East Coast professor to explain Libyan Revolution Feb. 27 on campus

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida will present “Libya from Dictatorship to Revolution” as part of Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College World Issues Forum at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in the Fairhaven College Auditorium on the Western campus.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Addressing the structural causes of last year’s Libyan Revolution, Ahmida will analyze causes of the revolution and its success in freeing Libya from the control of the Qaddafi forces. The main thesis is that the inability of the Qaddafi regime to make serious political reforms appropriate to the changes in the economy, education and society eventually led to conflict between a dynamically changing social structure and a rigid political system that inhibited new social forces – especially unemployed youth – from having their social demands and grievances met.

Ahmida is a professor and chair of the University of New England Department of Political Science.

For more information on the World Issues Forum speaker series presented by Western’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, call Shirley Osterhaus at (360) 650-2309 or visit the World Issues Forum website.

Western's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, established in 1967, is nationally recognized for innovation in teaching and learning, intensive advising, student-designed majors, narrative assessment, experiential and independent learning and a commitment to social justice.