​​​​​​​Alissa Walter | Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern BaghdadÌý
Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
Hoover Institution Library & Archives
èצӰÏñ Humanities Center
Middle Eastern Studies Forum
Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), 450 Jane èצӰÏñ Way Building 360, èצӰÏñ, CA 94305
CCSRE Conference Room
Join us for a book talk and conversation with Professor Alissa Walter, author of Contested City: Citizen Advocacy and Survival in Modern Baghdad.
Professor Alexander Key, moderator
Dr. Helen Malko and Haider Hadi, discussants
Contested City offers a history of state-society relations in Baghdad, exploring how city residents managed through periods of economic growth, sanctions, and war, from the oil boom of the 1950s through the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. Interactions between citizens and their rulers shaped the social fabric and political realities of the city. Notably, low-ranking Ba'th party officials functioned as crucial intermediaries, deciding how regime policies would be applied. Charting the social, economic, and political transformations of Iraq's capital city, Professor Walter examines how national policies translated into action at the local, everyday level.
About the Author
Alissa Walter is an associate professor of history at Seattle Pacific University. She earned her MA in Arab Studies and her PhD in Middle Eastern History from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She traveled frequently to Iraq for her research, and has spent significant time in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Walter regularly volunteers as an expert witness for Iraqi asylum seekers in Washington.