 |
 |
 |
||
  |
 |
RECENT EVENTS September-October 2007 Events Unless otherwise noted, all events will be held at the Kevorkian Center, 50 Washington Square S, at the corner of West 4th and Sullivan Streets. Events are free and open to the academic community. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first serve basis. The Kevorkian Visual Culture Series is co-organized with the Center for Religion and Media and the Center for Media, Culture and History. Thursday, 9/13/07, 12:30-1:45
pm, Luncheon Seminar Series Israel Gershoni (Tel Aviv Univ., Dept. of Middle Eastern and African History) is a leading scholar of Arab nationalism, Egyptian history, and Middle Eastern historiography. His publications include Egypt in the Second World War: Democracy, Fascism, Nazism, and Nationalism in Egyptian Public Discourse, 1938-1945 (Hebrew); Commemorating the Nation: Collective Memory, Public Commemoration; and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Egypt (2004); and Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East (1997). A light lunch will be served. Monday, 9/17/07, 5-7:00
pm, Visual Culture Series W. J. T. Mitchell (Univ. of Chicago, English and Art History) is a scholar and theorist of media, visual art, and literature. The editor of the journal Critical Inquiry, his monographs include What Do Pictures Want? (2005); Picture Theory(1994); and Art and the Public Sphere (1993). He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nominee for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. A wine reception will follow the lecture. Monday, 10/1/07, 5-7:00
pm, Distinguished Lecture Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group, Robert Malley directs analysts who cover events from Iran to Morocco, with a focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the situation in Iraq, and Islamist movements throughout the region. Malley is also considered a leading expert on US policy towards the Middle East. From 1994-2001, he held various posts including Special Assistant to President Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs, Executive Assistant to National Security Advisor, and Director for Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, National Security Council. A wine reception will follow the lecture. Thursday, 10/4/07,
12:30-1:45 pm, Visual Culture Series Rakowitz is a professor in the Art, Theory and Practice Program at Northwestern University. He will give an artist’s talk about his art project, Iraq and Return. In 2006, he re-opened his family’s business, the Davidson Co. in a Brooklyn storefront. Exploring his family’s Iraqi Jewish heritage and his own political activism, Rakowitz opened an Iraqi date shop which became the first US business to import and sell Iraqi products since before the first Gulf War. A light lunch will be served. Friday, 10/12/07,
4-6:00 pm, Visual Culture Series Leila Khaled, Hijacker, dir Lina Makbol (2005, Arabic & Swedish w/ English subtitles). In 1969, Leila Khaled gained infamy as the first woman hijacker. Makbol’s award-winning film has been cited for its creative technique and complex approach to the question of violence and political struggle. A discussion with the film’s director follows the screening. This program is offered in collaboration with the 2007 Tri-Continental Film Festival: Human Rights in Frames. Thursday, 10/18/07,
12:30-1:45 pm, Luncheon Seminar Series Peter Chelkowski delivers this lecture to mark 40 years of teaching in the Department of Middle East and Islamic Studies at NYU. Chelkowski holds degrees from SOAS and the University of Tehran. He has written extensively on a range of topics including the Shahnameh, the taziyeh, and Shi`ism. His most recent book is the co-authored Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1999). A light lunch will be served. Monday, 10/29/07, 5-7:00
pm, Research Workshop A graduate of NYU’s Dept. of History, Chalcraft teaches in the Dept. of Government at the London School of Economics. His research focuses on history from below in the Middle East, with special reference to Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. His latest book, the co-edited volume Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony will be published this fall. The discussant for this workshop is Manu Goswami (NYU, History). A wine reception will follow the presentations. Thursday, 11/08-Thursday, 11/15/07 Recognized as a premier venue for bringing cinematic voices from the Middle East, North Africa and their diasporas to international audiences, the 2007 CinemaEast Film Festival selections continue to break new ground. The Kevorkian Center is proud to co-present the festival. For details, see: http://www.arteeast.org/. Thursday, 11/08/07, 12:30-1:45, New Book Series Arang Keshavarzian will discuss his book, Bazaar and State in Iran: The Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge, 2007). Keshavarzian teaches in the Department of Government at Connecticut College. A groundbreaking study that combines ethnography with historical, political and economic analysis, the book examines the socioeconomic structure of the Tehran Bazaar under the Pahlavi monarchy and the Islamic Republic. Keshavarzian argues that the Bazaar remained economically self-regulating and politically potent under the modernist monarchy, while it has been radically re-structured and its collective political power has been undermined by policies of the allegedly pro-bazaar and traditional Islamic Republic. Copies of the book are forsale at NYU bookstore; a light lunch will be served. Saturday, 11/10/07, 1:00 pm, CinemaEast Screening & Roundtable In conjunction with the 2nd Annual CinemaEast Filmfestival, the Center will host a screening of two short films shot with mobile phones: “Democracy 76: State of Emergency,” by Wael Omar (2006, 10 minutes) and “Al-Masafah/The Distance,” by Mohammad Abdel-Fattah (2007, 3 minutes). A panel discussion moderated by Khaled Fahmy (MEIS, NYU) and featuring Egyptian fi lmmaker Wael Omar, blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy and MEIS doctoral candidate Karim Tartoussieh examining the role of new media in implementing, resisting, and documenting the Egyptian state’s control of the body politic follows. Monday, 11/12/07, 5-7:00 pm, Kevorkian Research Workshop Julie Peteet is chair and professor of anthropology at the University of Louisville. Her research in Palestine and Lebanon has focused on displacement, refugees, violence, space, place and identity, and colonial spatial strategies. She is the author of Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps (2005) and Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (1991). Her articles have appeared in such journals as Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, and Signs. She is an editor of MERIP. Rashid Khalidi (Director Middle East Institute, Columbia) will be the discussant for this paper; a wine reception follows the workshop. Tuesday, 11/13/07, 12:30-1:45 pm, CinemaEast Screening
& Roundtable The Independent Film and Television College (IFTC) in Baghdad and the Arab Institute for Film (AIF, based in Amman) are dedicated to training young filmmakers and energizing film culture. Join Maysoon Pachachi and Omar Amiralay, founding members of the schools to view samples of the work being produced in their schools and for a discussion of how film and TV function as powerful social and political tools in the Arab world. Presented in collaboration with the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) and the Tisch School of Art as part of the 2nd Annual CinemaEast Filmfestival. Wednesday, 11/28/07, 6-8 pm, Roundtable In a series of articles published in The Nation, Naomi Klein and Lisa Hajjar underlined the increasingly imbricated histories of torture and democracy in post-911 America. Following on the publication of her much acclaimed Shock Doctrine, Klein enters a conversation with Hajjar (U-C, Santa Barbara) who is currently writing an ethnography of lawyering, torture, and the war on terror. This program is part of the Beyond Empire Working Group supported by the NYU Humanities Council, and is co-presented with American Studies and the Center for Religion and Media. A valid picture ID is required. Monday, 12/03/07, 5-7:00 pm, Kevorkian Research Workshop While contemporary Islamism is a response to the domestic political situation in many Muslim countries, as well as to US and western policies in the Muslim world, Azzam asserts that it is also about religious assertion and the forging of an alternative ideology. Islamism can function not only as a means of political empowerment, but also as a means of establishing a particular social order. An Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, Azzam is a writer and analyst specializing in political Islam. A wine reception follows the workshop. Friday, 12/07/07, 4-6:00 pm, Visual Culture Series A young Afghan-American woman returns to her childhood home and memories, searching for evidence of her former life, finding herself in an Afghanistan she barely recognizes, where the past collides with the present. A graduate of the NES program,Osman is currently a doctoral student at NYU. A discussion with the directors follows the film screening. The Visual Culture Series is co-organized with the Center for Religion and Media and the Center for Media, Culture and History. January - February 2008 Events Thursday, 1/24/08, 12:30-1:45
pm, Luncheon Seminar A professor of politics at Bogaziçi University, Çaliskan is pursuing ethnographical research on the ways in which different global markets relate to each other. He is a columnist for the BirGun newspaper, regularly contributes to Radikal newspaper, and is an editor of the journal Birikim. Çaliskan is currently editing two books with Michel Callon while working on writing a book based on his dissertation, written in the Dept. of Politics at NYU. Monday, 1/28/08, 5:30-7:00
pm, New Book Series In a recent book titled On Suicide Bombings, Talal Asad questions Western assumptions about death and killing, scrutinizes the idea of “clash of civilizations,” and engages a range of explanations for suicide terrorism. Asad (CUNY Graduate Center, Anthropology) will participate in a roundtable discussion with Gil Anidjar (Columbia, MEALAC) and Harry Harootunian (NYU, History). The session will be moderated by Michael Gilsenan (NYU, MEIS & Anthropology). A photo ID is required for admission; seating is available on a first come, first serve basis. Thursday, 2/14/08,
12:30-1:45pm, Research Workshop Paul Silverstein will present a paper titled, "The Local Dimensions of Transnational Berber Activism: Racial Politics, Land Rights, and the Objectification of Culture in Southeastern Morocco." A professor at Reed College, Silverstein’s other research interests include North African immigration, religion, and politics in France and the Amazigh movement in Morocco. His books include Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation (2004) and Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa (2006), edited with Ussama Makdisi. The discussant for this workshop will be George Trumbull (NYU). Thursday, 2/21/08, 12:30-1:45
pm, Luncheon Seminar Currently a visiting scholar at NYU's MEIS, Dr. Kanaaneh has taught anthropology and gender studies at NYU and American University. She has held fellowships at Harvard, the European University Institute and Columbia. She is the author of Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel (2002) and of On the Edge of Security: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military (forthcoming in 2008) and is co-editor of an anthology titled Blue ID: Palestinians in Israel Revisited (forthcoming 2008). Monday, 2/25/08, 5-7:00
pm, Distinguished Lecture Dr. Roberts is an independent writer and a specialist on North African politics. From 2002-07 he was Director of the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow of the London School of Economics and lectured at the universities of East Anglia, Sussex, U-C Berkeley and SOAS. His book, The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, was published in 2003. He is working on two books, on the history of the Kabylia region of Algeria and on Islamism and violence. Visual Culture Series Luncheon Seminar *Visual Culture Series Film Screening and Director's Roundtable
|
|
          |
