Robert Fisk, award-winning journalist and Middle East Correspondent for The Independent newspaper, gave the annual faculty-appointed Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) Distinguished Lecture on April 20, 2010 on the subject of "State of Denial: Western Journalism and the Middle East." Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (GU-Q) student Amna Al-Thani introduced Fisk to a capacity audience of 800 guests at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha.