Founding director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies is honored for contributions to her field and to the university
“Leila Fawaz is what we hope all faculty are in the classroom: enthusiastic, evidence-based, capable of presenting arguments from all sides, insisting that students make up their own minds,” said Sol Gittleman, Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor Emeritus and former Tufts provost. “As a scholar of the Middle East, she has attained the hard-won historian’s noble dream of finding the truth.” Photo: Jake Belcher
Leila Fawaz was awarded the Provost’s Medal on December 5 in recognition of her nearly 50-year career as a distinguished social historian of the Eastern Mediterranean region, with specific emphasis on the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Provost Caroline Genco awarded the medal to Fawaz in a ceremony in Ballou Hall, with dozens of colleagues and friends in attendance. Upon her retirement from Tufts in July 2024, Fawaz was named Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies Emerita.
“Dr. Fawaz’s international stature and service to her profession outside of Tufts cannot be overstated,” Genco said. “The numerous awards and recognitions she has received from peers, esteemed institutions, and governments could not have been awarded to a more dedicated or deserving scholar.”
Over her 46-year career at Tufts, Fawaz held numerous roles, including chairing the Department of History and serving as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson College and associate dean of the faculty. In 2001, she helped to launch the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies and served as its founding director until 2012.
Among those colleagues welcomed to the podium to speak to their personal relationships and professional interactions with Fawaz was Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
“[Leila] has an incredible way of dropping a much-needed pearl of wisdom in your ear when you need it at exactly the right moment and knowing when to give you that right push of encouragement and pat on the back at the time you need it as well,” said Gallagher.
In describing the significance of Fawaz’s contributions to her field, Gallagher added, “She is a social historian at heart... I think this is what Leila has always been fascinated by, and how she has made such a great mark with her scholarship.”
Also offering praise to Fawaz was Sol Gittleman, Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor Emeritus and former Tufts provost. “Leila Fawaz is what we hope all faculty are in the classroom: enthusiastic, evidence-based, capable of presenting arguments from all sides, insisting that students make up their own minds,” Gittleman said. “Nearly every review of her scholarship talks about the meticulous even-handedness and objectivity of her research, even as her homeland and family were suffering from centuries-old conflicts. As a scholar of the Middle East, she has attained the hard-won historian’s noble dream of finding the truth.”
Fawaz is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Comité Scientifique of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme at the Université d'Aix-Marseille in France. She served on several committees for the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg, France, as well as on committees of the Social Science Research Council, the Steering Committee of the European Science Foundation, and as a delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies.
Fawaz has been awarded fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and has received the Lillian Leibner Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising at Tufts. She served as a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Politiques et Sociales, Paris, and at the Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence. In 2000, she received the International Institute of Boston's New Citizen Award, which is given to immigrants who have made significant contributions within their respective communities.
Fawaz has served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the Alumni Association in North America of the American University of Beirut (AANA). As AANA president, she also served as ex-officio trustee on the American University of Beirut Board of Trustees.
Other recognition for Fawaz includes being named a Chevalier in the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, France's highest award.
The Provost’s Medal is awarded to distinguished national and international figures as well as those who have performed extraordinary service to the university. The recipient must be both recommended by the provost and approved by the university president. Fawaz is the eleventh recipient of the award since its establishment in 1997. Past recipients of the Provost’s Medal include esteemed philosophers, economists, presidents, CEOs, and deans of Tufts University. The full list of medal recipients can be found on the Provost’s Office website.
