The Woodward Alumni Hall of Fame Association
Dr. Beshara Benard Doumani Inducted 2024 - Class of 1973
Dr. Doumani earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College in 1977, a Master of Arts degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University in 1980, and his Ph.D. in History also from Georgetown University in 1990. He serves as Professor of Palestinian Studies and Modern Middle East History at Brown.
Beshara’s professional accomplishments include founding pro-grams in Middle East Studies and New Directions in Palestinian Studies at Brown University. He is also the Founding Director of the Palestine Museum and Founder/Director of the Middle East Social and Cultural History Association. He has served on multiple research committees, editorial boards and has contributed to many published books and research journals.
Dr. Doumani served as interim President of Birzeit University in Palestine from 2021-2023. Professor Doumani's research focuses on groups, places, and time periods marginalized by mainstream scholarship on the early modern and modern Middle East, with a focus on the social, economic, and legal history of Eastern Mediterranean. He also writes on the topics of academic
freedom, and the Palestinian condition.
His books include Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900, and Family Life in the Ottoman Mediterranean: A Social History. He is currently working on the modern history of the Palestinians through the social life of stone.
Dr. Doumani is the editor of a book series on Palestinian Studies published by the University of California Press, and co-editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly. From 2009-2011, Doumani led a team that produced a strategic plan for the establishment of the Palestinian Museum. In 2015, Doumani received the Sawyer Seminar award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the proposal, Displacement and the Making of the Modern World: Histories, Ecologies, and Subjectivities.
Where did you attend grade school and/or junior high school? I attended Lagrange grade school in 1970 for a few days and then was bumped up to 10th grade at Woodward. Before that, I went to school in Lebanon.
In what neighborhood did you live while attending Woodward? Please describe it. 1970-1972 on Elm and Champlain, not far from Lagrange. It was a run-down house in a working class neighborhood which I came to know well as a paper delivery boy. From 1972 to 1973 on Walnut St. inside the housing project. An almost all-black neighborhood on edge of downtown.
Who were your best friends while attending Woodward? Did not have a best friend at Woodward, as I was much younger than my classmates and a new immigrant. But some were very kind and friendly: David Hall, Dave Pillion.
Describe an important and/or humorous thing(s) that happened to you while you were at Woodward. I can't recall the teacher, but he asked us to imagine a situation and take specific parts in it and then let the game play out based on our decisions. I learned more from that experience-based learning than anything else I did at school and I also made friends.
Who were your favorite teachers at Woodward? Why? Biology teacher: Mr.Daniel Duvendack; English Teacher: Mrs.Susan Sweet.
Did any Woodward staff members have a profound effect on you? Who? In what way did they affect you? I can't recall.
Please share one of your favorite memories of Woodward. Experiments in biology lab and going to the football games.
children, grandchildren, etc. Married for 35 years and counting. Two daughters, Tala (28) and Yara (23). Tala went to Harvard law School and works in NYC as a lawyer. Yara has an MA from London and is working as a curator at the Brooklyn Museum. Both went to Brown University. Both unmarried at this time. My wife, Issmat, worked in international development and the American Friends Service Committee and is retired.
What are your present hobbies? What do you do for fun? Spend time with the family, listen to music, travel, and watch movies.
How did you feel when you were formed of this honor?
Honored and humbled and very pleasantly surprised. Most of all, I felt I have come full circle and can reconnect with my friends and family.
While at Woodward, did you have any nicknames? What were they? What is the story behind them? Most everyone called me Bernie after my middle name, Bernard.