Rutgers University Professor Eric Davis to Speak on Arab Spring

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., October 31, 2012— Eric Davis, professor of political science at Rutgers University, will speak at Williams College on Wednesday, Nov. 7. His talk, titled “Dangerous Times Ahead? Will the Arab Spring Bring Democracy to the Middle East?” will take place at 7:30 p.m., in Griffin Hall, room 3. The event is free and open to the public.

Davis’ research focuses on the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq, the politically economy of industrialization in Egypt, the ideology and social foundations of the religious radical movements in Egypt and Israel, and the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in oil-producing Arab countries. Davis has been appointed a fellow at many institutions, including the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, and the Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers University.

Davis was appointed a Carnegie Scholar in 2007-08 to conduct research for a project titled “Islam and the Formation of Political Identities in Post-Baathist Iraq: Implications for a Democratic Transition.” He has also published numerous books, including Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq (University of California Press, 2005).

Davis received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Gaudino Fund and the W. Ford Schumann ’50 Program in Democratic Studies.

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Published October 31, 2012