Understanding Arab Uprisings

GAMBIER, Ohio (September 15, 2011)

Author and foreign policy analyst Robin Wright will visit Kenyon College for discussions on the Middle East on September 19 and 20.

Wright's talk, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World, is on Monday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Rosse Hall, 105 College Dr. She follows that with a conversation on the topic on Tuesday, September 20, at 11:10 a.m. in Peirce Hall Lounge, 201 College-Park St.

Wright has reported from more than 140 countries. She is the author of Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World and The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and U.S. Policy. Wright has written for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Sunday Times of London, CBS News and the Christian Science Monitor. Her work has also appeared in Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, TIME, New York Times Magazine, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs. In addition to her work as a journalist, Wright recently ended a term as a fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C. She has also been a fellow at the Brookings Institute, Yale University, Duke University, Stanford University, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Southern California.

Kenyon Provost Nayef Samhat said Wright's work is instrumental to our understanding of the revolutions throughout the Middle East. "Robin Wright's book and her lecture is a necessary and timely response to the transformative events in this crucial region," Samhat said. "Understanding potential trajectories requires us to understand the sources of popular discontent. Only by doing so can we encourage the evolution of these countries in a direction that will promote openness and opportunity for societies too long closed."

Wright's appearance is sponsored by the Office of the Provost.