Posted by William Nunnelley on 2005-10-06

Noted Middle East expert Fawaz A. Gerges will deliver the J. Roderick Davis Lecture at Samford University Thursday, Oct. 13. He will speak on the topic of his new book, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global, which was released Sept. 11. Dr. Gerges will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Reid Chapel. The public is invited free.

The author of six books and numerous articles on Arab politics and the Middle East, Gerges is a senior analyst and regular commentator for ABC-TV News and a commentator on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

His books also include America and Political Islam: Clash of Interests or Clash of Cultures? (1999) and the forthcoming The Jihadis: Unholy Warriors (2005). His articles have appeared in 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.

Holder of the Christian A. Johnson Chair in International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, he also has taught at Oxford, Harvard and Columbia universities. He holds the M.S. from the London School of Economics and Ph.D. from Oxford University.

The Davis Lectures Endowment was established as a tribute to Dr. J. Roderick Davis, the former dean of Samford's Howard College of Arts And Sciences. The series brings nationally and internationally renowned scholars to the Samford campus to present their recent work and to interact with students.

Previous Davis Lecturers were Susan Eisenhower, president, The Eisenhower Institute; Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director, National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics, University of Chicago.
 

 

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.