An image from an ECU web feature shows Nathan Lean touring Tripoli while a student at ECU.

An editorial by East Carolina University alumnus Nathan Lean, “Anders Behring Breivik: Norway’s sane killer” appeared in the Los Angeles Times Aug. 26.

Lean earned a double major from ECU in piano performance and international studies and an MA in international studies. A graduate student at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Lean is a scholar of Middle East studies and a prolific writer on Islam, American foreign policy, national politics and global affairs.

He is editor-in-chief of Aslan Media and a contributing writer at Policy Mic.  His writings have appeared recently in The Huffington Post, Salon.com and the New York Daily News.

This year Lean authored “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims.” And with ECU political science professor Jalil Roshandel, director of the Security Studies program, Lean co-authored “Iran, Israel, and the United States: Regime Security vs. Political Legitimacy.”

A 2010 ECU web feature shared details on how ECU’s global understanding course influenced Lean’s research interests. Read the feature.