Michael Driessen on the Role of Religion in Modern Democracies

Michael Driessen, a 2011-2012 Postdoctoral Fellow at CIRS and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University, gave a CIRS Monthly Dialogue Lecture on “Religion-State Institutions and Patterns of Democracy: Religious Revivals and Secular Politics in Catholic and Muslim Societies” on April 24, 2012. The lecture was geared towards analyzing the relationship between…

Food Security And Food Sovereignty In The Middle East Working Group II

On April 22–23, 2012, CIRS concluded its “Food Security and Food Sovereignty in the Middle East” research initiative with a two-day working group meeting. Sixteen scholars and experts participating in the initiative were invited back to Doha for a second time to share their findings with working group members and to critique each other’s paper…

A New Canadian-American Relationship

David Dyment, senior research associate at the Center on North American Politics and Society at Carleton University in Ottawa, gave a CIRS Focused Discussion on March 26, 2012, titled “A New Canadian-American Relationship. The lecture summarized the main arguments in his book, Doing the Continental: A New Canadian-American Relationship (Dundurn, 2010). Dyment explained that the title of his book…

Shahla Haeri on Women and Political Leadership in Muslim Societies

Shahla Haeri, a cultural anthropologist and a 2011-2012 CIRS Visiting Scholar, gave a Focused Discussion titled, “From Bilqis to Benazir: Women and Political Leadership in Muslim Societies” on February 26, 2012. Haeri’s current research interests revolve around examining Muslim women in positions of power, both past and present. Haeri began her talk by critiquing western media accounts…

Ambassador Larocco on the Gulf Looking East

On February 26, 2012, CIRS hosted a Focused Discussion with Ambassador James Larocco Distinguished Professor and Director of the Near East South Asia Center at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. The talk titled, “The Gulf Looking East: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Iran,” was supported by the United States embassy in Qatar. Citing full academic freedom, Larocco gave…

Ahmad Sa’di on Population Management and Political Control

On February 21, 2012, Ahmad H. Sa’di, Professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of Negev, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue on the topic “Population Management and Political…

Peter Bergen Lectures on the Remaking of the Middle East

On February 13, 2012, Peter Bergen delivered the 2011-2012 CIRS Faculty Distinguished Lecture titled, “The Awakening: How Revolutionaries, Barack Obama, and Ordinary Muslims are Remaking the Middle East.” In addition to being CNN’s security…

Anthony Appiah Lectures on Ideas of Cosmopolitanism

On January 23, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, delivered the first CIRS Monthly Dialogueof 2012 titled, “Being a Citizen of the World Today.” Appiah’s lecture was centered…

Walter Denny on New Ways of Looking at Islamic Art

Walter B. Denny, Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, gave a CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture on “Innovation in the Visual Arts of Islam: New Ways of Looking at…

Fouad Ajami Lectures on the Arab Spring

From 1980 to June 2011, he was the Majid Khadduri professor and Director of Middle East Studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He began his academic career after receiving his PhD in political science from the University of Washington in 1973. He is the author of The Arab Predicament, The Vanished Imam, Beirut: City of Regrets, and The Dream Palace of the Arabs, The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs and the Iraqis in Iraq and other works. 

Arab Food, Water, and the Big Gulf Land-Grab that Wasn’t

On November 14, 2011, Eckart Woertz, Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, delivered a CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture titled, “Arab Food, Water, and the Big Gulf Land-Grab that Wasn’t.” Woertz placed the question of…