On Edward Said, Scholar and Public Intellectual

In her paper, "On Edward Said, Scholar and Public Intellectual," F. Elizabeth Dahab pays tribute to Edward Said, 1935-2003. Dahab discusses selected aspects of Said's trajectories as a scholar and Palestinian-American activist including aspects of Said's numerous activities and work as a musician, an ardent political polemicist, a music critic, a Columbia University professor of comparative literature, a humanist, President of the Modern Language Association of America, and an exiled Palestinian as evident in the vast corpus of this eminent scholar's publications over the course of almost four decades (twenty-four books and hundreds of articles and interviews). Said's work elicited debate and controversy while his activities as a public intellectual who lead a life of thought "in-between" the difficult and multiple borders of the historic battle fields of the Middle East won him a great number of supporters and enemies alike. Said's life and work prove exemplary for all who believe in integrity in thought and practice.