The Houthis and the Red Sea Conflict in the Broader Middle East Context
After a decade of civil war in Yemen, which the international community barely noticed despite the Houthis launching over a thousand missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia and striking targets inside the United Arab Emirates, suddenly the world has sat up and watched, wondering: who are the Houthis, what do they want, and where might all this lead? This will be discussed by Elisabeth Kendall, a British Arabist, academic and commentator, and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, whose scholarship has ranged from Middle Eastern literatures to militant jihad.
224th Lecture Series Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow
Date: Wednesday 25 February 2026
Time: 19:30 - 21:00
Venue: Charles Wilson Building, Lecture Theatre 201
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Dr Elisabeth Kendall University of Cambridge
From 2000 to 2010, Elisabeth Kendall held positions at St Antony’s College, Oxford then the University of Edinburgh, where she was appointed Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW). From 2010 to 2022, she was Senior Research Fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. She spends significant time in the field, particularly in Yemen. She edits the “Essential Middle Eastern Vocabularies” series, for which she also authored three volumes: Diplomacy Arabic, Intelligence Arabic and Media Arabic. Kendall appears frequently in the international television, radio and print media.
She has been invited to present her research to governments, military and intelligence audiences all around the world. She was elected the twentieth Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, from 1 October 2022. In 2022, she was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Oxford “in recognition of her distinguished academic career as a British Arabist”. In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Glasgow “in recognition of the major contribution made to Arabic Studies”.