Background
In 1967, the History and Archaeology Students' Society was founded at the American University of Beirut. By 1975, it had published four issues of its scholarly journal The Apprentice (1970-1974), receiving commendations from late professor Kamal Salibi, provost and later FAS Dean Edwin Terry Prothro, and Board of Trustees chairman and later president Calvin H. Plimpton, as well as held a host of annual activities that included lectures with distinguished academics, receptions, and field trips.
Despite having earned a rightful place among the university's active social and academic student-led initiatives, the Society's activities were abruptly put to a halt with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), leaving it with a promising yet short-lived history.
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History and Archaeology Student Society (HAS) (2024 - Present)
In the Fall of 2024, students at the Department of History and Archaeology gathered to revive the Society. Following two brief periods of operation (1990-1999; 2014-2017), the Society has returned following the ambition of its predecessors but with a new set of goals.
Facing the current need for better engagement with critical issues in history and archaeology across campus, the Society is aimed at disseminating topics of public interest and contemporary relevance to non-specialist audiences alongside specialist ones. It is committed to promoting a vision of its disciplines that demonstrates dynamism, relevance, and critical engagement.
We aim to reach students from diverse academic backgrounds and cultivate a tradition of hosting stimulating events that exemplify the potential of history and archaeology in raising thought-provoking questions.
In addition to its public-oriented goal, the Society represents the departmental student community, organizing social gatherings, career orientation workshops, and committee meetings that review student academic concerns.
