February 25, 2007 Library Conference to Mark 60th Anniversary of The Middle East Journal Feb. 27

For 60 years The Middle East Journal has provided a forum for scholarship representing all viewpoints about this complex region of the world.

This milestone will be marked with a conference titled “No Longer ‘Terra Incognita?’: Six Decades of The Middle East Journal,” which will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, in the Whittall Pavilion on the ground floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. This program, sponsored jointly by the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division and the Middle East Institute (MEI), is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required but seating is limited.

The conference will examine how scholarship in the Middle East has evolved during the past 60 years and the role that The Middle East Journal has played in that evolution. The conference will also explore the legacy of the past and challenges of the future in the field of Middle East scholarship and policy.

Scheduled speakers include Geneive Abdo, senior analyst at the Gallup Organization’s Center for Muslim Studies and author of “Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11”; Michele Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin; Edmund Ghareeb, the first Mustafa Barzani Distinguished Scholar in Residence in Kurdish Studies at American University’s Center for Global Peace and author of “Historical Dictionary of Iraq”; Richard Parker, former U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Algeria and Morocco, the former editor of The Middle East Journal, and author of “Uncle Sam in Barbary: A Diplomatic History”; Trita Parsi, adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and author of “Treacherous Triangle: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States”; and Don Peretz, professor emeritus at Binghamton University (State University of New York) and author of “The Government and Politics of Israel.”

MEI was founded in 1946 to increase knowledge of the Middle East in the United States and promote better understanding between the peoples of the Middle East and America. MEI founded The Middle East Journal in 1947.

The African and Middle Eastern Division was established in 1978 as part of a reorganization that combined the Near East Section, the African Section and the Hebraic Section. Together they cover some 78 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. For more information on the division and its holdings, visit the African and Middle Eastern Division at www.loc.gov/rr/amed/.