The Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Memorial Lecture
The Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Memorial Lecture has been a continuous event at UToledo since 2001. The lecture is made possible by the Mikhail Endowment Fund and hosted by the Judith Herb College of Arts, Social Sciences and Education. The fund was originally established through a donation from the Mikhail family to honor the work and contributions of Maryse Mikhail and her involvement in educational, philanthropic and interfaith organizations.
Support the Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Endowment Fund
Fall 2026 Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Memorial Lecture
Guest Speaker: Asli Ü. Bâli
Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, 5 p.m.
UToledo Law Center, McQuade Auditorium
About the Speaker, Dr. Asli Ü. Bâli
Asli Ü. Bâli is Howard M. Holtzmann Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where she is Director of Graduate Studies, Faculty Co-Director of the Schell Center for Human Rights and Faculty Co-Director of the Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization. Prior to joining Yale, she was Professor of Law at UCLA, founding faculty director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.
Her teaching and research focus on public international law — particularly human rights law — and comparative constitutional law, with a focus on the Middle East. She is widely published in leading law journals, peer-reviewed social science journals and is co-editor of two volumes on comparative law published by Cambridge University Press. She is Past President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (2023-25), co-chair of the Advisory Board for the Middle East Division of Human Rights Watch, nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of International Law.
About the Lecture
“Power Without Order: Gaza, Iran, and the Remaking of the Middle East”
“The Middle East is undergoing a profound reordering. The United States remains the region’s most powerful external actor, and Israel possesses overwhelming military superiority, yet neither power has been able to translate coercive capacity into a stable regional settlement. Instead, the wars in Gaza and Iran have exposed the limits of a security architecture increasingly dependent on military force and economic pressure while offering fewer mechanisms for durable political resolution.
Using the Iran war as a prism through which to understand these broader changes, this lecture examines the emergence of a more fragmented regional order. New security relationships are developing alongside older American guarantees; economic interdependence has itself become a source of strategic leverage; and the boundaries between war and peace, military and economic coercion, and alliance and autonomy are becoming increasingly blurred. The lecture asks what the transformations underway in the region mean for Palestinian self-determination, regional security, and nuclear proliferation in a Middle East whose old organizing assumptions are rapidly coming apart.”
Submit a Question for the Speaker
Audience questions for this lecture will be collected in advance. Please submit yours through the RSVP form below by Monday, Nov. 2. We will bring together common themes and share them with the speaker ahead of the event.
Admission and Visitor Parking - Free
Use Area 12. Other lots require payment. Visit ParkUToledo.com for details and payment.
RSVPs are not required but greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)
Past Mikhail Lecture Speakers and Events
2025-26 Christiane Gruber, Art Historian
Topic - "Images of the Virgin Mary in Islamic Lands"
2024 - Leila Fadel - Host NPR Morning Edition
2023 - Panel Discussion "War and Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza"
- Adil Haque, professor of law and Judge Jon O. Newman Scholar at Rutgers Law School;
- Sari Bashi, program director at Human Rights Watch; and
- Dr. Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
2022 - Adele Ne Jame - Poet, Author, Teacher and Melissa Chimera - Mixed Media Artist
2021 - Noura Erakat - Human Rights Attorney, Educator, Author
"We Broke a Dam: The Palestinian Intifada of Unity”
2020 - Laila Lalami - Arab-American Author
“Conditional Citizens”
2019 - Phyllis Bennis - Institute for Policy Studies
“Syria, Turkey, the Kurds, ISIS, and the New Global War on Terror”
2018 Mohja Kahf - Novelist and Poet
“I Want Milk, I Want Honey: An Afternoon of Poetry with Mohja Kahf"
2017 Neal Katyal - Former Acting U. S. Solicitor General
“The President and the Courts in National Security Cases”
2016 Laila El Haddad - Journalist and Author
2015 Thomas P. Abowd - Tufts University
"Jerusalem and the Prospects for Peace in Palestine/Israel"
2014 Lila Abu-Lughod - Columbia University
"Do Muslim Women Need Saving?"
2013 Juan Cole - University of Michigan
“Youth Movements and the Arab Revolutions”
2012 Jack Shaheen - Scholar and Media Critic
“Images of Arabs and Muslims in Popular Culture: Problems and Prospects”
2011 Gwynne Dyer - Distinguished Journalist and Author
2010 Saree Makdisi - UCLA
2009 Rahim AlHaj - World-Renowned Oud Musician
2008 James Zogby - Arab American Institute
2007 Marcy Kaptur - U.S. Congressional Representative
2006 Kathy Kelly - Distinguished Lecturer and Peace Activist
2005 Robert Mabro - Oxford Institute of Energy Studies
2004 Naomi Shihab Nye - Distinguished Writer and Poet
2003 David Cole - Georgetown University Law Center
2002 John Esposito - Georgetown University
2001 Noam Chomsky - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
