The Middle East lecture series has been receiving a lot of attention due to the prominence of all nine of this semester’s participants.
This attention has not originated solely from the U campus community, nor from the surrounding Utah public, although both communities are well-represented at the lectures.
Recent lectures have been broadcasted via the Internet to viewers from several locations, both national and international.
These online viewers have had the chance to become active participants to the same extent as those viewers who physically attended.
Each week, those who log onto the Web site have the unique opportunity to present questions to the various speakers through the miracle of modern technology.
Former United Nations Secretary General, Bhoutros Bhoutros-Ghali, is among the distinguished international audience that has been closely following the series.
Professor Ibrahim Karawan, director of the Middle East Center, said Boutros-Ghali, who was originally hoped to be a part of the series, e-mailed Karawan “that he is following with great interest what goes on.”
Karawan also cited viewers from other locations including staff of The New York Times and residents of Switzerland and Kuwait.
Boutros-Ghali, along with others in the local, national and international audience, had the opportunity to hear Edmund Ghareeb talk about the implications and consequences of the Iraq War, the Arab Israeli conflict and the state of Syria on Wednesday afternoon.
Ghareeb is a distinguished scholar from the Center for Global Peace and current professor of international relations at American University in Washington, D.C.
As part of the encouragement of participation from the online audience, Ghareeb took a question from the bay area in California regarding inter-Arab relations in the Middle East.
Ghareeb’s lecture, along with those of the other participants in the Middle East lecture series, can be found on the Web beginning Monday at www.hum.utah.edu/mec.
David Malone, president of the International Peace Academy and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, will be the next and final speaker in the series.
Malone will present his lecture on Tuesday, April 6, at 3 p.m. in the Dumke Auditorium.
The lecture can also be accessed online through a link found at the above Web site.