Monday, April 15, 2024, 12.00pm to 1.30pm PDT
The Mistress of Girton College, Dr. Elisabeth Kendall, will host a luncheon and roundtable in San Francisco on April 15. Dr. Kendall is a world-renowned Arabist, Middle East expert and Yemen specialist, whose current research focuses on Arabic cultural production and non-state armed groups. She has spent significant time in the field, especially in Yemen.
Girton College invites Cambridge alumni to register via email at alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk. For those interested in attending the roundtable virtually, please email alumni@girton.cam.ac.uk for online access.
Just over a month after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis released a statement with an image of an Israeli ship on fire, vowing to ‘sink your ships’. Five days later, dramatic footage captured on the bodycams of Houthi hijackers and beamed around the world showed heavily armed ‘Houthi’ insurgents clad in black balaclavas jumping out of a helicopter onto the deck of a cargo ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman. Since then, the Houthis have launched missiles and drones at scores of ships, including many with no clear association with Israel or its allies, resulting in major disruption to global seabourne trade and retaliatory airstrikes by the US and UK.
The Houthis frame themselves as the heroes of Palestine and demand an immediate Israeli ceasefire in Gaza, but what is really going on? After nine years of civil war in Yemen which the international community barely noticed, despite the Houthis launching over a thousand missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia and striking targets inside the United Arab Emirates, suddenly the world is watching and wondering: who are the Houthis, what do they want, and where might this lead?
Date: Monday, April 15, 2024
Time: 12:00pm - 1:30pm PT
Location: The Capital Group, One Market Street, Steuart Tower Suite 1800, San Francisco, CA 94105
Speakers
Elisabeth Kendall is the Mistress of Girton College at the University of Cambridge. Previously, she held positions at the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Harvard, and served as Director of a UK government sponsored Center aimed at building Arabic-based research expertise. Her current work focuses on militant jihadist groups and on conflicts in and around Yemen. She has lectured at government, military and scholarly institutions all around the world and is a frequent contributor to international television and print media. She has spent significant time in the field, especially in Yemen. She has authored and edited several works on Arabic and Islamic literature, language and culture and is currently working on a new book, Rock Stars of Jihad. Follow her on X @Dr_E_Kendall
Booking information
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