Texas Tech to Host Author John Agresto

John Agresto NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: April 22, 2013
CONTACT: John Davis, john.w.davis@ttu.edu
(806) 742-2136

Texas Tech University’s Office of International Affairs and the Institute for the Study of Western Civilization will host author John Agresto at 5:30 p.m. April 23 in the Hall of Nations at Texas Tech’s International Cultural Center, 601 Indiana Ave..

The author of “Mugged by Reality: The Liberation of Iraq and the Failure of Good Intentions,” will discuss liberalism, the Arab Spring and the mugging of neoconservatives.

Agresto served as senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the year following the liberation of Iraq. He has subsequently been a founding member of the board of trustees, provost, acting chancellor, and dean of the faculty at the American University of Iraq, in Kurdish Iraq.

“With the recent events in the Middle East, wishfully referred to as ‘The Arab Spring,’ but now thought to herald something perhaps more wintry, people have become more thoughtful about the ease with which democracy can be exported,” said Jane Bell, director at the International Cultural Center and event organizer. “John Agresto, who served as senior advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education in the year following the liberation of Iraq, has seen up close and personal that reality is sometimes at odds with good intentions. I think people will come away from Dr. Agresto’s talk with a greater understanding about why democracy can only take root in fertile soil, and why it cannot simply be willed into being.”

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (806) 742-2917 ext. 232.

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CONTACT: Jane Bell, director, International Cultural Center, Texas Tech University, (806) 742-3667 or jane.bell@ttu.edu.