Middle East Scholar to Speak at Washington State University

PULLMAN, Wash. — “United States’ Hegemony, Arab Oil, and the Making of Democratic Europe,” is the title of a lecture to be presented at Washington State University Feb. 18 by Professor Ellis Jay Goldberg, director of the Middle East Center at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.

Goldberg will explore the changes that occurred in Europe when Arab oil replaced coal transforming the European social structure and economy. He will speak at 7p.m. in room at the Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education, Room 202.

“Professor Goldberg’s speech grants WSU students a world view of the issues affecting the United States and the Middle East,” said Robert Staab, senior instructor and coordinator of Asia 301, “East Meets West.”

“The conflicts in the Middle East are more than simply challenges between the Islamic East and the United States,” said Staab. “They represent a far broader series of cultural, social, and religious misunderstandings, which includes Europe. Dr. Goldberg’s comments will be part of a larger class that will focus on untangling some of these issues impacting both the East and the West.”

Goldberg is the recipient of numerous honors, including grants from the National Science Foundation and the Ford Foundation. A professor of Middle Eastern and comparative politics, his most recent book, “The Social History of Labor in the Middle East” (Westview Press,1996), is an edited collection of essays. His previous books have focused on the Egyptian labor movement, Muslim political movements in Islam, the origins of the postcolonial trade union movement in Egypt and human rights. He is presently working on a book on international trade and the political economy of Egypt in the first half of the 20th century.

Goldberg received a doctorate and master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in English from Harvard. Goldberg’s academic honors include two visiting professorships at Princeton University. He was the principal investigator for “Liberalism and the Role of the Individual in the Arab World” at the Rockefeller Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy,1999.