The American University of Beirut (AUB) held its Honorary Doctorate and Graduate Commencement Ceremony on June 5, 2026, conferring master’s, doctorate, and medical degrees to 756 students. The university’s highest accolade, the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, was bestowed on journalist Christiane Amanpour, architect and author Suad Amiry, and physician-scientist Dr. M. Amin Arnaout, in recognition of careers that, in AUB President Fadlo Khuri’s words, have enlarged our understanding of the world and advanced the dignity of those who live in it.
In his commencement address, titled “All the Best,” President Khuri challenged the graduating class to carry forward what he called an often-understated part of their education: the capacity to know those once considered “other,” and to respect a viewpoint different from one’s own.
“The greatest universities are built on the principle of challenging dogma,” Khuri told the graduates, urging them to make space for opinions they may find offensive and to recognize that “disagreement does not require distance.” Reflecting on the turbulent years the class had lived through, Khuri said he hoped they had learned to empathize with and forgive others. “So many of you have rallied to care for those less fortunate, to support classmates who have suffered profound losses, and to help others through hardships that may far exceed your own.”
He closed by asking the graduating class to carry that spirit beyond the gates: “As you move on to the next great chapter in your life, commit to wishing all others, not only those whom you agreed and aligned with, all the best.”
Graduate student speaker Joe Youssef, who received the degree of doctor of medicine, opened by reflecting on the people at AUB who believed in him and made his path possible. “They fought for me because they saw me fighting,” he said. “But standing amongst you tonight, I realize this fight is a common battle we share. And it has a name, ” he added. “Resilience. ” Youssef pressed his class to interrogate this word that they had all heard “a thousand times.”
“Resilience without ambition is mere survival. Resilience without vision is just endurance,” he said. “Here at AUB, we are shaped with the truest form of resilience, the one worth celebrating. We are not here just to weather the storm. We are here to build shelters.”
He spoke of the free clinics that AUB faculty and trainees opened during Lebanon’s recent wars, when hundreds of thousands were displaced and struggled to access healthcare—and of one patient who came not physically injured, but felt cold and numb by the sound of airstrikes. “In that moment, medicine wasn’t about writing a prescription. It was about looking into her eyes and affirming her humanity in a world that felt inhumane.” He closed by naming the dream many of his classmates share: “A Lebanon where resilience is no longer a daily necessity, but a patrimony of the past.”
Three honorary degree recipients then took their place at the heart of the ceremony, offering the graduating class the example of lives shaped by conviction and perseverance.
Suad Amiry, architect, author, and founder of Riwaq, a center for architectural conservation, stepped to the podium as an AUB alumna and told the audience that June 5 was her very first graduation ceremony. Her undergraduate ceremony in 1976 was cancelled by the Lebanese Civil War. Her father died the week of her master’s graduation at the University of Michigan. And the Israeli authorities did not permit her to travel from Palestine to Edinburgh for her PhD ceremony in 1984. “So here I am,” she said, “attending my very first graduation ceremony after 50 years.”
“This honorary degree means the world to me,” she said, recalling how the university and the city of Beirut had left a lasting impact on her life and career.
Dr. M. Amin Arnaout, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and principal investigator of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, received his honorary degree as a son of Saida who graduated from AUB’s Faculty of Medicine with distinction in 1974. His discoveries have reshaped the fields of immunology, structural biology, and nephrology, and made it possible to engineer compounds that mitigate thromboinflammatory diseases, including heart attacks and organ rejection. Accepting the honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Arnaout credited the AUB teachers who molded his path and voiced his hope that “this spirit of discovery will forever shine and inspire you, our graduates, to advance the academic mission and to make this world a better place.”
Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor, one of the world’s foremost international correspondents, and the evening’s keynote speaker, described Beirut as foundational for her even from a distance, early in her career. The region’s adversity, she said, “was the stuff my ambitions and goals were made of”—she had wanted to leave CNN Atlanta for Beirut, to join colleagues already hunting down the facts and telling the truth.
“All my career has been spent trying to hear and understand the story of the other,” she said—a “crucial element,” in her words, now “under unprecedented stress as we drift off into our own silos and echo chambers.” She shared her “firm belief that interaction between people is the most important element of peace, stability, and prosperity.”
With degrees conferred and honors bestowed, the 756 graduate students of the Class of 2026 stepped forward as AUB’s newest alumni, joining a community that spans generations, continents, and countless fields of impact.
About AUB
Founded in 1866, the American University of Beirut bases its educational philosophy, standards, and practices on the American liberal arts model of higher education. A teaching-centered research university, AUB has more than 790 full-time faculty members and a student body of over 9000 students. AUB currently offers more than 140 programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s, MD, and PhD degrees. It provides medical education and training to students from throughout the region at its Medical Center that includes a full-service 365-bed hospital.
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