Dr. Waleed Hazbun, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut, came to Miami last month on a mission for his latest book project: to scour the records of former Pan American Airways flight attendants. Hazbun, the first recipient of Special Collections’ <World Wings International, Inc. Research Grant, gathered data from flight routes, news clippings, and other historical records for his book Jet Set Frontiers in the Middle East, which focuses on the expansion of American commercial airline networks during the early post-World War II era. “Aviation is a vehicle for studying the world,” Hazbun said in a May 20 presentation at Richter Library. The presentation highlighted discoveries made during the research process, from Pan Am marketing materials advertising expansion efforts to internal and external publications pointing to challenges both in the air and on the ground. The book spans such challenges, from the rise of regional conflict to air piracy to violence targeting Americans and American institutions abroad.

Following the discussion several former flight attendants from the organization, donning official uniforms from their tenures with the airline, formally presented Dr. Hazbun with his grant award.

View our Facebook album from the event.

About World Wings International Inc.

World Wings International, Inc. is the philanthropic organization of former Pan Am flight attendants who seek to maintain the historic Pan Am tradition of global humanitarian assistance, safeguard Pan Am’s place in aviation history, and promote friendship among its members through cultural and civic activities. The organization’s records, housed at Special Collections, include administrative records as well as scrapbooks, photographs, membership and annual meetings files, correspondence, and financial records dating back to 1946.