Noted Historian, UA Alumnus to Lecture on Middle East

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Richard Chambers, a University of Alabama alumnus and noted historian of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, will visit The University of Alabama this month to discuss the development of Middle Eastern studies and what it takes to be a specialist in that field.

His visit is sponsored by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and the departments of history, religious studies, and modern languages and classics.

His lecture, “Middle Eastern Studies Then and Now: An Insider View,” will occur Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. in room 205 of Gorgas Library on the UA campus. It is free and open to the public.

Chambers earned his bachelor’s degree in 1950 and his master’s degree in 1956, both in history, from The University of Alabama. He then studied at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany before earning his doctoral degree from Princeton University in 1968.

He held academic appointments in the history departments of the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and St. Lawrence University in New York before joining the faculty of the department of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago. He taught Turkish history and language there from 1962 to 1995.

During his tenure at Chicago, he served two terms as director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, which specializes in the study of the Middle East and is a nationally recognized resource center for Middle Eastern studies. After retiring, he volunteered with Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Since returning to his home state of Alabama in 2002, Chambers has served as a research volunteer at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery.

The College of Arts and Sciences is UA’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships, Truman Scholarships, and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.