Top Academics and Policy Analysts Gather at Symposium on Reconfiguring A Region: Opportunities and Challenges in the Middle East
For Immediate Release
Contact: Marilyn Wilkes (203) 432-3413
Top Academics and Policy Analysts Gather at Symposium on Reconfiguring A Region: Opportunities and Challenges in the Middle East
September 10, 2008. New Haven, CT � The Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University will host a symposium on the current political reconfiguration in the greater Middle East and the impact of U.S. policies on the future development of the region on September 26 and 27, 2008.
The symposium “Reconfiguring a Region: Opportunities and Challenges in the Middle East,” will bring together more than 20 highly accomplished academics and policy analysts in the field of Middle East Studies. Robert Malley, Middle East Director of the International Crisis Group in Washington, will give the keynote presentation. The symposium will be held at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, and is free and open to the public
Apart from the keynote presentation, the symposium will be organized into separate panels, each tackling a specific sub-region of the Middle East. Each panel will field questions from the audience in a closing segment. The symposium’s organizing committee includes the following Yale faculty and staff: Sulayman Dib-Hajj, Research Scientist, Neurology; Frank Griffel, Professor of Religious Studies; Ellen Lust-Okar, Associate Professor of Political Science; Marcia Inhorn, William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs and Chair of the Council of Middle East Studies; and Greta Scharnweber, Middle East Studies PIER Director. For a complete program and list of participants, visit www.yale.edu/macmillan/cmes.
The purpose and goals of the symposium are outlined in a statement from the organizing committee: “The Middle East has been of major strategic interest for the United States, and it has gained in importance since 2001. The region sits at the intersection of religious, ethnic, and political conflicts, many of them unresolved for almost a century. Events in the past year have challenged several assumptions about the policies and actions of the U.S. in the greater Middle East. We believe that a fresh evaluation of these events and their consequences from the U.S. and local points of view will be instructive not only to the participants of the symposium but also to an audience of interested students and scholars at Yale and the wider community in New Haven. We hope the symposium will contribute to a better understanding of these complex issues with significant bearing on global peace in the 21st century.”
Contact Information:
Marilyn Wilkes
The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
(203) 432-3413