Dr. Laura Robson to Speak on “War, Peace, & the Making of Minorities in the Post-Ottoman Middle East, 1919-1923”

FRESNO — Dr. Laura Robson (Portland State University), will give a lecture on “War, Peace, & the Making of Minorities in the Post-Ottoman Middle East, 1919-1923 ” at 7:30PM on Tuesday, February 3, in the Smittcamp Alumni House, 2625 E. Matoian Way, on the Fresno State campus.

Dr. Laura Robson will illustrate how the League of Nations created a new Middle Eastern politics of minority and majority through peace agreements, through refugee resettlement efforts, and through partition of territories after the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution. Her presentation will include a discussion of Armenian aspirations for statehood immediately following the end of World War I.

Dr. Robson is a historian of the modern Middle East. Her current research and teaching focus on the history of religious and ethnic minorities in the twentieth century Arab world. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2009 and is now Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Leon S. Peters Foundation, the Islamic Studies Speaker Series, the History Department, and the College of Social Sciences

The lecture is free and open to the public. Free parking is available in Fresno State Lot P1 across from the Smittcamp Alumni House. Parking permits are not needed for this lecture.

For more information about the lecture please contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669, or visit our website at www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.