American Images of the Middle East: Problems and Prospects

Dr. Jack G. Shaheen, internationally acclaimed author and media critic, will present a lecture entitled ‘American Images of the Middle East: Problems and Prospects’ on September 19th at 7 PM in Giffels Auditorium.  Copies of his book “Reel Bad Arabs” will be available for purchase at the event from the UA Bookstore.  The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Jack G. Shaheen is a committed internationalist and a devoted humanist. A Pittsburgh native and former CBS news consultant on Middle East Affairs, Shaheen’s lectures and writings illustrate that damaging racial and ethnic stereotypes of Asians, blacks, Native Americans and others injure innocent people. He defines crude caricatures, explains why they persist, and provides workable solutions to help shatter misperceptions.

Shaheen has extensively cataloged film and TV programming, and analyzes the corruption and manipulation of the Arab image by Hollywood, often characterizing Arabs as terrorists, bandits or as a savage, nomadic race, and presenting Arab women little more than as shallow belly dancers serving evil, naïve, and greedy Arab sheiks.  Shaheen analyzes this Hollywood portrayal, illustrating his findings with the aid of scenes taken from American movies, and explains the motivations behind these stereotypes about Arabs, and their development at key points in American history, as well as why it is so important today.

This event is sponsored by the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental area studies center that offers diverse cultural, intellectual, and educational opportunities for the University of Arkansas community, it promotes research and teaching in interdisciplinary Middle East studies as part of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. For more information visit http://mest.uark.edu, call 479-575-2175, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.