Political Science
Karen Kramer, a Lecturer in Political Science at Purchase College, has been teaching at the College since 2000. A Middle East specialist, she currently teaches Iraq and the Arab World, a course on modern Arab politics, and Democratization in the Arab World, a course that looks at the problems and prospects for democratization in the region.
Professor Kramer has published widely on the politics and economics of the Middle East. Her current research is focused on the dynamics of authoritarianism in the Arab world and the relationship between political and economic liberalization. Her most recent publication, in the October 2006 issue of the Journal of Democracy, is “Arab Political Pacts: An Unlikely Scenario,” which looks at the prospects for political power-sharing agreements in the Arab world.
She has also provided commentary to the international media on the region. Prior to coming to Purchase, Professor Kramer was the Editor-in-Chief of the MidEast Report, a publication on Middle Eastern politics and economics.
The podcast here is of a lecture Professor Kramer presented at the FIT Presidential Scholars Colloquium in New York City on October 18, 2006, on political identity in Iraq. In this presentation, she addresses many questions. How do Iraqis see themselves: as Iraqis – or as Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds? What inter-communal tensions were present at the creation of the state of Iraq, and why? How did decades of authoritarian rule affect inter-communal tensions in the country? Why has ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq worsened since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003? What are the prospects for national reconciliation and stabilization in Iraq?
2007 Convocation
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