Two Middle East specialists will moderate a discussion on ISIS, culture and conflict at a Dinner and Dialogue event organised by Gates Cambridge Scholars.
Two Middle East specialists will moderate a discussion on ISIS, culture and conflict at a Dinner and Dialogue event organised by Gates Cambridge Scholars.
Raphael Lefevre [2012] and Jose Ciro Martinez [2013] will moderate the event on Monday and kick off the discussion part of the evening based on their own research and expertise.
Participants are encouraged to bring homemade food to the dinner so that they can share a cultural, personal or other narrative.
The purpose of the dinner is to bring the Gates Cambridge community – and broader university – together on a common footing to enable more in-depth conversations and discussion.
Organisers Stephen Kissler [2014] and Reid Lidow [2014] plan to hold the events on a regular basis and aim to cover a variety of topics, including Ebola, in forthcoming discussions. They say: “No specialised knowledge on the topics at hand is required. The aim is to challenge participants to “think again” on hard topics and to expose them to new perspectives.”
Raphael, who is doing a PhD in Politics and International Studies and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Lebanon, is author of a book on the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Jose, who is also doing a PhD in Politics and International Studies, has just completed a year of field work in Jordan and has recently published an article on the intersection of welfare and emergency aid in Jordan for Middle East Report.
Picture credit: Wiki Commons and Persian Dutch Network.
