The Hamilton A.R. Gibb Lecture Series in Islamic history, social studies and culture was established at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in 1964 with funds generously donated by Mr. John Goelet, himself a student of Professor Gibb. It stands as a memorial to Sir Gibb’s longstanding commitment to the expansion and deepening of teaching and research on the Middle East at Harvard and beyond. Professor Gibb was Harvard's Jewett Professor of Arabic. His distinguished publication record included Islamic Society and the West plus Mohammedanism, both considered classics in the study of the Middle East. As director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies from 1957 to 1966, Professor Gibb became a leader of the movement in American universities to set up centers of regional studies, bringing together teachers, researchers, and students in different disciplines to study the culture and society of a region of the world. Named as a university professor, Mr. Gibb joined the elite ranks of senior Harvard faculty who were regarded as "individuals of distinction ... working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as to cross the conventional boundaries of the specialties."
Chair: Cemal Kafadar