Brian T. Edwards

Brian T. Edwards is Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and the Herb Weil, PhD Professor of the Humanities, where since 2018 he has led the largest of Tulane’s nine schools, encompassing 35 departments and programs in the social sciences, humanities, area studies, fine and performing arts. Prior to moving to New Orleans, he was on the faculty of Northwestern University, where he was the Crown Professor in Middle East Studies and the founding director of the Program in Middle East and North African Studies. As a scholar, Edwards examines the ways that the global circulation of goods, ideas, and cultural products impacts politics. with a particular focus on North Africa and the Middle East, where he has done extensive field research. He is the author or editor of four books, most recently After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East (Columbia Univ. Press), as well as numerous essays, articles, and Op Eds in a wide range of publications both scholarly and mainstream. In 2020, he launched a project on global port cities, which links researchers, urbanists, artists, and community activists in New Orleans, Tangier (Morocco), Dakar (Senegal), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Salvador (Brazil), Marseille (France), and others.