Middle East Media Events

Madison area readers might be interested in knowing that in a revision to this Sunday's Middle East Studies conference, there will be a definite focus on politics and the media in the Middle East during the early morning.

First, as noted previously, the keynote address will be delivered by Mona Eltahawy, a columnist for the influential Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. Eltahawy, who was recently honored by the Next Century Foundation for her contributions to increasing understanding of and within the Middle East, is also a frequent contributor to U.S. media outlets and has been a guest on several cable TV talk shows. Before moving to the United States, she was a correspondent for Reuters in Cairo and Jerusalem. This title of her talk will be, "Egypt - Moving Forward or Back to Square One?"

Second, following thet keynote there will be a roundtable discussion of "Reporting the Middle East." This session will feature Eltahawy, as well as Mustapha Khalfi and Natasha Tynes. Khalfi is the Editor-in-Chief of the Moroccan daily newspaper Attajdid, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he focuses on political reform trends and Islamist political movements in the region. Attajdid is linked to Morocco's main Islamist movement, the Justice and Development Party. Tynes has worked as a reporter for a number of Middle Eastern media outlets, including reporting on the opening months of the Iraq War from the Iraqi-Jordanian border for the Jordan Times and serving as an English newsroom editor for al-Jazeera.