Events
The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies supports events that increase awareness of the history and cultures of the Middle East and Muslim civilizations, and values diverse perspectives that promote dialogue and understanding. Events listed here originate from a variety of campus units and community organizations. The listing of an event does not constitute endorsement of or agreement with the views presented therein.
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February 2021
Exhibition: Golden Mummies of Egypt
On view through July 11, Golden Mummies of Egypt features eight extraordinary gilded mummies and more than 100 related objects including papyri, jewelry, ceramics, and deities that connect the domestic, daily sphere of these Greco-Roman Egyptians to the religious world of the gods. The exhibition explores beliefs about the afterlife during the relatively little-known era when Egypt was part of the Greek and Roman worlds (circa 300 B.C.E.–200 C.E.). In a series of lavishly illustrated thematic sections, it showcases the outstanding…
Find out more »K-12 Teaching the Middle East Webinar Series: “Teaching Middle East History in World History” with Dr. Allen Fromherz (Georgia State University)
Relevant to high school curricula, we will explore ideas and strategies for using decisive moments in Middle East History to explore larger themes of World History including charisma, religious encounters, commerce, and geographical diversity. This series offers five interactive sessions between January and May 2021, featuring resources and strategies for teaching about the Middle East relevant to both in-person and virtual teaching for Grades 6-12 and community colleges. All events occur on Thursdays, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time FREE!…
Find out more »Lecture: “Ummah : The Effects of Community Responsibility on Muslim Political Behavior in the United States” with Nura Sediqe (Princeton University)
Drawing on an originally fielded survey of 1,000 Muslims in the United States, Dr. Nura Sediqe assess what influence the racial climate has on Muslims commitment to community (ummah). Sediqe develop a theory for 'ummah consciousness' to understand how commitment to the ummah may influence political behavior. Sediqe finds that Muslims who hold a higher sense of ummah consciousness are more likely to participate in communal-specific types of political participation. The findings highlight how Muslims hold on to a…
Find out more »Cultural Event: Urdu Majlis on Behzad Lucknavi
Please join us via Zoom for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle's Literary Forum, on Saturday, February 27, at 1:00 PM. The featured poet is Behzad Lucknavi (1900-1974). In the first half of the meeting we will share works by the featured poet, and in the second half, you are invited to share your original work or poems by your favorite poets. This event is in Urdu. Zoom Web Browser Access Link Meeting ID: 965 5312 8445 Passcode: BEHZAD…
Find out more »March 2021
Kitab Talk: “Akkasah, NYU Abu Dhabi: Photographic Heritage of the Middle East and North Africa” with Jasmine Soliman
Akkasah, the Center for Photography at New York University Abu Dhabi, is home to an archive of photographic heritage of the Middle East and North Africa with a special focus on histories of the UAE. It fosters the scholarly study of these histories and practices in dialogue with other photographic cultures and traditions from around the world through a range of activities, including commissioning new documentary works. Akkasah collaborates with collectors and families to document and preserve photographic material in…
Find out more »Community College Summit: “Global is Local Business Summit: The Future of Work”
This Global is Local Business Summit is a collaboration among Trelleborg, Isothermal Community College and UNC World View. It will provide educators and students a unique opportunity to hear from a UNC Kenan-Flagler business professor and industry leaders in North Carolina about meeting needs in the competitive and ever-evolving economy. With a focus on the future of work, this program will provide insights on the changing nature of industry, the skill sets and traits needed and required by current…
Find out more »Workshop: The Making of Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa: Objects, Images, Spaces, Part 1
This two-part workshop addresses minorities and minority-formation in the art, architecture, and urbanism of the Middle East and North Africa through time. A major goal is to consider the role of visual, spatial, and material cultures in mediating minor cultural formations—how objects, images, and spaces serve to express minority cultures but also how they produce, or alternatively resist, the processes by which communities become minorities, within and against the majority cultures of the MENA region. Another aim would be…
Find out more »Women’s Leadership in the Federal Government
Women have long been underrepresented in key sectors of the United States federal government, and especially in positions of leadership in the US federal government. This is particularly true for women of color. While recognizing these facts, this panel highlights women who have held or currently hold positions of leadership working for our country. They will talk about their careers, provide advice to others looking to enter US government service, consider the challenges specific to women in government leadership,…
Find out more »Global Read Webinar Series: Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan
Join the Middle East Outreach Council on Thursday, March 11 at 7:00 – 8:00 pm Eastern Time for a webinar with award-winning author, Danny Ramadan. This program will feature 2020 Picture Book Award Winner: SALMA THE SYRIAN CHEF by Danny Ramadan, illustrated by Anna Bron (Annick Press, 2020). Salma and her mother have recently arrived in Vancouver and all Salma wants to do is make her mama smile again. Between English classes, job interviews, and missing Papa back in Syria,…
Find out more »Workshop: The Making of Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa: Objects, Images, Spaces, Part 2
This workshop addresses minorities and minority-formation in the art, architecture, and urbanism of the Middle East and North Africa through time. A major goal is to consider the role of visual, spatial, and material cultures in mediating minor cultural formations—how objects, images, and spaces serve to express minority cultures but also how they produce, or alternatively resist, the processes by which communities become minorities, within and against the majority cultures of the MENA region. Another aim would be to…
Find out more »Lecture: “Down to the Bone: Dissecting Blackness in Early-Twentieth-Century Egypt” with Dr. Taylor Moore (UC Santa Barbara)
Taylor M. Moore is a University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the History Department at UC Santa Barbara. Her research lies at the intersections of critical race studies, decolonial/postcolonial histories of science, and decolonial materiality studies. Her manuscript-in-preparation, Superstitious Women: Race, Magic, and Medicine in Egypt, uses modern Egyptian amulets as an archive to reconstruct the magical and vernacular medical life-worlds of peasant women healers, and their critical role developing medico-anthropological expertise in Egypt from 1880-1950. Taylor’s work…
Find out more »K-12 Teaching the Middle East Webinar Series: “Experiential Learning about the Middle East through the Senses” with Barbara Petzen (CSIS)
This webinar will explore and demonstrate a wide variety of sensory approaches to learning about the Middle East. We’ll look at new ways to understand the diversity of the historical and contemporary Middle East through images and film, sound, taste and smell, and tactile experiences. This series offers five interactive sessions between January and May 2021, featuring resources and strategies for teaching about the Middle East relevant to both in-person and virtual teaching for Grades 6-12 and community colleges. All…
Find out more »Poetry Reading: Safia Elhillo
You are cordially invited to an evening with Safia Elhillo, an award winning poet and author of Sudanese origin. Ms. Elhillo will do a reading of her poetry, and participate in conversation about her work. More information and register in advance. This event is part of a series of webinars with award-winning and diaspora-bending artists, writers, poets, and musicians held in conjunction with Turath, a path-breaking virtual exhibit that maps the rich mosaic of early Arab American culture…
Find out more »April 2021
Kitab Talk: “Take Another Look: Revisiting the British Library’s Turkish and Turkic Collections” with Dr. Michael Erdman
The British Library's Turkish and Turkic Collections contain some 4000 manuscript texts and more than 26000 printed texts. Despite their value to understanding the history and culture of Turkic peoples across time and space, many of these works remain woefully underutilized by researchers. In this presentation, I will explore a few of the collection's unique aspects, from diversity in language and genre, to holdings relating to underrepresented groups, and ending with unexpected variation in artistic expression. In doing so, I…
Find out more »Discussion with Author Rabih Alameddine
Please join us for a conversation with award winner Arab American writer, Rabih Alameddine, the author of I, the Divine (W.W. Norton), The Hakawati (A.A. Knopf), Koolaids, The Perv, An Unnecessary Woman, and The Angel of History (all Grove Atlantic). An Unnecessary Woman was a finalist for the National Book Award 2014 and the winner of the prestigious Prix Femina étranger, and The Angel of History won the Lambda Literary Award. Alameddine is the winner of the 2019 Dos Passos Prize. His next novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope, will be published…
Find out more »Panel Discussion: Digital Forays: Future Digital Research ON/IN/FROM the Middle East
What is the state of digital scholarly research on/in/from the Middle East? What challenges and opportunities fill our present - and what will the next 5-10 years of digital research on the Middle East look like? This roundtable event will examine the present in order to look forward to digital scholarship yet to come. Some motivating questions: How to speak of the difference between digital work produced within the region, rather than about it? What challenges/opportunities are facing graduate…
Find out more »K-12 Teaching the Middle East Webinar Series: “Teaching about the Middle East through Underreported Stories” with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
This session with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting will explore reporting on the MENA region and curricular resources that can be used to connect underreported news stories to the classroom. We will outline ways to engage students in global issues through journalism, develop media literacy, encourage critical thinking about the MENA region, and connect with a journalist for a conversation about their experience reporting from the Middle East. This series offers five interactive sessions between January and May 2021,…
Find out more »May 2021
Performance: Tarek Yamani
A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Thelonious Monk Jazz Composers Competition, and the Baryshnikov Artist-in-Residence, Tarek Yamani explores the relationship between African American and classical Arabic music during this webinar with performance, conversation, and Q&A. More information and register in advance. This event is part of a series of webinars with award-winning and diaspora-bending artists, writers, poets, and musicians held in conjunction with Turath, a path-breaking virtual exhibit that maps the rich mosaic of early…
Find out more »K-12 Teaching the Middle East Webinar Series: “Hip Hop and Women’s Voices in the Middle East and North Africa” with Dr. Angela Williams (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Through the work of rap artists from the MENA region, we will learn about the varied lived experiences of girls and women in this region. Their music and online expressions depict the challenges and pressures they face, as well as spaces for hope and a better future for women and girls. This series offers five interactive sessions between January and May 2021, featuring resources and strategies for teaching about the Middle East relevant to both in-person and virtual teaching for…
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