January 29, 2004 — As part of its ongoing mission to increase understanding of Middle East history, culture, religions, literature, politics and contemporary dynamics, the Middle East Center at the University of Utah will sponsor a series of eight spring lectures titled “Learning from Past Failures: Pathways to Peace in the Middle East.” All presentations, which will be held from 3 until 4:30 p.m., in the Museum of Fine Arts’ Dumke Auditorium, located south of the David Eccles School of Business, are free and open to the public. Each event will include a lecture and a question-and-answer discussion afterwards.
The series of lectures is presented in collaboration with the University of Utah’s Office of the President, Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Office of the Vice President for University Relations, the College of Humanities, the College of Social and Behavioral Science and the Department of Political Science.
Ibrahim Karawan, director of the U’s Middle East Center, notes that the strength of the series lies in the “depth and diversity” of the speakers, their expertise, and their international visibility.
The scheduled lectures are as follows:
Monday, Feb. 2nd: Khalil Shikaki, director, Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah
Wednesday, Feb. 11th: Moshe Ma’oz, professor, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Thursday, Feb. 19th: Saad Eddin Ibrahim, professor of sociology, American University in Cairo, and prominent human rights activist
Tuesday, Feb. 24th: William Quandt, Edward R. Stettinius Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
Tuesday, March 2nd: Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli foreign minister and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Knesset
Wednesday, March 10th: Joseph Saba, Director of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Division
Wednesday, March 24th: Rosemary Hollis, Head of the Middle East Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London
Wednesday, March 31st: Edmund Ghareeb, professor, International Affairs at the American University in Washington, DC
Tuesday, April 6: David Malone, President, International Peace Academy since 1998, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, 1992-94.
The Middle East Center (MEC) at the University of Utah is one of only 15 national resource centers in the United States devoted to the academic study of the Middle East. The center is funded by the United States Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. Established in 1960, the Center offers all levels of academic degrees and arranges opportunities for intensive language study, fieldwork and research in a number of countries in the Middle East. The center also provides students and the greater community with a variety of opportunities for the advancement of understanding of the Middle East, which include conferences, lectures, continuing education courses and outreach activities.
For more information on the upcoming lecture series, call the Middle East Center at the University of Utah at 801-581-6181 or 801-585-9594.