Leila Fawaz, Issam M. Fares Professor Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies and founding director of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, will be stepping down from her role as director of the Fares Center at the end of the current academic year, according to an email sent to the Tufts community by Peggy Newell, Provost and Senior Vice President ad interim. Fawaz will return to the faculty and expand her research.
Leila Fawaz, courtesy George Ellmore
“Leila has been a true force at Tufts since she arrived on campus,” Newell said in the email. Newell’s message does not mention plans to search for a replacement for Fawaz.
Among Fawaz’s many career successes, she has served as chair of the History department, and is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University, according to the email.
The end of Fawaz’s tenure as director comes on the heels of Associate Director of the Fares Center Vali Nasr’s announcement in early April of his plans to accept a deanship position at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.