Presidential Panel: Is Another World Possible in the Middle East?

Organizer and Presider: Michael Schwartz, Stony Brook University

Speakers:

• Juan Cole, University of Michigan
• Gilbert Achcar, Centre
• Marc Bloch, Berlin

This panel will speak to the theme of the conference by referencing both current dynamics and the future possibilities in the Middle East.

Cole and Achcar are two of the most informed and respected scholars of Middle East history and politics.

In addition to a long list of influential academic books and articles that have gained him the highest accolades among specialists, Cole's weblog, Informed Comment, has become a central source for all scholars, journalists and activists concerned with the war in Iraq; and a site where the fundamental issues relating to the conflict are debated.

Achcar's academic work on the Middle East is translated, read, and cited by scholars on five continents, his political commentary is among the most influential in both political and journalistic circles, and his most recent book Perilous Power (with Noam Chomsky) has become required reading for everyone who is concerned with political-economic trajectories in the Middle East.

http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/leftnav/meetings/2007