The UCLA Center for Middle East Development (CMED) will host a tribute to UCLA Distinguished Professor Emeritus Leonard Binder on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Binder is an internationally known specialist on Middle East politics and Islamic political thought who taught for more than 50 years combined at UCLA and the University of Chicago. He has trained at least two generations of political scientists specializing in the Middle East.
“Leonard Binder was an early, prescient scholar of Middle Eastern politics whose long career as a scholar and teacher had a great impact on his own and on future generations," said Steven Spiegel, CMED director and UCLA professor of political science.
Binder joined the political science department at UCLA as an instructor in 1956, taught at the University of Chicago from 1961–85, then returned to UCLA in 1985 and retired as a Distinguished Professor in 2012.
In addition to teaching political science courses, Binder taught regularly for the Middle East and Islamic studies programs of the UCLA International Institute. He served as chair of the political science department at both UCLA and the University of Chicago, and as director of UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies.
A founding member and past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, Binder has received numerous research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Science Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Study (Jersualem), among them. In 2002, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences.
Binder is the author of numerous articles and books, including “Religion and Politics in Pakistan” (UC Press, 1961); “Iran: Political Development in a Changing Society” (UC Press, 1962); “The Ideological Revolution in the Middle East” (John Wiley & Sons, 1964); and “Islamic Liberalism” (University of Chicago, 1988).
His legacy is evident not only in his work but in the impressions he has left with his students, including professor Hazem Khalil of St. Catharine’s College. “I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the vast wisdom and endlessly amusing experiences of professor Leonard Binder," Khalil said. "His life and work will doubtlessly continue to inspire all those determined to make sense of the notoriously complicated history and politics of the Middle East.”
Farid Abboud, ambassador of Lebanon to China and another former student, said, “The enduring message he gave me was that there is logic on both sides of the fence — any fence — a caveat which I have kept in mind both in my professional and intellectual endeavours.”
The Nov. 19 event, “Five Decades of Middle East Studies,” will feature a panel discussion on the future of the Middle East by leading specialists in the field, together with remarks by professor Binder’s colleagues and students. The tribute is cosponsored by UCLA’s Department of Political Science, International Institute and Center for Near Eastern Studies.
It will take place in the Sequoia Room of the UCLA Faculty Center from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. An RSVP is required to attend. The panel discussion will begin at 1:30 pm, followed by the tribute at 3:30 pm. The event will conclude with a short reception.
