Dr. Muhammad Faour

Muhammad Faour is a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center, where his research focuses on education reform in Arab countries, with an emphasis on citizenship education.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Faour was a Research Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at York University in Canada, where he studied social change and the demography of the Middle East, and conflict analysis and resolution. From 2007 to 2010, he was President of Dhofar University in Salalah, Oman. Faour also served as Deputy Vice President for Regional External Programs at the American University of Beirut (AUB) from 2000 to 2007. In that capacity, he led teams of AUB professors and staff in planning and implementing educational projects that aimed to establish new universities, colleges, and primary and secondary schools in several Arab countries. Prior to that, Faour was Professor of Sociology for more than 15 years and chaired AUB’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.  

A recipient of numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, Faour has also been a visiting researcher at several US universities, including Georgetown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and George Mason University, as well as a Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. In addition to his academic work, Faour has served as a consultant to several United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organization (NGOs).  

Faour is the author of numerous articles, several books and monographs, includingThe Silent Revolution in Lebanon: Changing Values of the Youth, and The Arab World after Desert Storm, and the co-author of University Students in Lebanon: Background and Attitudes. He holds a B.S. degree in biology-chemistry and an M.A. in sociology, both from the American University of Beirut, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA.