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Dr. Robert Rabil is professor of Middle East studies at the Florida Atlantic University's Department of Political Science. He is also the Lifelong Learning Society (LLS) Distinguished Professor of Current Events. He received his masters degree in government from the Harvard University Extension School and his doctorate in Near Eastern and Judaic studies from Brandeis University. In May 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Click here to watch the video.

He has appeared on and has been interviewed by British Broadcasting Company (BBC), C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other major media networks, and participates in government sponsored roundtable discussions and forums. 

Nationality: U.S. Citizen

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Specialization: Political Islam, Transnational and Revivalist Movements, US-Arab and US-Muslim Relations, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Preventive Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, Reform in the Muslim World, Minorities in the Middle East, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Israel, and Terrorism.

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Professional Experience:

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  • Professor (2014-Present)

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  • Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Political Science Department, Florida Atlantic University (2009-2014). Courses offered include Comparative Politics of the Middle East; Politics and Prospects in Iraq; Middle East Politics: The Arab-Israeli Conflict (Graduate); Comparative Politics; Religions and World Politics; Comparative Politics of Ethnic Conflict; Women in the Middle East; Iraq: Political Transformation and Socio-religious Movements (Graduate); the Modern Middle East; and Future Jihad (Graduate).

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  • Project Manager, Iraq Research and Documentation Project (IRDP), a project affiliated with Harvard University and funded by the State Department, 2001-2003; 1012 14th St., NW, Suite 1110, Washington, DC 20005-3406. Responsible for managing, planning and supervising the creation of a comprehensive, accessible, computerized, multi-media database system about the government, politics and civil society of modern Iraq, a system based on the primary sources of a set of Iraqi official documents (2.4 million) captured by the Kurdish opposition in 1991. This project may well become the future nucleus of Iraqi national archive. Responsible for managing and supervising a team of nine researchers, two editors and a computer troubleshooter; and creating guidelines for researching, classifying, translating, annotating, summarizing, filing, indexing, cross-referencing and processing this set of documents. Responsibilities also include hiring researchers; preparing and researching subjects for publication; creating a processing handbook; translating official documents; and standardizing transliterations and explaining the Iraqi regime’s military and administrative structures and intelligence jargon. Please visit project’s website at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~irdp.

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  • Senior Lecturer, History Department, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, 2000-01. Courses taught: Nationalism and Religion in the Middle East; The Arab-Israeli Conflict; and Cultural Contact in World History. Courses prepared: Islamic Fundamentalism, and Minorities of the Middle East.

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  • Lecturer/Teaching Assistant, Near Eastern and Judaic StudiesDepartment, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 1997-1998, 1999. Courses taught: History of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire, 1450-1914; The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1808; and Nationalism and Religion in the Middle East.

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  • Chief of Emergency, Red Cross and Civil Defense, Baabda district, Beirut, Lebanon. Responsibilities include supervising Fire Department, providing and circulating safety instructions, designating shelters, procuring and distributing foodstuff, organizing community meetings and blood drives, outlining emergency routes, coordinating with army and militia units, conflict prevention and management, re-integration of civil society, and disarmament.

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Education and Degrees:

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  • Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. Doctor of Philosophy(Ph.D.) in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Program, 1996-2001. 

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  • Harvard University Extension School, Cambridge, MA, 1993-1995. Master of Liberal Arts (MLA), in Government. 

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  • Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA, 1984-1987. Bachelor of Science (B.S.). Major: Computer Science; Minor: Math. 
     

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