It's the third episode of Lent 2019, and a fascinating (and timely) conversation to boot! Karine Walther, Associate Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar speaks to recently submitted (congratulations!)Cambridge PhD student Tom Smith about her paper 'Spreading the Faith: American Missionaries, ARAMCO and the Birth of the US-Saudi Special Relationship, 1889-1955'. Professor Walther looks at the work of American Missionaries both on the ground in Arabia and back in the United States, and their role in shaping American approaches to the Middle East. Building on her previous project, which ended its focus 1921, this paper(and the upcoming book)explores the complicated relationship between the formation of the Arabian American Oil Company(ARAMCO)and American missionary activity and ideology. The conversation also touches on (among other things) the meaning and consequences of the US-Saudi 'special relationship', the new perspectives gained by working on the Gulf region from Qatar, and a rather unique archival problem! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

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