Organized by the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW), the lecture addressed the role of art in a country or community’s social transformation process after a period of gross human rights violations, focusing particularly on the case of post-apartheid South Africa.

“Dealing with past violations of human rights,” says Buikema, “calls for strategies that enable consideration of complexity — that is, the multilayeredness of oppression and multilayeredness of victimhood.”

Once the yoke of oppression has been cast off, she adds, the biggest obstacle in the way of enduring change is the lack of a new structure, or a new language of address.

In this way, many South African artists have proved exemplary in dealing with the legacy of apartheid, taking their cue from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid.

Buikema told the story of Phila Portia Ndwandwe, a member of a secret armed wing opposed to the country's former apartheid regime, who disappeared in 1988. Almost 10 years later, as part of the TRC investigation, her skeleton was unearthed after the man who killed her led authorities to her remains. It was widely hailed as a case that brought some closure, understanding and reunion, according to an Associated Press article published at the time.

Her case, and other well-known cases of women murdered under apartheid, inspired South African artists Judith Mason and Nandipha Mntambo, among others, to use art to commemorate their deaths and re-tell their stories.

“What we learn from these artworks is that one single, factual story can be told in many different ways,” Buikema told the audience. “There are feminist scholars working to design as many scenarios as possible — to give Phila Portia Ndwandwe the story she earned, one stressing her agency less than her victimhood.”

Dr. Dima Dabbous-Sensenig, director of IWSAW and the event’s moderator, praised Buikema for synthesizing such complex topics as oppression, victimhood and restorative justice, and relating them to feminist theory. “You’re also talking about transitional justice, which is a concept that hasn’t really been used in the Arab context, but we’re working on it,” Dabbous-Sensenig said.

Buikema is professor of art, culture and diversity at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, chairs the UU Graduate Gender Program, and is the scientific director of the Netherlands Research School of Women’s Studies.
 

While the primary purpose of the event is to promote library resources and services among the university’s student body, there is also an outreach component, according to Cendrella Habre, director of the Riyad Nassar library in Beirut.

While some browsed exhibitions set up by publishers and vendors, others gathered around game booths to try their hands at puzzles, memory games and the wheel of fortune.

“This is a smart way to attract students,” said Abdel Kareem Dagher, a second-year architecture student who won at the wheel of fortune. “It’s a playful approach, but we have learned a lot both in terms of general knowledge and about what the library has to offer,” he added.

Corporate presentations on the role of technology in education were also held throughout the day. Adkom, for example, a prominent firm in Lebanon’s computer industry, discussed the growing use of tablet computers such as iPads and Kindles.

In recent years, LAU’s libraries have turned increasingly to social media outlets such as Facebook and YouTube for promotional purposes. The approach has been effective, Habre says, drawing for example 2500 students daily to the Riyad Nassar library on the Beirut campus. The smaller library at LAU Byblos now sees such heavy use that it will be relocated to the new School of Medicine building for larger space.

This year’s open house was designed to continue in that vein. “We wanted to introduce library resources and services to students using their language, which is increasingly the language of social networking,” said Habre.

Under the heading “What’s UP@LAU Libraries” — a reference to the popular networking application What’s App — the event kicked off with a library treasure hunt on both campuses. Teams had to produce answers to questions using a variety of library search methods.

“I had forgotten what it is to actually use books,” Aseel Jalaleddine, a business and marketing major, sheepishly conceded. “My friends and I mainly use the library to study, and the internet for our research,” she said.

Prizes included iPads, iPods, USB bracelets, trips to Cyprus and various vouchers, all provided by the event’s 17 sponsors.

This year’s open house was timed to coincide with the OCLC Global Council’s first membership meeting in the MENA region. Habre was recently elected as a delegate representing the Middle East and India.

The meeting focused both on recruitment and the thorny issue of Arabic script.

“Very few libraries use Arabic script to enter their records,” said Habre. “But doing so could make the region’s resources more visible to the rest of the world.”

Janet Lees, OCLC EMEA Community Liaison, expressed her appreciation for the organization of the meeting. “I was totally impressed by the level of professionalism in the region and the excellent teamwork of LAU staff,” she said adding that OCLC team is going back with interesting thoughts and ideas to put into perspective.

“It was a successful day. One could really feel a greater interaction between the students and the library and its resources,” said Joseph Hage, director of the Byblos Library.

Directed by assistant professor of communication arts Dr. Lina Abyad, Fantasia Opus3 turned the Gulbenkian Theater into a time machine, transporting the audience to their schooldays and fatuous first loves, revisiting adolescent pipe dreams through the lens of adult desire.

The production initially took shape almost entirely through improvisation. The first draft of the script was composed by Abyad as a kind of collage of the actors’ impromptu recollections of their earliest memories.

“We didn’t really know what the play would be about at first,” she recalls, “but we talked a lot about childhood, schooldays, and longing for love. We taped everything, and finally identified the recurrent themes and began working on them.”

The result weaves together embarrassing fracases, haunting insecurities, ingenuous crushes, and sensory firsts — at once ephemeral and indelible — into a tapestry of nostalgia and pain.

Curiously enough, the Communication Arts Department’s very first productions in the early 1960’s were children’s plays, notes Dr. Mona A. Knio, associate professor of theater and the department’s chairperson. “Abyad’s improv-based production was ultimately — and uncannily — reminiscent of the department’s early theatrical work,” Knio says.

The surreal set — the stage is draped in white and pastels and lit by lanterns — was designed, says Abyad, to invite the audience to be part of the play, to send them into reverie.

“You have to give them — from the very beginning — an idea of what to expect from the play, which is why the colors of the set are very soft and light,” she says. “This is a very light play.”

Light as it is, Fantasia Opus3 is not devoid of melancholy, the trace of sadness that can tinge youth both as it it’s lived and as it’s remembered.

In one scene, the actors — scattered on the stage, dressed in technicolor garments, and holding cages — are standing on doormats, miming the vehement, sometimes even tyrannical tone of parents trying to edify their children.

Comments that seem benign in the individual instance — “remember to say thank you,” “don’t pick your nose,” or even “don’t mention that you’re doing theater in front of grandma” — become oppressive in the aggregate, and can leave an elusive scar on youngsters, one they may obsessively revisit as they grow older.

In another scene, a young woman draped in white wanders the stage recalling the 2006 war in Lebanon — fondly, as paradox would have it, because awful as it was, it brought her and her family closer together, and taught her to appreciate life’s small blessings.

“It is practically impossible to talk about memories in a Lebanese context and not evoke one war or another,” explains Abyad. “I provoked the actors, and the result of those provocations was the play’s raw material. All I did was edit, rearrange and design it into a script.”

Theater-goers and members of the university drama community praised Abyad’s compositional method. “The authenticity creates audience intimacy — people can relate to it almost immediately,” says LAU theater coordinator Hala Masri.

Peter Matar, an architecture student at Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA), concurred. “I felt the actors themselves were my memories," he said.

Osseiran, son of the late-Lebanese statesman Adel Osseiran, represents the southern district of Zahrani. He said he hoped the establishment of a CEP center in Nabatieh would focus on teacher training.

“The most successful people in the South come from families whose parents are teachers,” he said.

During the signing ceremony Osseiran added: “LAU is considered to be one of the best universities in the region. This program is an opportunity for the youth to improve their knowledge and skills in different, specialized fields. It is a human development project. We are confident that it will open new horizons, especially since LAU is known for its social and academic roles as well as its intellectual production.”

Earlier this year CEP established satellites in Tripoli and Zahle. Nabatieh is seen as the final link.

“We've always said that if people cannot come to the university, we will bring the university to them, and this is the strategy we've been following, connecting the university with the North, with the South and with the Bekaa,” Jabbra said. “In our mission, service is absolutely essential. We need to serve others so they may have a better life.”

Michel Majdalani, CEP director, explained that Osseiran was chosen as a partner due to his commitment to the people of the South.

“We feel very confident that MP Osseiran is doing the best for his constituents, and we feel the relationship is moving forward,” Majdalani said. “Nabatieh is a beacon of nationalism and we look forward to serving the people of the region.”

Majdalani noted that the signing of the memorandum was only a first step in the process to establish the center. The partners must now sit down to detail the roles of the stakeholders and the attributes of the program. Once established, the center will likely offer many of the same diploma and certificate programs offered in Beirut and the other satellites, with special tailor-made programs.

“We are delighted to have secured such a commitment and we are looking forward to a productive and creative series of courses and workshops to respond to the needs of the South,” says Dr. Elise Salem, vice president for Student Development and Enrollment Management.

Dr. Philippe Frossard, dean of LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences, expressed enthusiasm at the development of CEP centers as an opportunity to share the expertise of the university with communities throughout the country.

“Engagement in the community is one of the pillars of this university, and those should not just be words, they should really be practiced,” he said. “It becomes the duty and responsibility of academic scholars to leave their ivory towers and engage in the communities they are supposed to serve.”
 

The concept of transactional analysis originally developed in the field of psychology, but has become a ubiquitous tool in management and communications. Neo-Freudian in its foundations, it emphasizes that life patterns begin in childhood; aims to intervene and modify these patterns to release the full potential of adults. Safa stressed that transactional analysis is a communications theory “pragmatic in its approach,” positing that the self arises through interactions with others.

Hady, who holds a Ph.D. in talent management and is the founder of Standard Human Resources Consultancy, has given guest lectures in a wide range of institutional settings, from multinational corporations to universities to the civil service sector.

Alumni, students, and faculty members in attendance were intrigued by Safa’s explanations of the “games people play” in their interactions with others. Safa also delved into the “Parent-adult-child” model for understanding personal growth and change in the “ego state,” which is foundational to transactional analysis as originally developed in the 1950s by the Canadian-born psychiatrist Eric Berne.

Safa’s entertaining anecdotes emphasized how life experience can help us to face the realities of the workplace and to “achieve our dreams.” Safa acknowledged, however, that at times we must “take a step back and recognize we are not always in control of our situation.”

The crowd was clearly charmed by the lighthearted approach to a serious subject. Deftly fielding audience questions, Safa had participants questioning their own interactions with others, reflecting on the “games” they themselves play in the pursuit of professional and personal fulfillment.

Safa emphasized that if we don’t “take the clutter out of our lives, we won’t get new things in our lives.” This notion in particular resonated with Alia Hmeidan, an 1988 LAU graduate in English, who described the lecture afterwards as “profoundly impressive,” praising Safa’s understanding of human relations.

“Everything in life is a pleasure,” said Safa by way of closure. “It is just a matter of how you see it.”

Pleased by the high turnout, Executive Director of Alumni Relations Abdallah Al Khal described LAU alumni as distinguished by their “eagerness to learn and continue their education.” The next lecture in the “Keep Learning” series is scheduled for June 1st.
 

“Networking, getting alumni together, promoting LAU, these are all important outcomes of these annual dinners,” Abdallah Al Khal, director of Alumni Relations, said. “But most importantly, they raise needed funds for student scholarships.”

In recent years both chapters have introduced new themes and entertainment to attract larger crowds. This year, the Abu Dhabi chapter flew in violinist Hanin Ghareeb and singer Wael Jassar from Lebanon. The dinner, themed “From LAU to the World” and held at the Rotana Beach Hotel, honored four prominent supporters of the university: Amal Hourani, Kameel Sarieddine, Salim Zyr and Salim Sfeir.

“Year after year more people are learning about LAU and what we stand for, and they believe in what we are doing,” said chapter president Naim Stephan. “We used to have a couple hundred attendees at our dinners, and we now have 650 because we have built such a strong reputation in the United Arab Emirates.”

Promotion of LAU through local chapters' dinners and activities has been crucial to spreading word of the mission and goals of the university in recent years, but Stephan is quick to point out that these efforts were largely made possible through the vision and leadership of Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra, president of LAU since 2004.

Jabbra, who attended both the Abu Dhabi and Dubai galas, was caught by surprise when Stephan — along with other chapter committee members — summoned him to the stage to receive an award for his service to the university.

“We felt it our duty to honor him for the achievements he brought to LAU over the past few years,” Stephan said, pointing out that Jabbra’s tenure has witnessed the establishment of the medical and nursing schools, the purchase of Rizk Hospital, NEASC accreditation and the accreditation of many degree programs.

The Dubai and Northern Emirates dinner took place at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, and centered on a mother's day theme. “From our mothers we learned how to love, how to care, and most importantly, how to give,” said chapter president Saad El Zein, toasting the hundreds who attended. “These values — along with passion and commitment — have grown in us over the years into a bottomless devotion to assisting others.”

The chapter specifically honored Leila Solh Hamade, former Lebanese Minister of Industry, describing her as “personifying the values of the dearest person to our heart.” Solh Hamade also serves as vice president of the Alwaleed bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation which has donated generously to LAU over the years.

El Zein explained that the gala’s ultimate objective is to give back to LAU by helping students in need of financial assistance. “It is our mission to raise scholarship funds to help them fulfill their ambitions, goals and dreams,” he said.

For the evening’s entertainment, organizers hired Lebanese singers Maya Diab and Joseph Attieh.

For the first time, local high-school principals from the UAE were invited to attend the galas, both as a token of appreciation for their support of LAU over the years, and to offer them a better sense of what the university stands for.

“This reinforces and personalizes the relationship we have with these high schools,” said Abdo Ghie, assistant vice president for Enrollment Management. It was the first time Ghie, along with Nada Hajj and Michel Najjar, directors of admissions in Beirut and Byblos respectively, attended such galas as part of their outreach effort.

According to Ghie, parental interest in LAU far exceeded organizers’ expectations. “I discovered very quickly that attendees were committed to LAU — they love it and speak extremely highly of it,” he said. “They are eager to send their kids to us — in many cases, it wasn’t even something to discuss. Their questions were simply of logistical nature.”

He added that Hajj and Najjar deserve credit for “cultivating personal and friendly” relationships with high schools in the UAE.

Both events were sponsored by the Bank of Beirut.
 

The festive event included music and performances, and was organized in collaboration with the embassies of many of the top study abroad destinations in the world, including France, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, China, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Representatives from these countries set up informational booths showcasing cultural exchange and study abroad opportunities, and advised students, faculty and staff members on scholarships available to them. Interested members of the community were provided with flyers and brochures outlining the attractions and benefits of studying and working abroad.

At the opening ceremony LAU President Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra said that institutions of higher education helped examine ways to address our cultural differences.

“The question to ask therefore is not how can we secure a better place for ourselves, but rather, how can we secure a better place for others,” he added.

“The embassies introduced us to renowned universities that we could approach for international exchange agreements,” said Study Abroad & Program Coordinator Dina Abdul Rahman. “Faculty and student preferences are also essential in the selection of appropriate programs and universities abroad.”

According to Elie Samia, executive director of OCE, exhibitors answered hundreds of queries. Such enthusiasm he believes lies in the fact that “studying abroad widens students’ horizons as it exposes them to rich and diverse academic and cultural experiences offered by renowned universities around the world – a comparative advantage in the eye of prospective employers.” he says.

During the event several embassies provided musical and cultural entertainment. The Russian Cultural Center staged a Russian balalaika performance, and both the Brazilian and Mexican embassies organized performances highlighting their folk heritage.

Dr. Said Elfakhani, dean of the School of Business, and Dr. Elie Badr, interim dean of the School of Architecture and Design, spoke at the event, describing study-abroad opportunities available in their respective schools’ degree programs. Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Dr. Philippe Frossard spoke of the experiential, “non-linear” aspects of education, emphasizing the importance of recognizing, retaining and refining what is integral to one’s personal and professional growth.

“We experience information in many different ways and it is difficult to select what’s important. But this is precisely what we’re trying to prepare our students to be able to do,” Frossard said at the opening ceremony.

Describing himself as not only a citizen of France but a citizen of the world, Frossard said encouraging students to think of themselves in similar terms is a key goal of LAU’s study abroad initiative. 

LAU’s Communication Arts program — which prepares students for careers in journalism, publishing, filmmaking and other media — is one of the region’s oldest and most renowned. Films by recent graduates have shown on Al Jazeera, featured at Doha Tribeca Film Festival and won prizes at Cannes.

“The goal here is to promote our graduates through LAU and to promote LAU through our graduates,” says Abdallah Al Khal, executive director of alumni relations. “These are artists of global reputation, moreover, whose success sets an example for our current students.”

The Alumni Relations Office has indeed been bustling with activity in recent years. The 2011 Alumni Book Exhibition, a kind of precursor to the AFF, showcased the works of 40 alumni writers, and drew in prominent university alumni like the Lebanese-Armenian talk show host Zaven Kouyoumdjian.

“The arts are key to keeping a society civilized,” said LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra at the festival’s opening ceremony. “If you want to understand the challenges a society is facing, you have to go to the theater, watch films, and read literature.”

The festival screened a total of 17 films, including full-length features as well as shorts, all produced and/or directed by LAU alumni. These included prominent and rising figures in regional and world cinema such as Dima El-Horr, Zaid Abu Hamdan, Walid Fakhreddine, Khalil Dreifus Zaarour and Mahmoud Kaabour.

Super. Full, a short film by Niam Etani, who teaches screenwriting at LAU Beirut, tells the story of a poor worker who promises to take his newlywed to dinner in a lavish hotel on her birthday, all the while chronicling the cordial routines of their married life.

The film has screened at several international film festivals, including the Seattle International Film Festival and the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, and won the MAISHA & DFI Screenwriting Lab Zanzibar award.

“We are thrilled to see our graduates excel and compete for key positions in the media industry,” said Dr. Mona A. Knio, associate professor of theater and chairperson of the Department of Communication Arts, at the festival’s opening ceremony.

While some films were light and witty, others centered on serious issues such as sexual harassment.

The Adventures of Salwa, a three-minute animated short produced by Liliane Hanbali, a part-time instructor of film editing at LAU, follows its titular character in various situations. Salwa was originally written and directed by Amanda Abou Abdallah as a PSA for sexual harassment, and gained popularity through an online campaign meant to raise awareness about domestic violence, pedophilia and sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Alumni film festivals such as this one can really motivate current students to work to have their own films screened in the future,” said Hanbali, who graduated from LAU in 1996.

The Alumni Film Festival also screened films produced and/or directed by Sabine El Chamaa, Sawsan Darwaza, Merva Faddoul, Elie Habib,Wafa'a Halawi, Farh Al Hashim, Remi Itani, Lina Matta, Rakan Mayasi and Noura Sakkaf.