War and Its Reverberations in the Middle East: Power, Intervention, and Knowledge

The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies is pleased to invite you to its conference, “War and Its Reverberations in the Middle East: Power, Intervention, and Knowledge,” on Friday, November 20, 2026, at The Fletcher School. The conference will bring together leading scholars for three panels: on Lebanon at war, on AI and the politics of knowledge in the Middle East, and on the history of U.S. intervention in the region. The full schedule is below. The event is in person only. We hope to see you there!

SCHEDULE:

10:00-10:30 a.m. | Registration

10:30-10:40 a.m. | Welcome Remarks Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean, The Fletcher School Nadim Rouhana, director of the Fares Center, The Fletcher School

10:45 am-12:15 pm | Panel I: Lebanon at War: Domestic and Regional Challenges Chair: Khaled Fahmy, Tufts University Student Chair: Simon Khairallah, MALD27 Waleed Hazbun, University of Alabama Tamirace Fakhoury, The Fletcher School Karim Makdisi, American University of Beirut

12:15-1:15 p.m. | Lunch

1:15-2:45 p.m. | Panel II: AI, Epistemic Manipulation, and the Politics of Knowledge in the Middle East Chair: Nadim Rouhana, The Fletcher School Student Chair: Kaitlyn Bell, MALD27, The Fletcher School Rabie Barakat, American University of Beirut Toni Rouhana, New Mexico State University Dana El Kurd, University of Richmond

2:45-3:00 p.m. | Coffee break

3:00-4:30 p.m. | Panel III: Before the Present: U.S. Intervention and the Making of the Contemporary Middle East Chair: Amaia Elorza Arregi, PhD candidate, The Fletcher School Student Chair: Melissa Chan, MALD27, The Fletcher School Laila Ballout, Wichita State University Dani Nassif, University of Regensburg Jillian M. Schwedler, The City University of New York

4:30-5:30 p.m. | Reception