SYMPOSIUM: Generations of Dissent in Literary and Cinematic Productions of the Mideast and North Africa
April 22 (Friday), 1-4pm, Anderson Hall, Room 1221
Join us for an exciting symposium on how literature and film in the contemporary MENA portrays dissent and opposition! The event will combine research presented by three outside presenters visiting Temple that day — Professors Alessandro Columbu 
(University of Edinburgh), Eman Morsi (NYU), and Shareah Taleghan (CUNY-Queens) with the latest work by Temple’s own Professor Alexa Firat of the Asian and Middle Eastern Languages Department. Discussing all four of these presentations will be Professor Suzanne Gauch of Temple’s English Department. These new contributions not only highlight the significant of the humanities in current regional affairs, they will also comprise the core of a new edited volume on the topic matter. Coffee and light refreshments will be served. This CHAT-MENA event is co-sponsored by the Global Studies Program as well as the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages.
***********PAST EVENTS BELOW**************
CONFERENCE: Africa and the World Move — The Crisis of Migrants and Refugees From North Africa to Southwest Asia
April 15-16 (Friday and Saturday), Shusterman Hall, Starting at 9AM
Join us for this inaugural conference organized by the Department of African-American 
Studies for a trans-disciplinary dialogue on the status and future of migrants and refugees in North Africa and Southwest Asia. This star-studded event features a variety of panels and speakers, including Rochelle Davis (Georgetown University) and Jamil Smith (The New Republic), as well as various invited scholars. Co-sponsored by the MENA Study Group and the Middle East Initiative at Temple, and the Departments of of Anthropology, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages, Economics, French, German, Global Studies, History, Italian, MENA, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Slavic Studies, and Sociology. The event is co-sponsored by numerous other departments, including Anthropology, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages, Economics, French, German, Global Studies, History, Italian, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Slavic, and Sociology.
Click HERE for the flyer!!
*************************
EVENT: Understanding Syria — Addressing the Conflict in the Middle East
4-6pm, March 30 (Wednesday), SERC 116
Co-sponsored with the Political Science Graduate Student Association
This public roundtable unpacks the Syrian civil war, and its broader ramifications for the Middle East. It features leading academics from Philadelphia institutions, including Samer Abboud (Arcadia University), Ian Lustick (University of Pennsylvania), and Dominic Tierney (Swarthmore College). Moderated by Temple University Professor Sean Yom, with a reception to follow.
*************************
EVENT: Talk by Wael Hallaq — “Orientalism, Crisis, and Transformation”
3:00-4:30pm, 15 March 2016 (Tuesday), Anderson Hall 1221
Co-sponsored with the Department of Religion
Wael Hallaq is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. He is widely renowned as one of the world’s leading scholars of Islamic law, jurisprudential development, and intellectual history. He has authored numerous books, among them Shari’a: Theory, Practice, Transformations (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and An Introduction to Islamic Law (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
*************************
EVENT: Drivers and Dynamics of the Syrian Conflict — A Conversation with Dr. Samer Abboud
4-5:30pm, February 24 (Wednesday), CHAT Lounge (10th Floor, Gladfelter Hall)
Join us for an informative conversation with Dr. Samer Abboud of Arcadia University! Dr. Abboud is the author of the recently published book Syria (Polity Press, 2015), which unravels the social and political complexities of the country’s history and tragic civil war. Professors Sean Yom (Political Science) and Alexa Firat (Asian and Middle Eastern Languages) will be moderating the event.
*************************
EVENT: Public Conversation with Dr. Smadar Lavie
11:00AM, October 26 (Monday), Paley Library Lecture Hall
Co-sponsored with TU Libraries’ Beyond the Page Public Programming Series
Join us for a conversation with anthropologist Smadar Lavie. Lavie received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in the anthropology of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine, with emphasis on issues of race, gender, and religion. She has written and co-edited a number of books and volumes including The Poetics of Military Occupation (UC Press, 1990), which won the 1990 Honorable Mention of the Victor Turner Award for Ethnographic Writing; Displacement, Diaspora and Geographies of Identity (Duke Univ. Press, 1996; Creativity/Anthropology (Cornell Univ. Press, 1993); and her most recent, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture (Berghahn 2014).