The Harvard Alumni Association has recently awarded the Lebanese historian and academic, Leila T. Fawaz, for her extraordinary service to the prominent Harvard University.
The award is given to alumni, former faculty and staff, and people affiliated with the university who are recognized for their service to the university in the fields of “teaching, fundraising, leadership, and innovation.”
“Fawaz has been unwavering in her dedication to Harvard,” stated the university in The Harvard Gazette.
Dr. Fawaz was born in Sudan to Lebanese parents and raised in Lebanon. She is an alumnus of the American University of Beirut, one of Lebanon’s top educational institutions, where she studied history.
She continued her studies at Harvard, according to the publications, and received her Ph.D. in 1979, and became a faculty member at one of the prestigious Little Ivies, Tufts University.
Today, she is Tufts’ Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies, as well as being its founding director.
She holds numerous accolades on her belt. In 2012, she was named Chevalier in the French National Order of the Legion of Honour, and later she received the Harvard Arab Alumni Association presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
She has also served as the President of the Harvard Board of Overseers.
According to an interview with An-Nahar, Dr. Fawaz was inspired by her teachers and professors. “My teachers both in school and university helped me become the person who I am today,” she told the newspaper.
Dr. Fawaz is one of three professors to be awarded. The university has postponed the 2020 Harvard Medals ceremony until it is safer to gather.