Distinguished Lecture Series: Dr. Omar Tesdell

Dr. Omar Tesdell, an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Birzeit University in Palestine, will visit Northwest as the next guest of its Distinguished Lecture Series. Doors will open at 7 p.m., and the lecture is free and open to the public.

Tesdell will present “Agricultural Innovation in Moments of Crisis: Notes from the Fertile Crescent.”

He is the founder of the Ardeea project, which strives to transform agricultural and community landscapes and works with researchers from The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. His research works to establish more climate-adapted, resilient and proper agricultural landscapes.

He is the editor of Barari, an open science platform to share community-based knowledge about wild food and plants. He also has edited “Palestinian Wild Food Plants,” an Arabic-English guide, as part of a community-based research collective.

Tesdell, a Palestinian-American, grew up in the rural Midwest. He holds a Ph.D in geography and sustainable agriculture from the University of Minnesota and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York.

The objective of the Distinguished Lecture Series is to enhance the academic environment through individual discipline and interdisciplinary topics. Supported by the Office of the Provost and the Student Activities Council, the series offers the Northwest campus and surrounding communities with opportunities to hear from extraordinary individuals from throughout the globe. Scholars, world travelers and leaders in their fields visit the Northwest campus to share their wisdom, insight and experiences.