[LCM Events] Fall 2014 Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar Series: 9/23 and 11/4

[Heidi Erickson]

Please join us for the 2014 Fall Semester of the MIT Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar Series.

The first lecture will take place on Tuesday, September 23, 2014. Eric Davis, Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, will discuss the future of Iraq. The second session will take place on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. Sarah Roy, Senior Research Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies will address the conflict in Gaza. 

The seminars are free and open to the public thanks to the generosity of the family of the late Emile Bustani, the MIT Center for International Studies and the MIT Technology and Culture Forum. Additional details follow.

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Bustani Middle East Seminar
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
4:30-6pm | MIT Building E51, Room 376 (70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge)

The Islamic State and the Future of Iraq: Terrorism, Sectarianism, and Democracy

Eric Davis
Professor of Political Science 
Rutgers University

Dr. Davis is a Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and past director of the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research has included the study of the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq, the political economy of Egyptian industrialization, the ideology and social bases of religious radical movements in Egypt and Israel, and the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in Arab oil-producing countries. Dr. Davis has been appointed a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin; the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University; the Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University; and the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

Abstract:
How should we think about the future of Iraq? Does the recent seizure of large swaths of northern Iraq by the Islamic State condemn Iraq to constant strife, political instability and possible fragmentation? Or is there still a possibility that Iraq can find a path to national reconciliation and implement a transition to democracy? 

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Bustani Middle East Seminar
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
4:30-6pm | MIT Building E51, Room 151 (70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge)

Gaza: Inventions and Illuminations

Sara Roy
Senior Research Scholar
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Harvard University

Sara Roy (Ed.D. Harvard University) is a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies specializing in the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Roy is also co-chair of the Middle East Seminar, jointly sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and co-chair of the Middle East Forum at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Abstract: 
The lecture will be divided into three parts. Part one will attempt to separate rhetoric from reality by examining key political, economic and social conditions and dynamics in Gaza before and after the summer 2014 conflict, identifying Gaza’s major challenges and constraints. Part two will address (and critique) the role of the international community, past and present, particularly with regard to planned reconstruction efforts. Part three will argue for a new revisionist framework for Gaza specifically and Palestine more generally if meaningful and sustainable economic and political change is to be realized.


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For questions, please contact hae at mit.edu
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