Starr Forum: Demystifying ISIS

February 19, 2015 - 4:30pm to 6:00pm
25 Ames Street, Cambridge

A discussion with Juan Cole and Richard Nielsen

About the Speakers: 
Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written widely about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has commented extensively on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the Iraq War, the politics of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Iranian domestic struggles and foreign affairs. He continues to study and write about contemporary Islamic movements, whether mainstream or radical, whether Sunni and Salafi or Shi`ite. 

Richard Nielsen is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at MIT. His current work uses statistical text analysis and fieldwork in Cairo mosques to understand the radicalization of jihadi clerics in the Arab world. Nielsen also writes on international law, the political economy of human rights, political violence, and political methodology. Some of this work is published or forthcoming in The American Journal of Political Science, International Studies Quarterly, Political Analysis, and Sociological Methods and Research. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Juan Cole's book "The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East" will be sold at the event.

Watch the video

Free & open to the public | Refreshments served