Afghanistan in a Global Perspective: A Panel Discussion

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM EDT

The Global Affairs and Middle East and Islamic Studies Programs present a panel discussion between experts Robert Crews, Mejgan Massoumi, and Hashim Wahdatyar, who bring their perspectives to the question of Afghanistan's historical and current role in global affairs.

Robert D. Crews is the author of Afghan Modern: The History of a Global Nation (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2015) and For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press, 2006) and co-editor of Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands (Harvard University Press, 2012) and The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2008). His work has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Washington Post, and The New York Times. He has served as director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford. He is currently editor-in-chief of the journal Afghanistan. 

Mejgan Massoumi is a historian of Afghanistan and is currently a teaching fellow in the Civil, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) Program at Stanford University. She obtained her PhD in history in June of 2021 from Stanford University. She obtained a master of city planning and an undergraduate degree in architecture from UC Berkeley. Her forthcoming monograph is on the history of radio and the politics of popular culture in Afghanistan, 1960-79. Prior to her graduate studies, she served as the manager for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. Her forthcoming article titled "Radio in Afghanistan: Resistance through Persianate Literary Cultural Production" will appear in the journal Iranian Studies this year.

Hashim Wahdatyar is an international relations analyst based in Washington, D.C. He has held various positions, including spokesperson of United Nations in Afghanistan for nine years, and program director at the Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA) in Washington, D.C. Wahdatyar regularly writes opinion pieces on Afghanistan and the region for the Diplomat, PoliticsToday, and BBC.

This meeting takes place over Zoom.

https://gmu.zoom.us/j/96666881158?pwd=bHZ0MXdHaGw3bFNFalRONEhwQjQ0QT09

Meeting ID: 966 6688 1158

Passcode: 524744