UC Santa Cruz professor Alan Richards, who in late 2004 briefed the American military's Central Command on the Middle East, will address the UC Santa Cruz Foundation Forum on June 2.
Richards will speak on "American Thinking About Violence in the Middle East" at the 4 p.m. lecture in the College Nine/College Ten Multipurpose Room. His talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
The event is free and open to the public. There will be parking at the Barn Theater at the main entrance to campus, with shuttles running to and from the forum.
It was at the invitation of high-level military intelligence officers that Richards delivered two briefings and met with top Pentagon officials in December 2004 about sources of instability throughout the Middle East and beyond.
Since before the war, Richards-a critic of current government policy in the Middle East-has taken every opportunity to share his expertise with military and government officials, briefing officers at the Army War College in Pennsylvania, the Naval War College in Rhode Island, members of the intelligence community in Washington, D.C., and many others.
Richards is a professor of environmental studies and economics. He was educated at Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied political science, Middle Eastern studies, and economics. He joined the Economics Department at UC Santa Cruz in 1976 and transferred to the Environmental Studies Department in 2000.
The UC Santa Cruz Foundation Forum brings together UC Santa Cruz Foundation trustees, faculty, students, and the Santa Cruz community to hear engaging speakers and participate in discussions on current subjects that affect their common interests and goals. The lecture series, inaugurated in 2002, is sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and the UC Santa Cruz Foundation.
For more information, call (831) 459-2501.
