Location: Scott-Bates Commons, Room 324

The Chloe Center’s first New Books in Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism conversation will feature Prof. Melani McAlister (George Washington University), who will speak about her new book Promises, Then the Storm: Notes on Memory, Protest, and the Israel–Gaza War.

Melani McAlister is Professor of American Studies and International Affairs at George Washington University and the author of Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and US Interests in the Middle East since 1945 and The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals, as well as numerous articles. She is currently the president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Promises, Then the Storm covers McAlister’s decades of experience as a scholar of US–Middle East relations, as well as her personal history in activism, this incisive and dynamic text traces the devastating development of the current war in real time, identifying echoes with previous moments in the history of the region and the protests and artistic responses they prompted. This series of meditations explores the enduring power of narrative and memory, threading throughout the work of Arab and Arab American poets and musicians to tell a story of Palestinian resistance and resilience.

This event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 11, 12pm to 1:30pm, in Scott-Bates Commons, Room 324. Lunch will be served, and a small number of copies of the book will be available for students. Please RSVP and sign up for individual student meetings with Prof. McAlister here.

This event is open to JHU graduate and undergraduate students, as well as faculty.