively influence policy-making. This effort is all the more vital in emergency situations like today's pandemic, as he explains, but also in routine efforts such as the drive to control tobacco use in society.

Dr George Saliba, Professor and Director of AUB's Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy, explains how his research identifies how Arab and Greek scholars and philosophers jointly articulated new knowledge that went on to spark the European Renaissance. His research also offers new ideas on why European powers rose and Arab-Islamic-Indian-Chinese and other societies declined after the discovery of the New World's gold and silver.

Professor Alan Shihadeh, dean of the Maroun Simaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, explains what he and his colleagues have learned in AUB's Aerosols Research Lab over the last 20 years. From water pipe smoking to Beirut's air after the port explosion and mass use of diesel generators, aerosols are often dangerous to our health, he notes. He also talks about how the knowledge they generate can help shape public policies in Lebanon and around the world.

Sari Hanafi, AUB Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Islamic Studies program, is also the President of the International Sociological Association. In this episode he explains his journey from analyzing knowledge production in the Arab region to how scientific research can reach policy-makers, and to his current research on why a deep dialog is needed between religion and the social sciences.

Associate Professor of Education Rima Karami describes how her on-the-ground research in primary and secondary schools in Lebanon and other Arab countries identifies reasons for the education system's weak performance – and how to work with students, teachers, and principals to raise standards and student learning outcomes.

Education Department Associate Professor and developmental psychologist Tamer Amin is analyzing common language metaphors and diagrams that science teachers use – but which some students may not fully comprehend. He explains how his study of language usage, simulations, and the learning process identify weak spots in science learning today, while also aiming to bring about more effective science teaching.

Biology Professor Imad Saoud, a specialist in agriculture and aquatic science, is fermenting restaurant food waste and feeding 1000 fish in a pond at AUB's Beqaa Valley Agricultural Station. He and his colleagues are exploring the potential for producing animal feed at a fraction of commercial prices, mainly to feed fish, poultry, and cows for now. He explains his scientific journey and the potential of their research.