2018

Tuesday, March 20th

6:30pm

Gary Wasserman | "The Doha Experiment: Arab Kingdom, Catholic College, Jewish Teacher"

A conversation with Adam Hochschild.
Gary Wasserman’s decision to head to Qatar to teach at Georgetown sounds questionable, at best. “In the beginning,” he writes, “this sounds like a politically incorrect joke. A Jewish guy walks into a fundamentalist Arab country to teach American politics at a Catholic college.” But he quickly discovers that he has entered a world that gives him a unique perspective on the Middle East and on Muslim youth; that teaches him about the treatment of Arab women and what an education will do for them, both good and bad; shows him the occasionally amusing and often deadly serious consequences his students face simply by living in the Middle East; and finds surprising similarities between his culture and the culture of his students.
Most importantly, after eight years of teaching in Qatar he realizes he has become part of a significant, little understood movement to introduce liberal, Western values into traditional societies. Written with a sharp sense of humor, The Doha Experiment offers a unique perspective on where the region is going and clearly illustrates why Americans need to understand this clash of civilizations.
Comedian Lewis Black said, “The Doha Experiment reads like an edgy sitcom, as humorous as it is sad.”
Two elderly men are pictured in a side-by-side collage. The man on the left, captured with Berkeley Journalism precision, is smiling and wearing glasses, while the man on the right has a neutral expression with white hair. Both images are portrait-style, showing their faces clearly.
About Gary Wasserman
Gary Wasserman is an an author, academic and political consultant.  He taught at Johns Hopkins University in Nanjing, China, the City University of New York and Columbia University. He received his doctorate with distinction from Columbia and is the author of the best-selling text, The Basics of American Politics, now in its 15th edition.
About Adam Hochschild 
Adam Hochschild is a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism, where Gary Wasserman took part in his nonfiction book-writing class.  He is the celebrated author of acclaimed books of political history. He has written eight books, including King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and the New York Times bestseller To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, a seminal narrative about the Great War that was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award. His 2005 book, Bury the Chains won the L.A. Times Book Prize.

SPONSORED BY

Graduate School of Journalism

LOCATION

North Gate Hall Library

Get directions to North Gate Hall Library

TICKET INFO

This is a FREE event.
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CONTACT INFO

Julie Hirano
juliehirano@berkeley.edu