Richard Antoun

Last Friday, like many of my fellow anthropologists, I was attending the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia. I was excited to be back in Philly, where I went through the graduate program in anthropology in the 1970s. At a session on Saturday I heard the alarming news that emeritus Prof. Richard Antoun had been killed the day before. Following on the continual newsworthy but ethically unworthy chain of killings in the media spotlight, this was all the more a shock since it involved someone whose work I knew and whom I had met at previous professional meetings.

Details are emerging about who did it, but the “why” is no doubt locked away in the mind of the graduate student who committed the crime. I attach information from a memorial presented on EphBlog:

Student Held in Killing of New York Professor

A 46-year-old Binghamton University graduate student from Saudi Arabia was charged on Saturday with killing a retired anthropology professor, a specialist in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, with whom he had worked, the authorities said.

The student, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of the professor, Richard T. Antoun, who was stabbed in his office in the university’s Science I building on Friday afternoon, said Gerald F. Mollen, the district attorney in Broome County. “We believe the murder weapon was recovered,” he said.

Mr. Mollen said in a statement that Mr. Zahrani and Professor Antoun had known each other through Mr. Zahrani’s “work in the graduate program.” Later, in an interview, the district attorney said that “they’ve known each other for quite some time” but that the extent of their contact was unclear.[…]

Professor Antoun, 77, received a doctorate from Harvard in 1963 and joined the Binghamton faculty in the early 1970s. He was “a sociocultural anthropologist who has conducted research among peasants in Jordan, urbanites in Lebanon, peasant farmers in Iran and migrants in Texas and Greece,” according to the university’s Web site. He retired in 1999 as professor emeritus.

“He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East,” said the professor’s sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass. “He never said an unkind word to anyone in his life.” Ms. Miller’s husband, the Rev. David J. Miller, said that Professor Antoun had been married to his wife, Rosalyn, for 17 years and had a son, Nicholas [’91], 40.

“Our entire community has been affected by this,” Gail C. Glover, a university spokeswoman, said on Saturday. “Professor Antoun was a longtime member of our campus community, and his loss is profoundly felt.”

In his statement, Mr. Mollen said there was “no indication of religious or ethnic motivation” in the killing. He said no other arrests were expected.