Scientist to speak on experiences on human terrain team in Iraq

The Messenger 09.01.10
Katherine Blue Carroll, who served from January 2008-April 2009 as a social scientist on a Human Terrain Team in Baghdad, Iraq, will speak at the University of Tennessee at Martin at 1 p.m. Sept. 9 in Watkins Auditorium.
Human terrain teams were developed to provide expert social and political advice to brigade commanders and soldiers on the ground in war zones.
A native of Knoxville, she joined Vanderbilt University in 2001 as College of Arts and Science assistant dean. Since 2006, she has been an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, where she directs the undergraduate program in public policy studies and teaches courses on terrorism, political Islam, Middle East politics and the war in Iraq.
She received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Indiana University and a master of arts degree and doctorate in political science with a specialization in Middle East Politics from the University of Virginia.
Her dissertation, “Busi-ness as Usual?  Economic Reform in Jordan,” was published in 2003. Her work since returning from Iraq is on various aspects of Iraqi culture and politics, as well as on the interaction of the American military with Iraqi society.
She is working on a book about her personal experiences in Iraq and has also just begun a book-length academic project on military detention post-Abu Ghraib.
She also works frequently as a consultant for Decisive Analytics Corporation, a defense contractor, and has given several invited talks on her experience in Iraq and on Arab culture and politics to military audiences.
For more information about the program, contact Dr. Malcolm Koch, Center for Global Studies and International Education executive director, at (731) 881-1023.

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