Office: OEC 305
Phone: (417) 873-6947
E-Mail: jvandenb@drury.edu
Monday
9 – 11 a.m.
Wednesday
9 – 11 a.m.
1 – 2 p.m.
Thursday
2 – 3 p.m.
Friday
9 – 11 a.m.
Dr. VanDenBerg teaches courses in international relations, foreign policy, and Middle East politics. He is the Director of the Middle East Studies program and coordinator of the Model United Nations program.
Dr. VanDenBerg’s research interests focus on Arab politics and international relations in the Middle East. As a USIA/NMERTP Fellow, he conducted research in Jordan that included personal interviews with Jordan’s prime ministers, cabinet members, parliamentarians, and other government officials.
In 2012, Dr. VanDenBerg served as Visiting Fulbright Professor of International Relations at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Along with History professor Dr. Shelley Wolbrink, he has directed many Drury study abroad programs to Morocco, Italy, Egypt, and Greece.
His research and essays have been published in Security Studies, Issues in Middle East Studies, History in Dispute, Arab Studies Quarterly, Reading Religion, and the Canadian Journal of History. His most recent project, co-authored with Dr. Dan Ponder, investigated President Obama’s decision to seek congressional authorization for the use of force against Syria in 2013. This work was published in the volume Evaluating the Obama Presidency: From Transformational Goals to Governing Realities (Meena Bose and Paul Fritz, eds. 2024). Dr. VanDenBerg is a founding member of the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Undergraduate Education.