Prospects for Democracy in the Arab World, a Centennial Lecture with Professor Safwan M. Masri

event_image

Event Details

Date:
Thursday, April 5, 2018
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 
Location:
The Harvard Club, Cambridge Room
35 W. 44th Street
New York, NY
Event type
Lecture / Panel  

Event Description

Please join the Foreign Policy Association in welcoming Professor Safwan M. Masri, Senior Research Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, Columba University.  Professor Masri will draw upon his latest book, Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly.  The lecture will take place at The Harvard Club (35 W. 44th Street, New York, NY), in the Cambridge Room.  

Registration will begin at 5:30 p.m.  The lecture will be followed by a reception.
 
Please note that the Harvard Club requires jacket and tie for gentlemen and similar formal attire for women.
 
This lecture will coincide with the Foreign Policy Association’s year-long Centennial Lecture Series, celebrating 100 years of commitment to fostering public engagement on the most critical topics in U.S. foreign policy. The Foreign Policy Association’s Centennial Lecture Series features extraordinary speakers, who will take the long view and imagine the future in their respective disciplines. The importance of providing citizens with accessible, in-depth, non-partisan material is vital to future world peace and prosperity. In one of his final public addresses, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told the Foreign Policy Association that “In a democracy the Government functions with the consent of the whole people. The latter must be guided by the facts.” Now more than ever, this message continues to have resonance, and will remain the guiding principle and goal of the Foreign Policy Association.

Event Speakers

    • Safwan M. Masri - Speaker
      Senior Research Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, Columba University

      Professor Safwan M. Masri is Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University, and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). In his role as EVP, Masri is responsible for the development of an expanding network of Global Centers, located in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Tunis. These Centers work to advance Columbia’s global mission and extend the University’s reach to address the pressing demands of our global society. Masri has been Director of Columbia Global Centers | Amman since its founding in 2009. Masri joined Columbia University in 1988 as a member of the faculty of Columbia Business School. He was appointed Vice Dean in 1993, a position he held for thirteen years. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University, and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires). A scholar of the contemporary Arab world, Masri’s work focuses on understanding postcolonial dynamics among religion, education, society, and politics. He is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (Columbia University Press, 2017), which examines why Tunisia was the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring as a democracy. The book has received positive coverage in a number of media outlets, including the Financial Times and Le Monde. Masri is often quoted in the press and appears frequently on news programs. His writings on education and current affairs have been featured in the Financial Times, Huffington Post, The Hill, and Times Higher Education. Masri is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and a member of the International Advisory Council of the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES). He was founding chairman of King’s Academy and the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, and served as an advisor to Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. Masri is a trustee of International College, located in Beirut; the Welfare Association (Taawon), Ramallah; and The Children’s Museum Jordan. He is a member of the advisory board of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo, a director of Endeavor Jordan, and a former director of the Arab Bankers Association of North America (ABANA), Aramex, and the Nuqul Group. Masri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1982; his Master of Science in industrial engineering, also from Purdue in 1984; and his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University in 1988. He was honored with the Singhvi Professor of the Year for Scholarship in the Classroom Award in 1990, the Robert W. Lear Service Award in 1998, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course in 2000. Masri has also been honored with the 2003 American Service Award from the American-Arab AntiDiscrimination Committee.

    • Safwan M. Masri

Upcoming events in this area

  • Title
  • Location