Insaniyat
Volume 29, Numéro 1, Pages 32-59
2025-03-31
Societal Issues And The Scholars’ Epistemological Interests In Social Sciences At Lebanese Universities
Authors : Awada Hala .
Abstract
The recent events in Lebanon, including the uprising of October 2019, the explosion at the Beirut port in 2020, and the ongoing economic collapse, have significantly impacted the study and understanding of social sciences. In this research, I investigate how these transformative events have influenced the research priorities of political scientists and sociologists at three major Lebanese universities: The Lebanese University (LU), the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the Lebanese American University (LAU). This study analyzed 203 article titles published between 2019 and 2023, categorizing them by language, research themes, and institutional affiliation. Additionally, it examined the gender and institutional representation of the scholars involved. The results indicate that these studies are influenced by the unique circumstances at each university, with institutional funding arrangements significantly affecting how the research is conducted. For example, LU prioritizes publications in Arabic in its quest for a local audience, while AUB and LAU publish in English and aim at an international audience. The sociology departments stand out in terms of being populated by female scholars, while increasing attention is paid to security-related topics and UN SDGs, which are in line with international academic trends. I am exploring how different crises have influenced the interests of Lebanese scholars in the social sciences concerning particular topics. This examination underscores the changing landscapes of sociology and political science in Lebanon during a considerable transformation. This paper is structured into five sections. The first section offers a concise introduction to the research topic, reviews the essential literature, and presents the theoretical framework that informs the development of the research questions. The second section examines the academic environment in Lebanon. The third section outlines the methodology employed in the study, while the fourth section interprets the research data. Lastly, the paper wraps up by highlighting the main findings.
Keywords
Social Sciences ; epistemological interests ; neo-liberalism ; de-politicization ; academic field; organic intellectual.
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