Fares Center International Conference

"The Middle East in the U.S. and the U.S. in the Middle East."

Conference Agenda

All speakers will be present at the conference in person.

Thursday, April 18th, 2024 4:00-4:15 PM Welcoming remarks Monica Toft, Academic Dean (The Fletcher School) Nadim Rouhana, Director of The Fares Center (The Fletcher School) 4:15-5:25 PM - Power vacuums and the remaking of regional dynamics Chair: Monica Toft Ali Banuazizi (Boston College). “U.S.-Iran Relations and the New Regional and International Realignments in the Middle East”Nancy Okail (President & CEO, Center for International Policy) Ismail Numan Telci (Sakarya University). "Reconfiguring Alliances: The Impact of US Disengagement from the Middle East on Regional Dynamics” 5:30-6:30 PM - Keynote Address: The Middle East and the United States: Entangled Systems Chair: Nadim Rouhana (The Fletcher School) Lisa Anderson (Columbia University) 6:30-7:30 Reception at the Hall of Flags, The Fletcher School
Friday, April 19th, 2024 9:30 – 10:45 AM - Cultural Encounters as Sites for Defining New Directions in Arab-American Relations Chair: Malik Mufti (Tufts University) Sopanit Angsusingha (Georgetown University). “‘True Stars in the East’”: American-Iraqi Encounters in Baghdad High School for Girls, 1920s-1950s” Nora Lessersohn (Harvard University). “Christopher Oscanyan’s Visions of Ottoman-American Futures, 1835-1895” Maha El Said (Cairo University). “Interrogating Encounters: Reconstructing Power in the Chaos of Cairo” Mounira Soliman (Cairo University). “Arab and American Scholarly Sojourns” 11:00-12:15 PM – The U.S. and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Regional and Domestic Implications Chair: Khaled Fahmy (Tufts University) Senior Non-Resident Fellow, (Arab Center Washington). “How Can Peace Initiatives Facilitate Authoritarian Practices” Atalia Omer (University of Notre Dame). "America is a thing you can move very easily”: Religion and Race in America Explain Why Hasbarah Works and Why it Doesn’t Mark Tessler (University of Michigan). “Do Views about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Influence Arab Attitudes toward the United States: Evidence from Arab Barometer Surveys?” (paper co-authored with Dana El-Kurd) 12:15-1:15 PM – Lunch Break 1:15-2:45 PM - Keynote Panel: The Middle East in the US Campus and Implications for Knowledge Production and Freedom of Speech Chair: Chidi Anselm Odinkalu (The Fletcher School) Keynote: Peter Beinart (CUNY) Sahar Aziz (Rutgers University) 3:00-4:30 PM - The U.S. in the Middle East: Questions about Dealing with Islamism, Democracy, and Peacebuilding Chair: Elisabeth Leake (The Fletcher School) Mohamed-Ali Adraoui (Radboud University). "Dealing with Islamists: The United States and the Arab Revolutions. How the Obama Administration Acted on Political Islam” Tamirace Fakhoury (The Fletcher School). “The US as an external actor in the Middle East: Its peacebuilding approach in post-war Lebanon” Nathaniel George (SOAS). “ 'We Have to Find a Way of Splitting the Arabs' : US Policy and the Crisis of Political Representation in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1973–82” Ritika Lal (NYU). “The Cold War Makings of Saudi Surveillance: Labor and Dissent in the Lifetime of the Dhahran Airfield Agreement, 1945-1962”