Mrs. Laura Bustani and Mrs. Myrna Bustani, Emile Bustani's widow and daughter, wishing to honor his memory and his deep and lasting contribution to higher education and to peace in the Middle East, established in 1985 the Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar at his American university home, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Bustani Middle East Seminar is organized under the auspices of the MIT Center for International Studies, which conducts research on contemporary international issues and provides an opportunity for faculty and students to share perspectives and exchange views. Each year the Bustani Seminar invites scholars, journalists, consultants, and other experts from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States to MIT to present recent research findings on contemporary politics, society and culture, and economic and technological development in the Middle East.

The Bustani Seminar complements MIT's teaching and research in the Middle East, which cover such fields as history, political science, economics, anthropology architecture, urban studies, management, and engineering. It is open to the entire MIT community and to the general public. The Bustani Seminar is chaired by Philip S. Khoury, Ford International Professor of History and Associate Provost at MIT.

The inaugural lecture in the seminar series was delivered on October 3, 1985, by Albert Hourani, of the University of Oxford. His lecture "Lebanon: The Development of a Political Society" was published in 1986 by the MIT Center for International Studies.