Today: Peggy McCracken, Director of the Institute for the Humanities, talks to Robert Blecher (PhD, Middle East History, Stanford University), Chief Strategy Officer at the International Crisis Group.

The Humanities at Work is a new series from the Institute for the Humanities that features the variety of careers pursued by Humanities PhDs. Organized as a series of conversations, these one-hour sessions will include a 30-minute informational interview in which the invited guest traces their trajectory, describes the extent to which graduate education prepared them for their current work, identifies things they wish they'd known or explored as a graduate student, and explains the qualifications their organization would seek in an applicant. We'll also ask our guests to describe how the humanities matter in the work they do. The second half of the hour will be devoted to questions from the audience.

About Robert Blecher:
As Chief Strategy Officer at the International Crisis Group (www.crisisgroup.org), Robert Blecher advises the President & CEO on the organization’s priorities, increasing its impact and raising its profile through new forms of output, outreach, advocacy, and partnerships. He oversees the strategic planning process, leads special initiatives, and directs the Economics of Conflict workstream, which integrates empirical approaches into Crisis Group’s traditional method.

Robert previously served as deputy program director of Crisis Group’s MENA Program and before that as project director for Israel/Palestine. He has a Ph.D. in Middle East history from Stanford University.