Janet Wallach

Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow Janet Wallach, journalist, author and senior vice president of Seeds of Peace, will visit Rider University the week of March 27 through March 31 during Rider University’s International Week.

Wallach will speak on “A World Ready for Peace,” on Thursday, March 30 at 5:30 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater. Sponsored by the Rider University Lecture Series, her talk is free and open to the public. Throughout the week, she will also examine global issues with students and faculty in various classes.

Over the years, Wallach has written extensively about the Middle East. Her latest book, “Seraglio,” is a historical novel set in Ottoman Turkey at the time of the French Revolution. Her biography, “Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell,” has been translated into 12 languages. Wallach spent much of the past 12 years living in the Middle East and writing “Arafat: In the Eyes of the Beholder”, with co-author John Wallach, “The New Palestinians,” and “Still Small Voices,” the personal stories of 12 Israelis and Palestinians during the Intifada.

As a frequent contributor to “The Washington Post Magazine,” “Smithsonian Magazine,” and other periodicals, Wallach has written profiles of Iraqi Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon, Queen Noor of Jordan, Reza Pahlavi, heir to the throne of Iran; and Jihan Sadat, first lady of Egypt.

Wallach is currently senior vice president at Seeds of Peace, a conflict resolution program which brings together teenagers from the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Balkans and Greece, Turkey and divided Cyprus. The organization has a summer camp in the United States as well as a Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. More than 2,000 participants have graduated from the camp in Maine and then return to their regions for regular meetings and coexistence programs.