PHILADELPHIA — The Middle East Forum is pleased to announce the appointment of David P. Goldman, Lars Hedegaard, Dawn Perlmutter, and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz as associate fellows. These accomplished experts have previously worked with the Forum in various capacities, including contributions to the Forum’s flagship publication, the Middle East Quarterly.
David P. Goldman brings a unique perspective to the Middle East Forum (MEF), focusing on economics, demography, and religion. He has served as global head of credit strategy for Credit Suisse (1998-2002), global head of debt research for Bank of America (2002-05), and senior editor at the magazine First Things (2009-2011). In 2001 he was elected to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-American Fixed Income Research Team. A regular guest on CNBC’s Kudlow Report, Mr. Goldman has also frequently appeared on Fox News. He is the author of How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying, Too) (Regnery, 2011). He has contributed to many publications, including the Middle East Quarterly, Commentary, and the Wall Street Journal.
Lars Hedegaard is a historian, author, journalist and newspaper editor based in Copenhagen. Since 2004 he has been the president of The Danish Free Press Society and since 2007 of The International Free Press Society. In 2012 he co-founded the weekly newspaper Dispatch International, of which he is co-editor-in-chief. Trained as a historian at Aarhus University in Denmark, he has written extensively on history, politics and Islamic affairs. A former editor with the social science publisher Sage Publications in California, he went on to become a consultant to the Danish Trade Union Organization and the Nordic Council of Ministers before becoming a regular political commentator for the Copenhagen daily Berlingske Tidende.
Dawn Perlmutter is an expert in religious violence and terrorism, including Islamist beheadings, honor killings, rapes and mutilations. She holds a masters degree from The American University, Washington, D.C., and a doctor of philosophy from New York University. She is an adjunct professor in the forensic medicine department at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and the author of True Believers, A Symbolic Anthropological Study of Islamist Culture (CRC Press, forthcoming 2014) and Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes (CRC Press, 2004). Her writings have appeared in many publications, including an article on Muslim magic in the Middle East Quarterly (Spring 2013). She has been interviewed on many television shows. Ms. Perlmutter advises and trains law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, and presents expert witness testimony. She is founder and director of Symbol & Ritual Intelligence and a member of the Vidocq Society, the crime-solving organization.
Wolfgang G. Schwanitz is a historian of the Middle East. A native of East Germany, he was raised in Egypt and obtained his doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies from Leipzig University. He has taught at five German and American universities, served as head of Middle Eastern history at the Academy of Science in Berlin, and worked there at the Max Planck Society’s Orient Center. He has been a visiting fellow at the French Center in Cairo, Princeton University, and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C. The author of four and the editor of ten books, Mr. Schwanitz has published some 150 scholarly articles and over 400 newspaper and magazine pieces on modern Middle Eastern history and international relations. The Middle East Forum supported archival research for his upcoming books: Islam in Europe, Revolts in the Middle East; German Middle Eastern Studies after 9/11; and Islamists, Nazis and the Modern Middle East.
“Associate fellows Goldman, Hedegaard, Perlmutter, and Schwanitz each brings a body of expertise critical to addressing Middle Eastern and Islamic issues,” says Forum president Daniel Pipes. “We are fortunate to have them associated with our organization.”
The Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia-based think tank, is dedicated to defining American interests in the Middle East and protecting America from Islamist threats. It achieves its goals through intellectual, activist, and philanthropic efforts.
For more information, contact Judy Goodrobb at
215-546-5406, ex. 19
MEQ@MEForum.org
