Malcolm H. Kerr

Malcomb H. Kerr (1931-1984) was a university professor, specializing in the Middle East and the Arab world. Although a citizen of the United States of America, he was born and raised, and died, in Beirut, Lebanon. He served as President of the American University of Beirut, a major institution of learning.

Life and career

Malcolm Kerr's youth was spent in Lebanon, on and near the campus of the American University of Beirut, where his parents taught for forty years.^[1] During World War II the family relocated to Princeton University in New Jersey. After the war they returned to Beirut. Soon Malcomb went back alone to the U.S.A., graduating from high school at the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

His undergraduate degree in 1953 came from Princeton University where he had studied with Prof. Philip Hitti. An early onset of arthritis caused him to return to his family in Lebanon; he entered a masters program, completing it in 1955 at the American University of Beirut. Here he met his wife, Ann Zwicker Kerr; they were gifted with four children. He commenced his graduate work in Baltimore at the School for Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, from where he received his Ph.D. in 1958. His dissertation was written "under the guidance of Majid Khadduri and Sir Hamilton Gibb."^[2]

Following his doctorate, Kerr returned to teach at the American University of Beirut for three years. In 1959 his first book was published, emerging from his master's thesis: Lebanon in the Last Years of Feudalism. Then at Oxford University he did post-doctorate work for a year with Prof. Albert Hourani. Prof. Gustave von Grunebaum had already recruited Kerr for a teaching post at the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.); his career matured over the course of twenty years there, 1962 to 1982.

Prof. Kerr and his family returned often to Beirut, Lebanon, during vacations and breaks from U.C.L.A. In 1964-1965 an academic grant, however, sent him to Cairo, Egypt, where he worked on his most well-known book The Arab Cold War. That was published, and the next year he published Islamic Reform, a reworking of his doctorate dissertation. Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Prof. Kerr sensed a drastic change for the worse in the tone of Arab politics, which became harsh and bitter. In 1970-1971 he accepted an academic grant to France and North Africa; there he worked on a third edition of The Arab Cold War. Prof. Kerr served as president of the Middle East Studies Association in 1972.^[3]

While teaching at U.C.L.A. in Los Angeles, he was appointed chairman of the Department of Political Science. Later he served as Dean in the Division of Social Sciences from 1973 to 1976.

The Civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990), which often severely disrupted all life in Beirut, also interrupted Kerr family travel. During 1976-1977 Kerr served as 'visiting distinguished professor' at the American University in Cairo. Eventually he marshalled a Ford Foundation grant to fund a joint project of the Von Grunebaum Center at U.C.L.A. (which he then headed) and the Strategic Studies of the Al-Ahram Foundation in Egypt. He returned to Cairo in 1979, where he edited the results of this joint Egyptian-American academic effort, the book Rich and Poor States in the Middle East.

His own scholarship was forthright and honest to the point of sometimes getting him into trouble. While he was often thought of as 'pro-Arab' in writing about the Israeli-Arab conflict, he could be as critical of the Arabs as he was of the Israelis. He spoke the truth as he saw it and was committed to the cause of Arab-Israeli peace and to building understanding between the Arab World and the West."^[4]

The Presidency of the American University of Beirut was offered to Prof. Kerr in 1982. Although the civil war in Lebanon was still being fiercely battled on occasion, the recent exit of the Palestinian Liberation Organization from the country and other positive signs encouraged hope for resolution. "Betting on these chances and feeling a sense of calling to the job, the Kerrs decided to go to Beirut." He accepted the position, serving as President for seventeen months.^[5] On January 18, 1984, he was shot and killed by two gunmen outside his office; he was 52. A telephone call from Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility.^[6] His sudden death, another tragic event in the Lebanese civil war, appeared world-wide in the news media.^[7]

Publications

• Malcolm H. Kerr, Lebanon in the Last Years of Feudalism 1840-1868. A contemporary account by Antun Dahir Al-Aqiqi (American University of Beirut 1959)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, The Arab Cold War. Gamel Abd al-Nasr and his Rivals, 1958-1970 (Oxford University 1965, 3d ed. 1975)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform. The political and legal theories of Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Ridā (Princeton University 1966)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, The Elusive Peace in the Middle East (SUNY 1975)
• Abraham S. Becker, Bent Hudson, & Malcolm H. Kerr, editors, Economics and Politics of the Middle East (New York: Elsevier 1975)
• Malcolm H. Kerr and al-Sayyid Yasin, editors, Rich and Poor States in the Middle East. Egypt and the New Arab Order (Westview 1982)
• Samir Seikaly and Ramzi Ba'labakki, editors, Quest for Understanding. Arabic and Islamic studies in honor of Malcolm H. Kerr (American University of Beirut 1991)

Reference notes

1. ^ His father taught as Professor of Biochemistry at the University; his mother served as Dean of Women for a term. "Malcolm H. Kerr" at American University of Beirut
2. ^ Kerr, "Preface" to his Islamic Reform (1966).
3. ^ Subsequently an award of the Middle East Studies Association was named in his honor: MESA's Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Awards]
4. ^ At MESA: "Malcolm H. Kerr biography" by Ann Z. Kerr
5. ^ Appointed President in March, effective July 1, due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut, he worked first from the New York office, arriving at the University in September, 1982. "Malcolm H. Kerr" at American University of Beirut
6. ^ At MESA: "Malcolm H. Kerr biography" by Ann Z. Kerr Text and Beirut quotation.
7. ^ American University of Beirut: newsletter 1999 "Malcolm H. Kerr Biography" [cached at Google]. Condolences and remembrance came from many sources.

See also

• Muhammad Abduh
• Rashid Rida
• Gamel Abd al-Nasr
• American University of Beirut