Global Studies Faculty Habib Battah Recognized for Investigative Journalism and Scholarship on the Middle East

We are excited to share some recent accomplishments from Habib Battah, an adjunct faculty member of the Global Studies department and an award-winning journalist.

Habib Battah was recently honored with a National Headliner Award, one of the oldest and most respected journalism prizes in the United States. His article, “Beirut and the Birth of the Fortress Embassy,” published in the Middle East Research and Information Project, received third place in the In-Depth Magazine Story on a Major News Event category. Past winners of the 90-year-old prize include journalism icons William Randolph Hearst and Edward Murrow, and this year’s winners also included top publications such as Bloomberg and Fortune.

Habib Battah also appeared live on TRT World (Turkish international television news), as a Middle East expert to provide analysis of events in the region, and his research on the political economy of archaeological excavations was highlighted last month in a news documentary "Beneath Beirut" where he was interviewed among other leading academic experts in the field. 

This fall, he is also organizing a panel for the 2025 Middle East Studies Association (MESA) conference in Washington, D.C. The panel, “Geopolitical Transition, Diplomatic Activity, and Cultural Production in Postwar Beirut,” will include a presentation by Global Studies senior Karni Keushgerian, highlighting collaborative work between faculty and students. Habib will also present his own research on a separate panel focused on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Please join us in congratulating Habib on these impressive accomplishments!