Samir Khalaf is professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Behavioral Research at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.  Educated at AUB (BA 1955, MA 1957) and Princeton University (Ph.D 1964), he has also held academic appointments at Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New York University.  He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on comparative modernization, socio-cultural history, urbanization, and post-war reconstruction.  Among his many books are Sexuality in the Arab World (with John Gagnon, 2007) The Heart of Beirut (2006), Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon (2002), Cultural Resistance: Global & Local Encounters in the Middle East (2001), Beirut Reclaimed (1994), Recovering Beirut (with Philip Khoury, 1993), Lebanons Predicament (1987), Persistence and Change in Nineteenth-Century Lebanon (1973) and Hamra of Beirut (1973).  He has been a recipient of several international fellowships and research awards and appointed on the international jury to review master plans for the post-war reconstruction of Beirut.  He is a trustee of several foundations and serves on the editorial boards of a score of international journals and publications. He is currently working on the history and politics of Protestant missionaries in Lebanon.