Expert on Middle East to speak at Geneva College

BEAVER FALLS, PA (02/06/2013)(readMedia)-- Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, will be at Geneva College on Thursday, February 21 and Friday, February 22, 2013.

Rubin will speak in Old Main's John White Chapel on both days. His Thursday presentation on Iran will be at 7:30 p.m. On Friday at 10:10 a.m., Rubin will discuss the Arab Spring. Both engagements are free and open to the public.

A former Pentagon official whose major research area is the Middle East, Rubin regularly instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East and teaches Iranian history, culture, and politics onboard U.S. aircraft carriers. He has lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran and spent time with the Taliban before 9/11.

Rubin earned a Ph.D. in history from Yale University in 1999. His dissertation, The Making of Modern Iran, 1858-1909: Communications, Telegraph and Society won Yale's John Addison Porter Prize. He has lectured in history at Yale University, Hebrew University, Johns Hopkins University, and worked as visiting lecturer at Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

He is the author of Into the Shadows: Radical Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran, co-author of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos and co-editor of Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats. Rubin was the primary drafter of the Bipartisan Policy Center's 2008 taskforce report, Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy toward Iranian Nuclear Development. Also, from 2004-2009, he served as editor of Middle East Quarterly.

Founded in 1943, the AEI is an American conservative think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism-limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."

Geneva College invites students to accept the challenge of an academically excellent, Christ-centered education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, an Adult Degree Completion Program with fully online and campus-based options, and seven graduate degrees, Geneva has programs that place students at the forefront of higher learning. Adhering to the inerrancy of scripture, the liberal arts core curriculum fosters a breadth of knowledge through the study of humanities, social and natural sciences, and experiential learning.