The Institute of History was founded in 1971 and inaugurated in 1972-1973 within the framework of the USEK Faculty of Letters. Since 1996 the Institute of History has comprised a department of History of Art and of Archaeology.
The Institute of History offers a multidisciplinary education with the following aims:
- To make known the complexity of the real world in relation to the past-present dialectic by exploring deeply the four periods of history, namely Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Modern Period and the Contemporary Period.
- To explore those “places of memory ” and to restore to the heritage its deeper meanings.
- To develop concepts, problematics, and the historian's and archaeologist's ability to criticize, analyze and synthesize.
- To work in several languages whether modern (English, German) or ancient (Syriac, Hebrew).
- To carry on research at the Center of Documentation and at the Conservatoire of Eastern Heritage.
The Institute of History endeavors to reconcile two essential dimensions in its teaching, namely eventual history and comprehensive history.
- Since eventual history is such a vast subject, a selection has been made in order to give the student a historical culture in its two dimensions, national and international. This view allows the history of Lebanon to be seen as a complementary part of the history of the different civilizations and so allows the program a certain flexibility.
- In comprehensive history the aim has been to integrate events into their human context, after having submitted them to the laws and methods of modern criticism.
Methodology and auxiliary sciences have been included in the programs so as to teach students the principles of scientific research and to develop in them the objectivity and critical sense necessary for any historical approach. Finally, as a human science, history is envisaged in the light of those sciences considered to be complementary, mainly philosophy, sociology, ethnology, economics and statistics.
Diplomas offered
The Institute delivers the following diplomas:
- License of History Teaching
- License of History of Art and Archaeology
- Diploma of Advanced Studies (DAS) in History and in History of Art and Archaeology, allowing admission for doctoral studies in the same disciplines.
- Doctorate in History, in History of Art and in Archaeology.
Objectives
The Institute offers a general culture in history together with specialized eastern studies as the focus of instruction.
It promotes the study, conservation and publication of documents relating both to general and to Lebanese history as a center of documentation and research. As such, the center publishes several collections:
- Publications of the Institute of History (acts of the colloquiums and monographs)
- Sources of Lebanese and Middle Eastern history
- The University Library
- The Austrian Archives (separate collection)
The Institute conserves and presents the Lebanese heritage through the USEK Museum, Conservatory of Eastern Patrimony, inaugurated in 1992. The items exposed here, fossils, ceramics, coins, works of religious art and modern paintings, all bear witness to the richness of the Christian and particularly Maronite Lebanese heritage come down through the ages.
Finally, the Institute of History favors inter-university cooperation through international agreements, such as that concluded with the History Department of Paul Valery University-Montpellier III in France.
Job opportunities
The formation imparted by the Institute opens the way to the following careers:
- Teaching
- Specialized research
- Documentation
- Librarianship
- Journalism
- Publishing
- Art criticism
- Tourism
- Archaeological exploration
- Museum management