Yale’s Program on Ethics, Politics and Economics 2014 Robert H. Litowitz Lecture presents:
Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University: “Popular Sovereignty and Religious Peoples in the Arab World”.
A reception will follow the lecture
Yale University’s Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics is pleased to announce that Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University will be delivering this year’s Robert H. Litowitz Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy. In his lecture, Professor Brown will discuss two trends have that grown in ideological force in Arab politics in recent years: one emphasizing popular sovereignty and democratic accountability; the other stressing the divine origin of political authority. Do these operate at cross purposes? And might either trend tame the authoritarian patterns that seem so deeply entrenched in the region?
Nathan J. Brown currently serves as Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University; he is also Nonresident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, where he specialized in Middle Eastern politics. His research focuses on issues of constitutionalism, the rule of law, and democracy in the Arab world
Professor Brown is the author of six books: When Victory is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Cornell, 2012); Between Religion and Politics (with Amr Hamzawy, Carnegie Endowment, 2010) Palestinian Politics since the Oslo Accords (California, 2003); Constitutions in a Nonconstitutional World (SUNY Press, 2001); The Rule of Law in the Arab World (Cambridge, 1997); and Peasant Politics in Modern Egypt (Yale 1990). He also has edited three books on democratization, Middle Eastern politics, and constitutionalism. His work has appeared in scholarly journals including Comparative Studies in Society and History, the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Law and Society Review, Past and Present, and the Journal Democracy.
Professor Brown’s research has been funded by three Fulbright grants to conduct research and teach in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and the Gulf, as well as by the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 2009, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2009, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2013.
In addition to his academic work, Professor Brown has served as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the drafting committees for the Palestinian and Iraqi constitutions, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, Human Rights Watch, and other international and nongovernmental organizations.
The Litowitz lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture. For additional information, please contact Erica De Bruin at erica.debruin@yale.edu.