Palestinian Activist Hanan Ashrawi to Visit Lexington, UK

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 28, 2009) — Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi will visit the University of Kentucky to deliver a public lecture the evening of March 29, 2010, and the event will be free and open to the public.  Ashrawi’s talk will be the second of two the university will sponsor this academic year as part of a continuing campus and community dialogue on the Middle East.

In mid-October, the university hosted the visit of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  The focus of the presentations by both speakers centers on their views based on their unique experiences on the prospects and preconditions for peace in the Middle East.  The goal is to inform the university and Kentucky communities and to facilitate thoughtful dialogue.

This discussion will be sustained perpetually by the establishment of the Peace House Living-Learning Community in cooperation with the Office of Residence Life at the University of Kentucky. Peace House is conceived as a student residential community dedicated to the cause of peace, both locally and internationally.

“The University of Kentucky intends to establish Peace House as a site of civil discourse, creative and respectful thought and action, and hope," said Provost Kumble R. Subbaswamy.

Ashrawi has served as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Jerusalem District.  In 2009, she was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), making history as the first woman to hold a seat in this executive body.  Ashrawi's academic career spanned several decades in which she served as a faculty member, chair in the Department of English and Dean of the Faculty at Birzeit University on the West Bank. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from American University of Beirut and her doctorate in medieval and comparative literature from the University of Virginia.

From 1991 through 1993, she served as the official spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Process and a member of both the Leadership/Guidance and Executive Committees of the Delegation.

With the signing of the peace accords by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1993 and the establishment of Palestinian self-rule,  Ashrawi headed the Preparatory Committee of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights in Jerusalem and was the founder and commissioner general of that committee until 1995. From 1996 through 1998, she served as minister of higher education and research.  In August of 1998, she founded the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH), and has served as the Executive Committee chairperson of that organization since that time.

Ticket information for Ashrawi’s public talk will be announced at a later date.