Discussion: “Youth, Social Media and Political Protest”

Thursday, April 12
1:00-3:00pm
Johnson Center Cinema

Join us for an interactive discussion with Dr. Adel Iskandar, Georgetown University, and Dr. Alexander Sokolowski, USAID, on the topic of youth political participation in Egypt, Europe and Eurasia, and the variety of techniques being used to mobilize youth to action. 

Dr. Adel Iskandar is a scholar of Arab studies whose research focuses on media and communication. He is the author and coauthor of several works including Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network that is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism (Basic Books). Iskandar's work deals with media, identity and politics and has lectured extensively on these topics at universities worldwide. His latest publication is an edited volume entitled Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation (University of California Press). His two forthcoming works are books on the role of new media and dissidence in the Arab world. Iskandar teaches at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and the Communication, Culture and Technology program at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Dr. Alexander Sokolowski serves as the Senior Political Processes Advisor to the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia at USAID, Washington. In this capacity, he provides advice and technical assistance on elections assistance and political party development. Since January 2009, he has also served as the Acting Team Lead for Democracy and Governance in the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia. Prior to joining USAID in June 2003, he taught Comparative Politics at George Washington University as an adjunct professor. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in November 2002, writing his dissertation on the structural and political determinants of fiscal and social policy failure in Yeltsin’s Russia. He has served as a Foreign Policy Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution (2000-2001). He also holds master’s degrees from Princeton (2000) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1994), and a B.A. from Amherst College (1991). Through the mid to late 1990s, he worked for the National Democratic Institute’s Moscow office as a Political Party Program Officer and Political Analyst. Fluent in Russian, he has published articles on Russian politics in academic journals (Europe-Asia Studies, Demokratizatsiya) and opinion pieces (The Moscow Times).