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“The Arab Spring: The Youth Revolts of the Arab World Aren't Over

The youth revolts of 2011 and after in the Arab world have permanently changed the face of the region.  While most observers have mainly interpreted them through the lens of high politics, this talk argues that the big story here is the rise of a new generation of young Arabs, the Millennials, who have innovated in grassroots organization (including, but not limited to new ways of using social media for politics).  It is too soon to know thow he political struggles that they initiated will end.  But it is certain that a new generation, with distinctive values and aspirations, has announced its arrival on the scene.

 

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UKAA Auditorium @ W.T. Young Library

"Religion, Identity and Competing Visions of Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia"

For several decades, studying Islam in Central Asia meant beginning with questions, analytical categories, and conceptual frameworks rooted in Soviet and Russian studies; this approach, combined with a lack of basic understanding of the historical experience of Central Asian Muslims prior to the Soviet era, led to host of misconceptions surrounding the character of Muslim religious life in the Soviet era, the impact of Soviet policies and realities, and trends in the renegotiation of religious identities in the post-Soviet age.  Recent years have brought, in some circles, growing awareness of the need for approaches drawn from Islamic studies and from a  historically-grounded understanding of the history of Muslim religiosity in Central Asia.  This lecture will discuss some of the misconceptions rooted in the ‘Sovietological’ approach to Islam in the region, and the lessons to be drawn from viewing the region through the lens of Islamic studies, with a particular focus on the ways in which religiosity was manifested in Soviet times, and on the ways in which religiosity shaped or interacted with notions of ‘national’ identity.

Professor Devin DeWeese, Indiana University, focuses his teaching and research on the religious history of Islamic Central and Inner Asia, chiefly in the post-Mongol era, with special attention to problems of Islamization, the social and political roles of Sufi communities in the region, and hagiographical literature in Persian and Chaghatay Turkic. 

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UKAA Auditorium

"My Father’s Paradise: How a Jewish Kid from Los Angeles Traveled to Wartime Iraq in Search of Roots, Identity and His Father's Improbable Life Story "

 

In his talk, Sabar will weave the remarkable story of the Kurdish Jews and their dying Aramaic tongue with the moving tale of how a consumate Californai kid came to write a book about his family's past in Iraqi Kurdistan. The book, "My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq," won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, one of the highest honors in American letters.



Sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program

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Location:
UKAA Auditorium @ WT Young Library

The Significance of Being First; Competing: Jewish and Arab Discourses

Dr. Ilan Troen is the Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. He has authored 11 books in American, Jewish and Israeli history.
 
Ilan Troen will examine the ways in which claims to the Holy Land are made. This complex and contentious subject is at the root of the Arab/Israeli conflict. Historical claims are now perhaps the most significant and contentious. In the case of the land of Israel/Palestine those claims are mixed with the religious traditions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and even secular Jews and Arabs reference continuities with the ancient past as a means of claiming priority. The presentation will attempt to clarify this extraordinarily complex issue.

Sponsored by Jewish Studies Program and the Department of History

 

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UKAA Auditorium @ WT Young Library

“Islamist Thought and the Egyptian Revolution”

“Political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian Politics”

7:00 pm  W.T. Young Auditorium

Associate Professor of Islamic Law, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law

Scholar of Islamic Law and Islamist/Reformist Thought

Author of the book: Muslim Reformists, Female Citizenship and the Public Accommodation of Islam in Liberal Democracy

Articles: “Islamic Politics and Secular Politics: Can They Co-Exist” and “Judicial Institutions, the Legitimacy of the Islamic State Law and Democratic Transition in Egypt”

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Location:
WT Young Library Auditorium

"How US Policy on Palestine Contributes to the Impasse."

This lecture will examine American efforts to further a "peace process" that has in fact exacerbated the conflict, and will explore how the US could contribute to a just resolution of the Palestine issue.

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and chair of the Department of History at Columbia University. He received a B.A. from Yale University in 1970 and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1974, and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, Georgetown University, and at the University of Chicago. He is past President of the Middle East Studies Asociation, was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the 1991-1993 Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, and is editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Khalidi is the author of seven books: Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East;  Sowing Crisis: American Dominance and the Cold War in the Middle East; The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood; Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East; Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness; Under Siege: PLO Decision-making during the 1982 War; and British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-1914. 

Date:
Location:
Memorial Hall
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