This event is free and open to the public.
About the Speaker: Marina Ottaway is a long-time analyst of political transformations in Africa, The Middle East and the Balkans. She was a senior fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC until the center was eliminated by DOGE in May 2025.
Earlier she spent 14 years at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, during which she played a central role in launching the Middle East Program. Prior to that, she carried out research in Africa and in the Middle East for many years and taught at Georgetown University, the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, the American University in Cairo, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, the University of Zambia, and Addis Ababa University.
Her extensive research experience is reflected in her publications, which include ten authored books and six edited ones. Among her publications are A Tale of Four Worlds: The Middle East after the Uprisings; Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semiauthoritarianism; and most recently an autobiography co-authored with her husband and sons Living Interesting Lives. Ottaway received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.