News Highlights
Author:
Maha Al-Azar,
Media Relations Officer,
Office of Information and Public Relations,
ma110@aub.edu.lb
 President John Waterbury's opening remarks
Hanan Ashrawi's acceptance speech
Mona Hatoum's acceptance speech
Irene Khan's acceptance speech
Orhan Pamuk's acceptance speech
Georges Tohme's acceptance speech
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Waterbury, along with five figures that left their mark on Mideast, receive honorary doctorates
[L-R] Tohme, Pamuk, Khan, Hatoum, and Ashrawi with Waterbury at the podium |
The American University of Beirut awarded on June 28 honorary doctoral degrees to five individuals--along with a surprise doctorate to President John Waterbury--who left their imprint on the Middle East and the world through their five respective fields: peace activism and mediation, art, human rights activism, literature, and environmental science. The award ceremony, took place at noon in Assembly Hall, coinciding with the University's 139th Commencement, which was scheduled for later that day.
The five recipients were: Palestinian peace activist Hanan Ashrawi, Lebanese-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum, Bangladeshi human rights activist Irene Khan, Turkish writer and Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk, and Lebanese environmentalist and scientist Georges Tohme.
The event started with the traditional procession of faculty members in their academic regalia, led by Chief Marshall Nabil Dajani, who opened and closed the ceremony.
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 | Provost Heath helps Ashrawi put on her doctoral cape
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Honorary degree recipients were introduced by Waterbury, who reestablished the tradition in 2003, after it was suspended for several years due to the 1975-1990 war. Waterbury, himself, received a surprise honorary doctorate, in "recognition and appreciation of his great efforts and achievements, during his ten-year term as president of AUB," as Dr. Thomas Morris, president of the AUB Board of Trustees said, in introduction.
"Over these last six years the arrival in Lebanon and on AUB's campus of outstanding citizens of the world, like those we honor today, has kept hope alive and affirmed the faith so many hold in Lebanon's and this university's future," said Waterbury, in his welcome remarks.
Palestinian peace activist Hanan Ashrawi, who was introduced by Waterbury as a "scholar, writer, teacher, activist, elected representative, spokesperson, peace maker...all these things and more," criticized Israel's actions against Palestinians, including the construction of the separation wall, military checkpoints and settlements.
In conclusion, Ashrawi urged people not to allow themselves to succumb to complacency.
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 | Hatoum receives her doctorate...
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"In Palestine (as in Lebanon and other stricken lands), when the public space becomes constricted and opaque and the discourse of deception prevails, and when power constructs supersede human/humane considerations, we need the courage to intervene before inaction becomes complicity and acquiescence turns to defeat," she said. "That is why we are assembled here today--not only to celebrate the creative and compassionate voice, but also to engage in a collective act of provocation. For we are required to dismantle not only illegal settlements but also coercive constructs of mental and physical intimidation; to challenge not only the confines of prison cells and checkpoints, but also the blockade of ignorance and abuse; to lift not only the siege of the land but also of absolutist ideology and complacency. Unless we agitate, dear friends, we will not be able to provide our children (and grandchildren) with that rare gift of a future of tolerance and tranquility."
Waterbury then introduced London-based Lebanese-Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum as a provocative artist that "shocks and disturbs," and transforms a familiar object into one that we don't recognize.
"Unfortunately for us the world we live in is both familiar and alien, of our making and yet somehow repulsive. Fortunately for us it is this same world that has inspired Mona Hatoum and drawn us to her work like moths to a flame," he said.
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 | Khan: 'Security of the state is trumping security of people'
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On receiving her doctorate, Hatoum thanked AUB and her family, while noting the irony of having been rejected by AUB when she applied for undergraduate studies.
Born in East Pakistan [now Bangladesh], Irene Khan was also one who had provoked the world with her persistent human rights activism and her leading role as secretary-general of Amnesty International as well as her 20-year career with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
While introducing her, Waterbury quoted a 2006 speech she made in the West Bank, on International Human Rights Day. "Today far too many leaders are trampling freedom and trumpeting an ever-widening range of fears: fear of being swamped by migrants; fear of 'the other' and of losing one's identity; fear of being blown up by terrorists; fear of 'rogue states' with weapons of mass destruction," had said Khan in 2006. "History shows that it is not through fear but through hope and optimism that progress is achieved. So, why do some leaders promote fear? Because it allows them to consolidate their own power, create false certainties and escape accountability." |
 | Pamuk-- Istanbul's 'current interpreter and prose painter'
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Khan thanked AUB for this honor, saying: "Unlike Hanan or Mona, I have no prior attachment to this university, but I am deeply honored by this recognition, because it comes from a university that upholds the value of persistence. In a region torn by violence and injustice, the AUB has persisted in its mission to spread liberal thought and learning."
Khan imparted some of her energy and passion for the cause of human rights to the audience, urging them not to give way to complacency, as "a lot remains to be done."
"Unfortunately," she added, "the promise of human rights is being daily betrayed: betrayed in times of war as well as peace: here, in the Middle East or in the western democratic countries, through old-fashioned repression of civil and political rights, and through the widespread neglect of economic and social rights... Security of the state is trumping security of people."
She ended by saying that AUB gives its students a lot of inspiration to be activists. |
 | Tohme-- a towering figure among Lebanon's naturalists
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Turkish Nobel-laureate Orhan Pamuk, or "Istanbul's current interpreter and prose painter," as Waterbury put it, was next.
"One could no more take Orhan Pamuk out of Istanbul than Woody Allen out of New York, Naguib Mahfouz out of Cairo, or Fairouz out of Beirut," added Waterbury. "In his own mind, he sees himself doing to or for Istanbul what James Joyce did to or for Dublin. Because Dublin, like Istanbul, was on the margin of Europe, looking at it, yearning for it, but not, yet, legitimately part of it."
Pamuk, delivered a brief thank-you speech, in which he explained his motivation for writing: to address problems of the heart and those of the home. "And home can be our parents' home, the homeland, and everything that gives us shelter, peace, and security. We think of the home as something unique and different from any other place. Here in Beirut, I feel so much at home. That's why this distinction feels so sweet. Thank you," he said.
Finally, Waterbury introduced Lebanese environmentalist and scientific researcher, Georges Tohme, who is the president of the Board of Directors of the Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research and was formerly president of the Lebanese University. |
 | Waterbury receives surprise doctorate for his contributions to AUB
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"He is a towering figure among Lebanon's naturalists and in many ways its first environmentalist," said Waterbury. "While others of us lament the passing of the Lebanon with pristine mountains, clean water, and abundant wild life, Georges Tohme has devoted his life to trying to protect it, and, failing that, to at least understand what we are losing."
Tohme thanked AUB and praised Waterbury for the period in which he "worked so silently" calling it, "as one of the most productive eras," of the University.
"In fact, any observer...cannot but acknowledge the high standards of the professors of this university. It has elite researchers who have been the strongest ally of the National Council for Scientific Research ever since I was appointed to it fifteen years ago. This distinguishes Lebanon and shows the world that this small nation contributes to progress with its steadfast academics," he added.
As Waterbury was about to get up and declare officially the conferring of the doctorates to the five recipients, Dr. Thomas Morris, chairman of the AUB Board of Trustees, went up to the podium, congratulated recipients and expressed the Board of Trustees appreciation for the President's hard work and commitment to the process which allowed the success of the Honorary Doctorates Awards Ceremony.
He then highlighted the achievements the president made during his ten-year term, noting that when the board chose him as president, it was because he combined a number of qualifications that the University needed in order to rise again after the end of the 1975-1990 war in Lebanon. "It was great to find someone who was an academic that was recognized worldwide, with fundraising skills, and administrative leadership."
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 | A reception followed the ceremony, outside Assembly Hall...
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"Everybody knows that the academic standing of this university has improved tremendously. And that's not by our own recognition, but it is attested by the fact that we have been attracting excellent faculty from all over the world, and by the fact that accreditation bodies have been recognizing our faculties, and by the fact that we have improved our financial aid program, our facilities, and infrastructure," he said, adding that Waterbury had succeeded in accomplishing an extraordinary development campaign not achieved anywhere in the region. "While doing all this, he also maintained the University's ethos of upholding freedom of exchange of ideas and expression and promoting tolerance among people. So on behalf of the BOT, I am pleased to include you among this year's recipients," he said, to the utter surprise of all.
President Waterbury responded: "I have been working with Tom Morris for 10 years and he still surprises me. I am so grateful-- beyond words. There is no institution in the world from which I would like to receive an honorary degree, as I would from AUB--because I know this institution well. And because during my term, here, whenever I would attend an official function, I would always be surrounded by people who either had graduated from the University or had cousins who had. Now I can say that I am a graduate of this University too." |
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