“The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global”
Dr. Fawaz A. Gerges
Christian A. Johnson Chair in International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies
Sarah Lawrence College
October 13, 2005
Fawaz A. Gerges is one of the world’s most sought-after experts on Arab politics and the Middle East. A senior analyst and regular commentator for “ABC Television News,” Dr. Gerges also serves as a commentator for NPR’s “Morning Edition.” He has appeared on many television and radio networks throughout the world, including CNN, CBS, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.
He is the author of six books, among them The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (2005), American and Political Islam: Clash of Interests or Clash of Cultures? (1999), and the forthcoming Journey of a Jihadist: Inside Muslim Extremism (2006).
His articles and essays have appeared in such venues as Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The International Herald Tribune and The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies.
Gerges earned his M.Sci. at the London School of Economics and his D.Phil. at Oxford University. Before assuming the Christian A. Johnson Chair in International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College in 1994, he taught at Oxford, Harvard and Columbia universities, and was a research fellow at Princeton University. He has received several academic awards for his work in Middle Eastern studies, including a prestigious MacArthur fellowship, and he currently serves as an adjunct scholar at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
About The J. Roderick Davis Lectures
J. Roderick Davis is a 1958 graduate of Samford University (then Howard College). After graduation, he received advanced degrees in English and theology from Boston, Yale, and Columbia universities, followed by more than two decades of teaching in universities in New Jersey and New York. In 1990, he was chosen by his alma mater to come back as the Dean of Samford’s Howard College of Arts and Sciences. In his eleven years in that office, he helped enlarge the College faculty by thirty percent, created individual departments in Geography, Political Science, Philosophy, and Classics, and directed the streamlining and re-focusing of the university’s nationally-recognized core curriculum.
When Dean Davis retired from his office in 2001, his colleagues decided to honor him by establishing a lecture series in his name that would bring to campus recognized scholars and activists in areas of interest to students in the Arts and Sciences.
Previous Davis Lecturers and topics include:
2007 - Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, the Aspen Institute, Author, Einstein: His Life and Universe: "Einstein's Creativity"
2006 – Dr. Juan Hernandez, President, Organization for Hispanic Advancement: “The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants?”
2005 – Dr. Fawaz A. Gerges, Professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College: “The Far Enemy: How and Why Jihad Went Global”
2004 – Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain, Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School: “Democracy and Human Dignity”
2003 – Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, Director of the National Cancer Institute: “The Future of Cancer: Progress with a Purpose”
2002 – Susan Eisenhower, President of the Eisenhower Institute: “Leadership in Conflict”
