Islamic World Studies

Events & Notices

Due to the snow last month, the new date for the “Connected Cultures: Religious Traditions of the Middle East” program will be March 24th at 6:30 pm. at the Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium. “Connected Cultures acompanies the IMAX film “Journey  to Mecca, " which will run again during the week of the program. 

 

Connected Cultures: Religious Traditions of the Middle East

…explores the cultural connections between the three largest monotheistic traditions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. All three traditions originated in the Middle East and are all inextricably linked, as they have influenced each other over centuries. The evening interfaith panel aims to foster a better understanding of human diversity and cultural change through the lenses of these three religions.

 

Panelists:

Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain, Georgetown University

 

Dr. Marc Gopin, Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict

Resolution (CRDC) at George Mason University

 

Rev. Dr. Clark Lobenstine, Executive Director of the InterFaith Conference of

Metropolitan Washington (IFC)

 

Moderator:

Najeeba Syeed-Miller, Executive Director, Center for Civic Engagement and

Dialogue, Los Angeles, CA.

 

This program is related to the IMAX _lm, Journey to Mecca: In the Footsteps of Ibn Battuta, shown in the museum's Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theater. For other Journey to Mecca programs,please visit http://www.mnh.si.edu/education/Journey_to_Mecca_Programs.pdf

 

 

 

 

AMIDEAST Education Abroad Programs in the Arab World is pleased to announce a unique new program in Morocco beginning this coming fall.  The Honors Program in North African Studies combines semi-intensive Arabic language study with a research-, reading- and discussion-intensive approach under the guidance of Dr. Amal Rassam, professor emerita of anthropology at Queens College in New York.

Offered in collaboration with the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), the Honors Program is intended for academically motivated students with a demonstrated interest in Middle East and North African studies who are prepared to undertake significant research. Participants must have completed at least one year of college-level Arabic, and preference in the admissions process will be given to students who also have some knowledge of French.

For full information about this exciting new option for students interested in studying abroad in the Arab world please visit our website.  http://www.amideast.org/abroad/programs/morocco/honors_program.shtm

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations' Washington, DC Summer Internship Program provides undergraduate and graduate students a professional, academic, and career opportunity internship in the Nation's Capital. The program combines professional work experiences with a parallel two-month series of seminars. By design, the primary focus of the academic component of the program centers on Arabia and the Gulf.

When: June 1 - August 6, 2010

With Whom: The program is administered by National Council professionals and staff, together with more than two dozen of America's foremost scholars and leading foreign affairs practitioners. The programs, activities, and functions represented by the organizations and corporations that provide the professional work experience component of the program are varied. Included are educational development and exchange, bimonthly and quarterly publications, humanitarian relief, public broadcasting, academic area studies, international transportation, foreign trade, and peace and justice advocacy. An additional feature of the program is site visits to public and private sector institutions such as Arab embassies, energy corporations, congressional committees, and executive branch agencies. 

Applications and brochure at: http://www.ncusar.org/programs/internship.html

Abdolkarim Soroush, a well-known Iranian thinker and reformer and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, will present a lecture on Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and Sufi mystic.

 

Soroush will lecture on “Persian Rumi versus American Rumi: A Long Journey from Afghanistan to Iran, Then to Iraq, Mecca, Turkey, Europe and Eventually to the United States,” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21, in Room 119 on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

 

Sponsored by the Kluge Center in the Library’s Office of Scholarly Programs, the lecture is free and open to the public; tickets or reservations are not needed.

 

IMES - George Washington University & the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco

present a special book discussion and reception

We are All Moors:
Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities

  with

Anouar Majid
Author, We Are All Moors and Director of the Center for Global Humanities, University of New England

and featuring

  H.E. Ambassador Aziz Mekouar
Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United States

The Institute for Middle East Studies and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco present a special event featuring an introduction by Moroccan Ambassador Aziz Mekouar and a book discussion with Anouar Majid.  Majid will be discussing his newest book, We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and other Minorities.   

In We Are All Moors, Anouar Majid contends that the acrimonious debates about immigration and Islam in the West are the cultural legacy of the conflict between Christians and Moors. Offering a groundbreaking new history of the West’s perception and treatment of minority cultures, Majid explores how “the Moor” emerged as the archetypal Other against which Europe would define itself. The characteristics attributed to this quintessential minority—racial inferiority, religious impurity, cultural incompatibility—would be reapplied to other non-European and non-Christian peoples: Native Americans, black Africans, Jews, and minority immigrant communities, among others.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Lindner Family Commons
Room 602, 1957 E Street, NW

**A reception hosted by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
will follow the book discussion**

RSVP to rsvpimes@gwu.edu

1957 E Street, NW, Suite 512 •  Washington, DC20052 • 202-994-9249  •  Fax 202-994-4055
Email   imes@gwu.edu  •  Web  www.gwu.edu/~imes

____________________________________________________________________________

IMES - George Washington University  Middle East Policy Forum

Palestinians in Israel: Predicaments, Opportunities, and Challenges

Speakers will discuss the relationship between the Jewish majority and Palestinians in the state of Israel.  They will look at the predicaments and challenges inherent in this relationship for both Jews and Palestinians, and at the challenges and possibilities that lie ahead.

Raef Zreik, Georgetown University
Ori Nir, Americans for Peace Now
Adina Friedman, Moderator, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, GW

Tuesday, October 13, 2009
6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Lindner Family Commons
Room 602, 1957 E Street, NW

RSVP to rsvpimes@gwu.edu

The Middle East Policy Forum is presented with the generous support of ExxonMobil

Upcoming Middle East Policy Forum events include:

November 6: Guest Speaker, The Honorable Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat

November 11: “Underexposure: Iraq Spring 2003” – Film screening and discussion with independent Iraqi film-maker Ziad Turki

November 12: “Iran and Gulf Security” – Featuring  Sami M.K.M. Al-Faraj, President of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies

Visit www.gwu.edu/~imes/MEPF.cfm for the entire Fall 2009 MEPF schedule.

I RAN Home (In America) - an art exhibition November 5-29, 2009

Washington, DC - The Fridge DC is pleased to present its November 2009 exhibition I RAN

Home (In America), running November 5 through November 29, 2009.

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 7:00-10:00pm

Iranian artists have become players in the national and international contemporary art scene, but too often, this genre is tied to politics. In reality, Iranian-American artists are multi-faceted with different and conflicting identities and influences. Their work may be affected by political realities, but not decided by them. In I RAN Home (In America), these diverse influences unite in profoundly personal artworks which strive to achieve acceptance and understanding from all viewers. Moreover, the genre educates the American public about Iranian culture and reveals the effects of Diaspora on community identity.

Straight from the Beijing Biennale, works from New York based Pooneh Magazehe's Pioneer series feature raw meat branded with an Islamic pattern used in architectural detailing throughout Iran. Utilizing a custom made branding iron inscribed with this pattern, an act of re-contextualization implies the historic representation of cattle branding, offers a metaphor for migration, references mass marketing, and alludes to branding identities.

Originally from the DC Metro area, New York based Eric Robert Parnes appropriates contemporary images and intentionally revises them to reveal the ways in which they have driven war, religion and fashion through time.  Locally-based and Iranian-born, Hadieh Shafie explores the fundamental aspects of process, repetition and time throughout her works, which take direct inspiration from the whirling dervish of Sufism.  The Fridge owner, Alex Goldstein, says of the project: “This is a chance for people to make connections on a familial level and share culture in a great environment.” In an effort to increase public awareness and appreciation of Iranian-American culture, The Fridge DC will host public programming events in conjunction with the exhibition:

• Bastani & Branding, Saturday, November 14, 6-9pm, features exhibiting artist Pooneh Magazehe performing her branding process on items from the public, such as bags and hats, along with a bastani ice cream social (Persian ice cream).

• Youth Poetry Night, Wednesday, November 18, 6-8pm features award-winning students from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Literary Media and Communications Department, who will create and perform poems based on their experiences with the exhibit, their views on Iranian culture, and talk with the artists

at the School on November 5. This event is free.

• I RAN I DANCE, Saturday, November 21, 9pm-1am is a dance party with Persian beats from DJ Dariush. There will be a $10 suggested donation.  The artists will create one-of-a-kind designs which will be featured on limited-edition wearable merchandise, available for sale through the duration of the exhibition. A free opening reception will be held Thursday, November 5, 2009 from 7 to 10 pm at The FridgeDC.

The Fridge DC is located in the heart of Capitol Hill, along the bustling "Restaurant Row," approximately one block from the Eastern Market Metro Station.  This project is made possible by the generous support of: The Fridge DC, Albus Cavus, DJ Dariush, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Pink Line Project, Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA)

About the Curators

I RAN Home (In America) is the first curatorial partnership between Isabella Hughes and Barbara Petro and the basis for their future non-profit, Project for Art in Curating (PAC). Set to launch in 2010, PAC will support four emerging curators each year in proposing an exhibition, selecting artists and works, collaborating with the host venue and other tasks of the independent curator.

About The Fridge DC

The Fridge DC is a new art gallery, performance space, and art school that offers full scholarships for children of low-income DC area residents. Its mission is to foster creativity and community dialogue; provide exhibition space to emerging and established local artists; host programs and activities that encourage public awareness, participation, and appreciation of the arts and to serve as a catalyst for social change.

I RAN Home (In America)

Press Preview: Monday, November 2, 2009, 12 noon - 6:00 pm

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 7:00 - 10:00pm

Exhibition: November 5 - 29, 2009

Gallery Hours: Tues.-Thurs., 11 am - 7:00 pm, Fri.-Sun. 12 noon - 8pm

For more information: Call 202.664.4151 or visit www.thefridgedc.com

The Fridge DC . 516 8th St SE, Rear Alley . Washington, DC 20003

202.664.4151 . E-mail: alex@thefridgedc.com, glo@thefridgedc.com

Inquiries about I RAN Home (In America), please contact:

Barbara Petro barbaraatPAC@gmail.com

Isabella Hughes isabellaatPAC@gmail.com

 American University Islamic Lecture Series

Engaged Conversations: Perspectives on Islam and Contemporary Global Issues

Sponsored by The Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, American University Muslim Students' Association, International Peace and Conflict Resolution Division, Center for Global Peace and the Washington  College of Law International Legal Studies Program.

Islam and the Environment
Wednesday April 29, 2009
2:00 - 4:00pm
SIS Lounge

Panelists:

• Imam Johari Abdul Malik - Director of Outreach, Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center

• Mohamad Chakaki - Environmental Educator & Activist

• Sarah Jawaid - Organizer, DC Green Muslims

Moderator:

• Christos Kyrou - Professor, International Peace and Conflict Resolution

This panel is part of American University's newest lecture series,  Engaged Conversations: Perspectives on Islam and Contemporary Global Issues,  featuring a diversity of voices on critical topics related to Islam and  Muslims in a globalized world.  Upcoming panels and lectures include:

September 17, 2009: Muslim Women Peace Builders
November 19, 2009:  Interfaith Dialogue and Action

The RUMI FORUM Presents

Tolerance's End: Religious Minorities, Philosophers, Free-Thinkers and the Rise of Fundamentalism in 12th and 13th Century Islamic Spain

Lourdes Maria Alvarez, Acting Director of Medieval and Byzantine Studies at the Catholic University of America

Thursday, April 23th 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
At the RUMI Forum
1150 17th Street NW, Suite 408,
Washington D.C. www.rumiforum.org

Free and open to the public (registration required). Light lunch will be served.

Explorations (and celebrations) of the so-called convivencia between Muslims, Christians and Jews in 10th- and 11th-century Spain have been the subject of an enormous amount of scholarship in the last 60 years. Far less attention has been paid to the complex interplay between competing religio-political understandings of Islamic military and economic decline and how these conflicts affected religious minority populations and the philosophers, mystics and intellectuals who would become the most visible targets of "fundamentalist" fury. Lourdes Maria Alvarez is acting director of Medieval and Byzantine Studies at the Catholic University of America and an Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. A graduate of Yale University, she has published on Islamic mysticism, intellectual history and literature in medieval Spain. Her book, Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion published by Paulist Press is forthcoming this year.

Rumi Forum, 1150 17th St. N.W., Suite 408 Washington, DC 20036

AT GWU's Institute for Middle East Studies

IMES Brownbag Lecture
The Islamic State: Myths and Realities

Guest Speaker:

• Asma Afsaruddin, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Notre Dame

Asma Afsaruddin specializes in the religious and political thought of Islam, Qur'an and hadith studies, Islamic intellectual history, and gender. She frequently consults with US governmental and private agencies on contemporary Islamic movements, inter-faith, and gender issues, and has lectured widely in the US, Europe, and the Middle East. She is the author of Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership, among other books, and has written over fifty research articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on various aspects of Islamic thought. Her most recent book, The First Muslims: History and Memory (OneWorld Publications 2007), explains the impact of the earliest converts on the development of Islamic doctrine, law and ethics, and examines their status as moral exemplars for succeeding generations. (For more information, visit http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=25467.)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Suite 505, 1957 E Street NW

RSVP to rsvpimes@gwu.edu

*A light lunch will be served

Visit www.gwu.edu/~imes for more information
about the Institute for Middle East Studies.

1957 E Street, NW, Suite 512 • Washington, DC 20052 • 202-994-9249 • Fax 202-994-5477

Muslim Voices, an Islamic Arts Festival, in New York City

Performances, exhibitions, films, talks on theatre, visual arts, music from across the Muslim world. Check out the website here for a complete list of events. June 9-14, 2009 in New York City. Presented by the Asia Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and NYU's Center for Dialogues. Includes a conference on artists, their venues, their cultural and religious settings, and implications for the renewal of cultural diplomacy. 

Islam and Peace

The American University Muslim Students' Association and the Mohammed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, cordially invite you to a lecture on "Islam and Peace" by renowned scholars from the American University's School of International Service.

Thursday, November 20, 2008 - 2:00pm
Kay Spiritual Life Center

Speakers and topics:

• Mohammed Abu-Nimer: Nonviolence in Islam

• Abdul Aziz Said: Islam and Peacemaking

• Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana: Peace Building and Sources of Conflict Resolution in Islam

This event will kick-off American University's newest lecture series, Engaged Conversations: Perspectives on Islam and Contemporary Global Issues, featuring a diversity of voices on critical topics related to Islam and Muslims in a globalized world. Join us in 2009 for panel discussions and lectures with scholars, practitioners and diplomats on the following themes:

• February 26, 2009: Minority Rights and Pluralism in Islam

• April 22, 2009l: Muslim Women Peace Builders

• September 17, 2009: Interfaith Dialogue and Action

• November 19, 2009: Islam and the Environment

More details will be available soon - please mark your calendars!

The organizers are looking for support and contributions to help prepare for this important series. We greatly appreciate your support at any level- if you wish to make a contribution and/or be a sponsor, please contact Elli Nagai-Rothe at tawhid@american.edu.

Conference at Georgetown University

ISLAM IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement
Georgetown University, Copley Formal Lounge
Date: 14-15 November 2008

The George Washington University, Institute for Middle East Studies

A Time of Transition: U.S. Impact on Reform in a Changing Middle East
A Future of Democracy series event co-sponsored by IMES and POMED

Monday, September 22, 2008

Speakers:

• Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Founder, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, Cairo

• Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW

Moderator: Andrew Albertson, Executive Director, Project on Middle East Democracy

How are dynamics of reform in the Middle East changing, and what are the main drivers of that change? How have the last seven years shaped Middle Easterners' attitudes to American involvement in the region, to the word "democracy," and to democratic reform itself? What opportunities and challenges do these changes create for Middle Easterners dedicated to political reform? Following a time of transition in America's own domestic politics, how should the U.S. approach the region? Can the next administration play a positive role in supporting democratic reform in the Middle East, and if so, how?

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Elliott Room (Room 310)
The Cloyd Heck Marvin Center
800 21st Street NW

RSVP to rsvp@pomed.org

The Middle East: For the Next Administration
A Security Policy Forum panel discussion co-sponsored by IMES

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

• The Arab-Israeli Conflict

• Aaron D. Miller, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

•  

• Political and Social Forces

• Marina Ottaway, Director, Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

•  

• The Influence of Iran

• Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Moderator: Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GW

5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
1957 E Street NW

RSVP to spf@gwu.edu 

Middle East Policy Forum
The Honorable John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State

Secretary Negroponte will speak on Iraq and the United States' ongoing involvement in the region. Negroponte will draw on his years of experiences as a career Foreign Service Officer, the Deputy Secretary of State, and a former United States Ambassador to Iraq, to provide a unique perspective on the situation in Iraq and U.S policies.

Thursday, September 25, 2008
6:30 p.m. - 7:45 p.m.
Harry Harding Auditorium, Room 213
1957 E Street NW

RSVP to imes@gwu.edu

Visit www.gwu.edu/~imes for full information on all IMES events.

1957 E Street, NW, Suite 502 • Washington, DC 20052 • 202-994-9249 • Fax 202-994-5477
Email imes@gwu.edu • Web www.gwu.edu/~imes