Edward Said

Edward Wadie Said was born on November 1, 1935, in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine. Following the 1948 Nakba, his family relocated to Cairo before he moved to the United States for higher education, completing his Bachelor's at Princeton and his PhD in English literature at Harvard University in 1964.

He joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1963, where he remained as University Professor of English and Comparative Literature until his death. In 1978, Said published 'Orientalism', a paradigm-shifting masterpiece analyzing how Western imperial power constructed cultural representations of the Arab and Islamic world.

A passionate advocate for Palestinian self-determination, universal human rights, and classical music, Said co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999 alongside Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim to bring together young Arab, Israeli, and Palestinian musicians.