By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org
Perhaps there is no region of the world about which Americans “know so much, yet so little” than the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, that according to the World Affairs Council of West Michigan.
In response, the Council’s Fall Lecture Series will feature four presentations about four distinctly different Middle Eastern nations in a series titled “Shifting Sands in the Arabian Peninsula”, beginning Thursday, Oct. 18, with a free-to-the-public opening program. The series will take place at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business in Grand Rapids.
In the series, the public can learn why Oman is on many “safest countries to visit” lists, how Qatar is coping with the blockade instituted by its neighbors, what the loosening of long-standing cultural laws means for Saudi Arabia, and if there is any hope for an end to the war in Yemen.
“What happens in this part of the world impacts us,” a World Affairs Council release states. “Let’s be informed global citizens.”
The Oct. 18 lecture will focus on Oman and will be presented by Dr. Fahad Bishara, University of Virginia.
According to his supplied biography, Fahad Bishara specializes in the economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic world. His book, “A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950”, is a legal history of economic life in the Western Indian Ocean, told through the story of the Arab and Indian settlement and commercialization of East Africa during the 19th Century.
He is currently working on a history of the Arab dhow trade between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a project which takes on issues of global capitalism, international law, empire, mobility, and scale in historical writing.
The remaining lectures will be Wednesday, Oct. 24, focused on Qatar, with Ambassador Chase Untermeyer (ret.), U.S. ambassador to Qatar; Tuesday, Nov.13, focused on Saudi Arabia, with Dr. Abdullah Alrebh, Grand Valley State University; and Tuesday, Nov. 20, focused on Yemen, with Dr. Gamal Gasim, Grand Valley State University.
The cost to the public to attend the series is $10 per evening or $25 for a series pass. However, the Oct. 18 lecture is free and open to the public thanks to support from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center and the World Affairs Councils of America.
All programs are 7-8:15 p.m. and a special reception will kick off the series on Oct. 18 starting at 6:15 p.m. The Seidman College of Business’ Multi-purpose Room is located at 50 Front Ave. SW. Free parking in Fulton Street Lot. No RSVPs necessary.
For more information visit worldmichigan.org .
