Allen Fromherz is a professor of Middle East, Gulf and Mediterranean history at Georgia State University, where he directs the university’s Middle East Studies Center. His latest book is The Center of the World: A History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present, in which each chapter centers on a different port around the Gulf. From ancient Dilmun to medieval Basra to modern Dubai, The Center of the World shows how the people of the Gulf adapted to larger changes in world history, creating a system of free trade, merchant rule and commerce that connected the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean and continues to define the region today. It is this history that forms the basis for Fromherz’s Chautauqua Lecture Series appearance, opening our week on “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence.”

Fromherz served as president of the American Institute for Maghreb Studies from 2015 until 2021. He is also the founding series editor, with Matt Buehler, of Edinburgh Studies on the Maghrib, and is North Africa senior editor for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia Africa. Since 2024, he is co-chair of the Monsoon Book Prizes, which celebrate the archaeology, history and political economy of the Indian Ocean world. The author of several other books on Gulf and Mediterranean history, including Qatar: A Modern History, Fromherz has also edited three volumes, including The Gulf in World History. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic history from St. Andrews University in St. Andrews, Scotland, and his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth.

This program is made possible by The Loynd Family Fund.

Thomas Friedman is the bestselling author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century and foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Renowned for his direct reporting and accessible analysis of complex issues shaping the world, Friedman is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes — two for international reporting from the Middle East and a third for his columns written about 9/11 — and has covered monumental stories from around the globe for The New York Times since 1981. It is this extensive reporting and analysis that will inform his remarks as he closes our Chautauqua Lecture Series week exploring “The Middle East: The Gulf States’ Emerging Influence.”

Friedman has written seven books since 1989 that have sold 10 million copies in 40 different languages. They include From Beirut to Jerusalem (which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction), The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, The World is Flat and, most recently, his latest bestseller Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, in which Friedman offers a blueprint for overcoming the stresses and challenges of a world being transformed by technology, globalization and climate change.

Friedman was featured in Showtime’s climate change documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously,” executive produced by James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This program is made possible by The Malcolm Anderson Lecture Fund, The Emily and Richard Smucker Lectureship Fund, and The Helen C. Lincoln Fund for International Programming.