As a part of ENH seminar series, the Department of English and Humanities organized a lecture on Tuesday, 22 July 2014, held in the ENH Seminar Room. The lecture on "The Historical Roots of the Current Sectarian Crisis in the Middle East" was delivered by Professor Ussama Makdissi, professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University. He has published widely on Ottoman and Arab history as well as on U.S.-Arab relations and U.S. missionary work in the Middle East. The lecture was well-attended and generated an animated discussion among the students.