[190] Acclaimed historian from Oxford visits MTSU Nov. 15 to put ‘making of modern Middle East’ in perspective

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — An acclaimed American historianteaching at the University of Oxford, with a thorough knowledge of the Middle Eastfrom the 14th century to the present day, will visit MTSU Thursday, Nov. 15, to present this fall's free Strickland Visiting Scholar Lecture.

Eugene Rogan will speak on "World War I and the Making of the Modern Middle East"Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the James Union Building's Tennessee Room on the MTSU campus. 

A 5:30 p.m. reception in the JUB lobby will precede Rogan's talk, and a book-signing opportunity with the author will follow the lecture.

MTSU's Department of History, the Strickland Lecture series sponsor, is encouraging visitors to park in the Ingram Lot across Middle Tennessee Boulevard from the James Union Building and use a guest shuttle to avoid the area's construction hazards. The shuttle will run from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and again after the lecture until 8:30 p.m. 

An accessible entrance for guests with disabilities is available at the back of the JUB. A campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking.

Rogan is professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford and director of the Middle East Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford, in England. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Columbia College and his master's and doctoral degrees in Middle Eastern history from Harvard University. 

The professor taught at Boston College and Sarah Lawrence College before joining the St. Antony's faculty in 1991. In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, which is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

The Economist and the Wall Street Journal named Rogan's recent book, "The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East," one of the best of 2015. The work also received the British Army Military Book of The Year award in 2016, and the Indonesian translation received the Islamic Book Award in the 2017 Jakarta Islamic Book Fair.

Rogan is also the author of "The Arabs: A History," named one of the best books of 2009 by The Economist, Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. His works have been translated into 17 languages.

The Strickland Visiting Scholar program allows MTSU students to meet with renowned scholars whose expertise spans a variety of historical issues. The Strickland family established the program in memory of Roscoe Lee Strickland Jr., a longtime professor of European history at MTSU and the first president of the university’s Faculty Senate.

For more information about this Strickland Visiting Scholar Lecture, please contact MTSU’s Department of History at 615-898-5798 or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/history.