AMES, Iowa -- Journalist and foreign policy analyst Robin Wright will discuss trends and policy in the Arab world during a talk at Iowa State University.
"Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World" will be at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Wright's talk, which is part of the university's World Affairs Series, is free and open to the public.
Wright is the author of a book by the same name, which won the 2012 Overseas Press Club Award for Best Book on International Affairs. As a United States Institute for Peace Senior Fellow and a Wilson Center Distinguished Scholar, Wright's projects explore new trends in the Islamic world that will be a major policy challenge for the United States and the West, including the Arab revolts, the rise of political Islam and the counter-jihad against extremism.
Reporting from more than 140 countries on six continents, Wright has worked for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News and The Christian Science Monitor. She also has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The International Herald Tribune and others. Her foreign tours include the Middle East, Europe, Africa and several years as a roving foreign correspondent in Latin America and Asia. She most recently covered U.S. foreign policy for The Washington Post.
Wright also wrote "The Islamists are Coming: Who They Really Are" and “Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East,” which The New York Times and The Washington Post selected as a notable book of 2008. She also edited “The Iran Primer: Power, Politics and U.S. Policy.”
Wright received the National Magazine Award for reportage from Iran in The New Yorker, and the U.N. Correspondents Gold Medal. The American Academy of Diplomacy selected her as the journalist of the year for her “distinguished reporting and analysis of international affairs.” She also won the National Press Club Award for diplomatic reporting and received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant.
In addition to a long career in journalism, Wright has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale University, Duke University and Stanford University, among others.
Wright's lecture is cosponsored by the World Affairs Series and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. More information on ISU lectures is available online at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling 515-294-9935.
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