Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

“There are five stages to a professor’s life,” wrote Profesor Oweiss in a 2002 letter on his retirement to Georgetown University president Leo O’Donovan. “Tireless, tiring, tiresome, tired, retired.” Dr. Ibrahim M. Oweiss is preparing to retire for the second time from Georgetown University, after seeing SFS-Qatar Class of 2009 walk across the stage at their commencement ceremony. 2009 marks his 41st year as an educator.

Before joining Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar), Oweiss taught at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, until 2002. After completing his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1961, he stayed at his Alma Mater to teach economics. When the 1967 War broke out, Oweiss wrote against Nasser’s policies and prepared to return home to Egypt. As the news of his resignation from University of Minnesota hit the well-known publication of American Economic Review, he was offered positions to teach at Yale, University of San Francisco, University of Cincinnati and Georgetown University. Following visits to all these campuses, he decided to join Faculty of Economics at Georgetown University in 1967.

Until retiring from Georgetown University for the first time in 2002, Oweiss authored more than fifty scholarly publications and coined now commonplace economic terms such as Petrodollars, Hostage Capital and the Oweiss Demand Curve. Following his retirement, he was elected to be part of the University's Board of Regents, where he advised on negotiations between the State of Qatar and Georgetown University on the formation of SFS-Qatar. Upon a invitation from Dean James Reardon-Anderson, he joined the SFS-Qatar faculty as a Visiting Professor of Economics.

"It was our great good fortune that Prof. Oweiss agreed to join the team that founded SFS-Qatar in the fall of 2005. He taught our first class of students in both micro and macro economics and helped to establish the identity and character of Georgetown in an area of the world that he knows so well," Reardon-Anderson noted. "His mark on this institution is permanent and recognized by all who have been part of this great adventure."

Prof. Oweiss is one of the five original faculty members to teach at SFS-Qatar. While continuing his economics courses, he has lectured widely in Doha on a variety of topics including the changing price of oil and the global financial crisis of 2008. He was particularly well-received for his lecture on Economic Cost of the War on Iraq at the Academic Bridge Program, where he graphed out the monetary and human burden of the Iraq war on the United States, Iraq and other involved nations. He has also appeared on Al Jazeera and CNN as an expert commenting on economic issues.

Oweiss is leaving SFS-Qatar with great memories and satisfaction. “Everybody at SFS-Qatar should be proud of the fact that they are part of this educational mission outside of the USA in a faraway land,” says Oweiss. “SFS-Qatar is building bridges which will have enormous impact on the region and contribute to US-Middle East understanding.” Oweiss continues that it is quite an achievement to follow the same rigorous admissions criteria as observed in Washington, DC, and deliver the same curriculum at a location 7,000 miles away from the Main Campus.

He is proud to have taught all classes from 2005 to 2009 at SFS-Qatar campus. He has been impressed by the first class admitted in 2005 and observed them grow into exceptional individuals. According to Oweiss, these students were able to prove that they are at par with their colleagues abroad when some of them studied in Washington, DC, for their junior year abroad and excelled compared to their peers on Main Campus.

His students in Doha love him so much that they see him as more than a professor.  "He did not teach me about economics, he taught me about life," says Lubna Kayyali (SFS'09).  "Professor Oweiss' contributions go beyond the [classroom]."  To express their affection, students have nicknamed him “Uncle Ibrahim” and “Grandfather of Economics.”

Students are not the only ones who have embraced Oweiss with nicknames. His students in Washington, DC, called him “Honest Abe” after the director of the famous Exorcist film approached the professor to take the lead as the Jesuit Priest Father Lankester Merrin. Confused by the director’s interest in him, Oweiss asked him “Why me, when you have all these Jesuits on campus?”

His answer was simple, “you have an honest face.” Nevertheless, Oweiss appeared among the crowd in the scene in front of Healy Hall.

Professor Oweiss has touched lives of numerous students in his 41 years as an educator. He can't forget when President Bill Clinton hugged him after his address at one of the Annual Carroll Quigley Lectures. During his senior year in 1968, Clinton was one of professor’s students.

Throughout his academic life, Oweiss helped establish numerous centers and institutions around the world. He was one of the three founders of Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He was a founding member of College of Business and Economics at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and the Egyptian American Scholars. He was the founder of Council for Egyptian American Relations and was also the first Chairman of Jones Institute at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

After bidding farewell to the SFS-Qatar Class of 2009, he will relocate back to Washington, DC, and keep up with his scholarly work by continuing to lecture and consult. “After so many years, Georgetown University is an integral part of my life,” says Oweiss. He will resume his role on the Board of Regents and finish his autobiography, A Tale of Cultures, which will be published in the summer of 2009.

On February 10, 2009, he will be addressing for Center for International and Regional Studies for their Monthly Dialogue Series.

Prof. Oweiss can always be reached at his Georgetown email address. More information on his research is available on his website.