Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges is leaving shortly for Iraq where he will both teach a business seminar and write a daily blog on his experiences.

Hodges will be a visiting professor at American University at Sulaimani for 10 days, lecturing an advanced course on business and ethics and law. He will also visit Dubai, Rob Christensen reports.

While he is in Iraq, Hodges will be writing a daily blog about what he learns in the town located in the Kurdish dominated north of Iraq. The blog, which will begin Feb. 4th, is called the Tarheel Democracy Dispatch. You can read it here.

"I'm teaching over there for the adventure," said Hodges, who is 72.

The program is being run by the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, where Hodges is an adjunct professor.

The blog was the idea of Joyce Kohn, a Raleigh public relations executive.

Hodges hopes to show the "new Iraq."

"If we can see a different Iraq that people are used to seeing," Hodges said, "it might improve all our perspectives."

Hodges is a retired banker and former deputy and acting commerce secretary under President Jimmy Carter. He was a U.S. Senate candidate in 1978. His father was governor of North Carolina and commerce secretary under President John F. Kennedy.

Hodges will arrive in Iraq on Saturday, Feb. 7.