In her 24-year career as a journalist, Barbara Ferguson has had plenty of experience dealing with foreign news and culture. She studied and worked as a reporter in Paris and London for 18 years and in 1998, she accepted the Washington D.C. Bureau Chief position at Arab News, an important Saudi English-language daily newspaper that consists of regional news from Europe, America, India, the Philippines, Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries for its heterogeneous mix of readers. She's covered everything from the Madrid Peace Talks to the U.S.-led War on Iraq, where she was an embedded journalist with the U.S. Marines in Iraq and Kuwait. Nowadays, she trains Marines, intelligence officers and Justice Department personnel in Middle Eastern cultural competency. Ferguson visits the Bay area and shares stories about her experiences during a special talk, "Arab Culture and Islam: An Embedded Journalist's Perspective." Thurs., April 12, 7:30 p.m., Raymond James Room-Fox Hall, Eckerd College, 4200 54th Ave. S., St. Petersburg, free admission, 727-867-1166.
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2007.