NEWPORT, R.I. – Imad Moustapha, the Syrian Ambassador to the United States, will present a public lecture, “Obama and the Middle East: A Dawn of a New Era?” on Wednesday, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. at Salve Regina University.
The lecture, free and open to the public, will be presented in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall, located in O’Hare Academic Center, corner of Ochre Point and Shepard avenues. Those interested in attending the lecture are asked to RSVP by Sept. 13 to the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at 401-341-2927 or pellcenter@salve.edu.
Ambassador Moustapha’s talk is part of a Pell Center program focusing on the Middle East. Offered during the 2010-2011 academic year, this program will include public lectures given by noted experts on the region, seminars and collaborative activities.
Ambassador Moustapha has held his current post since March 2004. Prior to that, he was Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Damascus, and Secretary General of the Arab School on Science and Technology.
He is co-founder of the Network of Syrian Scientists, Technologists and Innovators Abroad, and was an active consultant to several international and regional organizations on science and technology policies in the Middle East.
He was also a member of the Syrian team responsible for drafting reform strategies for the ministries of Culture, Education, and Higher Education.
Moustapha is a versatile writer with a long list of publications; both in English and Arabic. Whereas he mainly writes on the political scene in Washington and on U.S. policies, he also writes about books, art and music. He maintains his own blog at: http://imad_moustapha.blogs.com/.
He has published extensively in Teshreen, Abiad-wa-Aswad, al-Hayat, al-Ahram al-Douali, Forward, the LA Times, and the Washington Post. His list of publications includes more than 200 published articles.
He has authored, co-authored and edited several books in English and Arabic. (The Echoes of Orpheus, Creativity out from the Windows of Hell, and Concurrent Engineering).
He is co-author of the UN sponsored Human Development Report in the Arab World (2003), which was widely quoted throughout the world.
He has appeared in almost all major U.S., British, Syrian, and Arab TV news programs and shows, and presented a large number of public lectures in various Arab and American cities.
Moustapha holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Surrey, UK. He is fluent in both English and French with a moderate command of German.
His wide range of interests include: globalization, cultural identities, social and economic impacts of the Internet, Syrian art and artists, and Western classical music.