MOUNT VERNON — An expert on Middle East history who spent 10 months working with the Baghdad City Council to build a democracy after the U.S. invasion of Iraq will speak about his experiences on Monday, April 18, at Cornell College.
Lee Bowie will lecture on “Growing Democracy in Iraq” at 11 a.m. in Shaw Lounge of The Commons. Admission is free.
Bowie is a 1961 Cornell graduate who teaches early and modern Middle Eastern history at the Philadelphia area campus of Penn State University. From July 2003 through April 2004 he worked for the Research Triangle Institute, a private organization funded by the U.S. government and sent into Iraq to build democracy from the ground up. Bowie advised the Baghdad City Council on personnel issues; managed a training center offering courses in computing, management techniques, accounting, budgeting and anti-corruption practices; and trained Iraqis in democratic practices.
Bowie has spent most of his life studying, teaching or living in the Middle East. He taught at American University of Cairo, Egypt, on a Fulbright Scholarship before joining Arabian-American Oil Co. in Saudi Arabia in 1978. He worked in human resources, assisting 300 American employees “on loan” from U.S. companies. In 1987 he returned to the United States for a three-year stint as an executive recruiter. During the 1990s he rejoined the renamed Saudi Arabian-American Oil Co. He began teaching at Penn State’s Philadelphia area campus in 2000.
Bowie ’s visit to Cornell is sponsored by the Lecture, Artists and Cultural Events consortium (LACE) and the Cornell Alumni Student Association (CASA).
