Can we blame the seemingly perpetual conflict in the Middle East on a 100-year-old secret agreement signed by a British aristocrat and a French career diplomat?\u00a0 Leading scholars, heads of nations and even heads of terrorist organizations have argued yes.<\/p>\n
Furman history professor Hilary Falb Kalisman will discuss the Sykes-Picot Agreement and its unintended consequences when she speaks at the High Noon lecture series Wednesday, Nov. 16 at the Upcountry History Museum-Furman.<\/p>\n
Her talk, \u201cSykes-Picot and the Modern Middle East,\u201d begins at noon.\u00a0 It is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kalisman will discuss the history of the agreement fashioned by Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot, which divided the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire into British and French spheres of influence following World War I. The document also aimed to reshape the geography of the Middle East.\u00a0 She will talk about the agreement\u2019s impact on the borders and conflicts in the region, and contrast this history with narratives surrounding Sykes-Picot\u2019s significance and our age\u2019s attraction to mapping and remapping the world.<\/p>\n
Kalisman, a historian of the Modern Middle East, joined the Furman faculty this fall after earning a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Brown University and a Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley.\u00a0 She has also been a visiting postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.\u00a0 Her research focuses on education, political culture, colonialism and governance in the modern Middle East.<\/p>\n
The Upcountry History Museum\/Furman is located at 540 Buncombe Street in downtown Greenville\u2019s Heritage Green area.<\/p>\n