Mahmood Ibrahim, a longtime professor in the history department, has been named the 2016-17 recipient of the George P. Hart Award for Outstanding Faculty Leadership.

Ibrahim specializes in teaching Middle East history in the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences and is a former chair of the history department. He was selected for the award by a committee of his peers.

“Having been a member of this department since 1989, my colleagues and I share almost a lifetime together,” Ibrahim said in a video detailing his upbringing and tenure at Cal Poly Pomona. “Our collegiality is reinforced by our principal position on shared governance, on academic freedom, on academic excellence, and on tolerance and open-mindedness.”

The George P. Hart Award is awarded annually at Fall Conference to the faculty member who displays the highest qualities of personal and professional leadership with students, peers, the university and the campus community. A monetary award $1,000 accompanies the distinction.

Ibrahim was a colleague of Hart, so the award has a personal connection. When Ibrahim started at Cal Poly Pomona in 1989, he shared office space with Hart in Building 94. After Ibrahim joined the Academic Senate, Hart, who was the chair, appointed Ibrahim to chair the Faculty Affairs Committee.

Ibrahim remains a member of the Academic Senate and has been involved with panels including the Graduate Council, the Senate’s General Education Committee and Faculty Affairs Committee.

He was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship for the 2004-05 academic year.

Before arriving at Cal Poly Pomona, he taught history at Birzeit University in the West Bank of Palestine, was a visiting lecturer at UCLA and a visiting assistant professor at UC Riverside.

In addition to making conference presentations and writing journal publications, Ibrahim has authored two books, “Merchant Capital and Islam” and “Who Makes History: Palestinian Experience in Oral History.”

He is a member of American Historical Association, American Research Center in Egypt, Middle East Medievalists, The World History Association and The Middle East Studies Association of North America.

Watch Ibrahim’s acceptance of the award.