March 22- Conversations about Peace Public Lecture
“Miracle, Muddle or Meltdown? The Future of Israeli-Palestinian Relations.” by Tal Becker, principal deputy legal adviser at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is a senior member of the Israeli peace negotiation team, has represented Israel in multiple rounds of peace negotiations, including the latest round mediated by Secretary of State Kerry.
Feb 12 – ISIS and the Cultural Heritage Crisis of Syria, Iraq, and Yemen
The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has caused untold damage to the cultural heritage of the region. As a result of the fighting, countless monuments have been destroyed, archaeological sites looted, and priceless manuscript collections lost. This conference seeks to understand the nature and scope of the damage by bringing together a distinguished group of scholars from several fields. The goal is to not merely explain what has been lost, but why ISIS engages in this behavior, what initiatives are underway to document and stem the damage, and how international law might be reconceived to contain future crises like this.
Feb 23 at 4:30pm -Public lecture by Zaid Al-Ali, “ISIS in Iraq: Causes, Consequences and Prospects.”
Zaid Al-Ali is the Senior Adviser on Constitution-Building for the Arab Region at International IDEA and an independent scholar. In his work, Al-Ali focuses on constitutional developments throughout the Arab region, with a particular focus on Iraq and the wave of reforms that took place in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen following the start of popular uprisings in December 2010. Al-Ali has published extensively on constitutional reform in the Arab region, including on process design issues and the impact of external influence. He is the author of The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy (Yale University Press 2014). Prior to joining International IDEA, Zaid worked as a legal adviser to the United Nations in Iraq, focusing on constitutional, parliamentary and judicial reform. He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a Maitrise en Droit from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and an LL.B. from King’s College London. He is the founder of the Arab Association of Constitutional Law and is a member of its executive committee.
March 3rd – The Political Economy of Growth and Aid in the Arab World, a panel discussion
April 5 – Public lecture by Anisa Mehdi, “Islam, Muslims,, and our Phobic World”
Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist Anisa Mehdi looks at media coverage of Islam and Muslims and homes in on how to broaden the conversation.
Mar 4-5 2016. Robertson Hall. Read More.