Public Oral Defense: Samira Chatila

From Development Miracle to Development Disaster? A Comparative Study of the Role of Two Elite American Universities in the National Development of Lebanon

Advisor: Roozbeh Shirazi

Online via Zoom or in person at 537 Heller Hall (ICGC)

Abstract:

Are elite, American-identifying higher education institutions in Lebanon instruments of national development as popularly imagined, or are they anti-development machines? It is widely believed that higher education plays a key role in driving “development,” specifically economic development. This linear relationship is often explained by human capital theory, which suggests that investments in education and health yield both public and private rates of return. Although there is substantial evidence to support human capital theory, it is the causal, universal claims it makes that I seek to examine in my proposed study: When might high levels of formal education—especially tertiary education— in a population not lead to the measures of national development associated with high rates of human capital development? Where do history and politics factor into situations of “development disasters”? To address these questions, I conducted a comparative case study of how two elite American flagship universities, the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Lebanese American University (LAU), have contributed to national development in Lebanon since its independence (1943), especially during times of crisis. Drawing on James Ferguson's "anti-politics machine," which claims that development is an apolitical and technical endeavor, the Lebanese case study underscores the inextricable link between development and politics, revealing development's hyperpolitical nature.