Rashid Khalidi has come back to Davenport (for one day!), reminding us of the long, illustrious and controversial path that this Davenport alum has been on since he left us.

Rashid Khalidi is a prominent Middle Eastern scholar and director of Columbia’s School of International Affairs. Khalidi is a Palestinian American whose writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Palestinian struggle for statehood have been as controversial as they have been well-lauded. A supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Khalidi has been featured on NPR’s All things Considered, Morning Edition, Talk of the Nation, BBC and many other news outlets. He is currently serving as the editor of the scholarly Journal of Palestine Studies. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, which describes itself as “a national organization of Jews, Christians and Muslims dedicated to dialogue, education and advocacy for peace based on the deepest teachings of the three religious traditions”.