Samih Farsoun

Samih K. Farsoun (1937 – June 9, 2005) was a professor emeritus of sociology at American University, where he taught for thirty years until his retirement in 2003. The family was forced to leave their hometown during the Nakba in 1948. He died June 9 of a heart attack while on a walk with his wife in New Buffalo, Michigan. He was a resident of Florida and Washington, D.C. During his career at AU, Farsoun served as chairman of the Department of Sociology for eleven years, chairman and member of numerous university-wide committees. He also established (with John Willoughby) the Arab Studies minor in the Sociology department in 2001.

Farsoun was the founding dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the newly established American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates from 1997 to 1999. In 2004, Farsoun was named founding dean of Academic Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences at the newly established American University of Kuwait, where he served until February 2005.

An activist and mentor to young Arab-Americans, Farsoun was a founding member of several organizations and the author or editor of books and other writings on aspects of the Arab world, Third World development and the political economy of the Middle East. He lectured at conferences and provided commentary on radio and television news shows on the Middle East.

His accomplishments include: An updated Arabic edition was published in Beirut in 2003 An updated second edition, co-authored with Naseer Aruri, was published in 2006 "Culture and Customs of the Palestinians" (2004)

Additionally, he published papers, book chapters and articles. His works have been translated into several languages, including Arabic, Persian, French, Italian and German. Farsoun also published columns in Arabic and English journals and newspapers.