Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be the keynote speaker on the first day of this year's Impact Symposium, Vanderbilt Speakers Committee announced.

"Impact 2008: Middle East meets West" will run for three days, March 17 through 19, and feature keynotes each night. On the 18th, journalist Gideon Yago and scholar Reza Aslan will speak, and Gen. John Abizaid will follow on the 19th.

The series falls on the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq and will explore different perspectives on the complex relationship between the Middle East and Western society, a press release said.

Ali is best known as the best-selling author of "Infidel and "The Caged Virgin," as well as a filmmaker and former Dutch parliamentarian. She will discuss her views as a critic of Islam in her speech "Islam and the West." A book signing will precede the speech.

"Ali should add a healthy dose controversy, but with an equal amount of substance. She provides a perspective that many people are afraid to voice and many others find difficult to hear," said co-chair Reeve Hamilton. "The purpose of IMPACT is to provide a range of perspectives on an important issue — and this year's lineup, especially with the inclusion of Ali, certainly does that with regards to how Western and Middle Eastern culture relate to each other."

Yago and Aslan will discuss the the intersection of faith, politics and society in the Middle East, and Abizaid will relate his experiences in the Middle East and his perspective on our military presence there.