Rector, Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon

Prof Salim Daccache s.j. completed a DEA in philosophy at the University Panthéon Sorbonne 1 under the direction of Etienne Balibar. His thesis was entitled ‘Le concept de reconnaissance dans la philosophie du droit de Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’. This dissertation was published in the Annales de philosophie de la Faculté des Lettres des Sciences humaines de l’USJ in 1987, volume 8 and 1988.
He is the author of two theses. The first one is in philosophy and is entitled ‘The problem of the creation of the world in the kalam of Abu Mansur al-Makurdi (+ 944) and its historical and epistemological context’.
His second thesis focuses on ‘Le pluralisme scolaire au Liban’ and was defended at the University of Strasbourg in 2016 under the supervision of Maurice Sachot.
For ten years, Salim Daccache has studied in depth the educational systems of Christian and Muslim schools as well as public and private non-religious systems. He is the author of numerous works on the various fields of education and the meeting of cultures, and a specialist in themes relating to Syriac spirituality and studies in Islamic-Christian relations.
He approaches the school as a "social microcosm" rather than a "learning space". Indeed, the school system in Lebanon is considered as a community system which is sometimes accused of rejecting the other, sometimes seen as an embodiment of pluralism and the acceptance of differences.
Between 1991 and 2008 he was the rector of the Notre-Dame de Jamhour College of the Jesuits in Lebanon, and then became Dean of the Faculty of Religious Sciences at USJ between 2008 and 20121. On 1 August 2012 he was appointed Rector of the Saint Joseph University in Beirut and continues to serve in this capacity. He was first elected to the IAU Administrative Board in 2016, and was elected for his second term in 2022.