The Camden Conference presents Kathleen Howard Sutherland, PhD, at the Scarborough Public Library on Sunday, November 17 at 2pm. This event is free and open to all.

World regimes’ use of social media in their reactions to popular uprisings reflects the new power of modern technology…and the varied users’ skill in employing it. In her presentation, The Role of Social media in the Arab Spring, Kathleen Howard Sutherland will discuss the various forms of media that were used to promote political action on the streets against authoritarian regimes across the Middle East – including the video posted by a young Egyptian woman that cut across classes and sectors of society to help spark a remarkable mass uprising.

Kathleen Howard Sutherland, PhD, is Associate Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Women’s Studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio (BGSU) specializing in Middle East Studies. She taught at the American University in Cairo, the city of her birth and long-time residence, prior to joining BGSU.  Kathleen’s publications focus on the role of women in public life in Egypt and Morocco, the latter of which was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship in Morocco. She visited Iraq in 1985 as a guest of the Iraqi Federation of Women as part of the U.S. delegation to the Iraqi Federation’s Conference on Women and interviewed Afghan women refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. Kathleen joined the OLLI faculty in 2005. She was President of the World Affairs Council of Maine 2016 to 2019 and continues serving on its Board of Directors.