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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October 2021
Exhibit: From Fallujah
Photography exhibit curated by John Bechtold. Featuring the work of four emerging Iraqi photographers, the exhibit proceeds from the idea that the best way to learn about a place is through the people who live there. Our purpose is to make another story about Fallujah visible to American audiences, one that departs from its militarized meaning in public memory. Fallujah is not an Iraq War battlefield. It is a place where people work, attend school, and frequent public…
Find out more »Panel Discussion: “STEM from Faith: A Dialogue between Faith and Science” (virtual)
This online discussion among scientists and scholars from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faith traditions explores the different ways that faith and science have worked together and in tension. Register in advance. The panelists are: * Sonia Laurie, an immunologist and post-doctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill * Steffen Bass, an Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics at Duke * Ehsan Samei, a medical physicist and professor of radiology at Duke * Robert Rutledge, a geneticist and Catholic…
Find out more »Discussion: “Open Access Scholarly Publication in Northern African Countries: Challenges and Opportunities” with Kamel Belhamel, University of Bejaia (Open Access Week Event) (virtual)
At this virtual event, Kamel Belhamel, faculty of technology at the University of Bejaia, Algeria, will join us to talk about achieving open access for scholars in northern African countries. His analysis considers many factors involved in the challenge, including language, local versus international journals, open access funding, infrastructure, policy, and more. The term "open access" refers to free, unrestricted online access to research outputs such as journal articles and books. Open access content is open to all, with…
Find out more »McLester Lecture Series: The Beauty of the Houri: Images and Interpretations of the Heavenly Virgins” with Dr. Nerina Rustomji (St. John’s University) (virtual)
This UNC Religious Studies McLester lecture by Dr. Nerina Rustomji, St. John’s University, will address the images of the pure female companions or houris of Islamic paradise that appear in Arabic, French, and English texts. The houri offered a feminine ideal of purity for a variety of interpreters, including Qur’anic commentators, Latin Christendom theologians, British and French travel writers, eighteenth and nineteenth century poets and writers, and twentieth and twenty-first century interpreters of Islam. The talk considers how an…
Find out more »Lecture: “Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century” with Dr. Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA)
The Convivencia Lecture Series welcomes Sarah Abrevaya Stein, the Viterbi Family Endowed Chain in Mediterranean Jewish Studies and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA, to discuss her book "Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century." Sarah Abrevaya Stein is author or editor of nine books. Her most recent book, Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux: Macmillman, 2019), explores the intertwined histories…
Find out more »Conversation: “Combatting Crimes Against Humanity in China: Fighting to Protect the Human Rights of Uyghurs” with Sophie Richardson (hybrid)
Please join us for a conversation between Professor David Schanzer and Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch. A Webinar livestream will be available for those unable to attend the event in person: Register for the livestream here. Sophie Richardson serves as the China Director at Human Rights Watch. She has overseen the organization’s research and advocacy on China since 2006, and has published extensively on human rights and political reform in the country and across Southeast…
Find out more »Discussion: “Neom City: Saudi Arabia’s Futuristic & Fully Automated Business Zone” with Omar AlSughayer & Sarah Alrefai (virtual)
Join us for a causal conversation in Arabic about current events, culture, and more. Come and improve your conversational Arabic and cultural skill set. Open to Duke Arabic students and friends. https://duke.zoom.us/j/96175601678 Organized by the Arabic Program at Duke; co-sponsored by the Duke University Middle East Studies Center. Duke University
Find out more »Film Screening: “Two Gods”
An intimate documentary about faith, renewal, and healing, TWO GODS follows a Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer in New Jersey, as he takes two young men under his wing to teach them how to live better lives. Inside a corner casket shop in East Orange, laboring amid the sawdust and the long pine boxes, casket makers work with mentors in the Islamic burial tradition. Hanif, a Black Muslim casket maker who finds spiritual grounding in his work, brings two boys…
Find out more »Panel Discussion: “Ending the Longest War: America’s Wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan in Comparative Perspective” (virtual)
In 2021 the United States declared an end to its military operations in Afghanistan and announced the withdrawal of US troops. While many in the media have heralded this as the end of America’s “longest war,” many others would argue that America’s military engagement in Vietnam was just as long and just as fraught – both for those who fought and for the country in conflict. Additionally, as the Taliban quickly conquered the whole of Afghanistan in August 2021,…
Find out more »November 2021
Poetry Reading: “Tariq Touré: The Poet”
Join Duke Performances and Duke Islamic Studies Center for a poetry reading by Tariq Touré. Tariq Touré's poetry and prose has been featured in award winning publications such as Muslim Matters, Salon, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, The Nation Magazine and Sapelo Square. Black Seeds, Touré's debut collection of poetry ranked among the top in African American Poetry and Literature releases in Black History month on Amazon and was the winner of Best Poetry Book of Baltimore in 2016…
Find out more »Community College Seminar: Global Business in a New World (virtual)
North Carolina is experiencing a rapid growth of global businesses and community college students will play a key role in meeting the needs of their workforce. This UNC World View program will explore topics related to global businesses and its impact on the North Carolina economy. Community college and early college educators will gain knowledge and resources on the specific needs of global businesses, including how they can prepare their students to meet the needs of the global workforce.…
Find out more »K-12 Teacher Training Webinar – US/MENA Dialogues: “Globalizing STEM: Strengthen International Connections and Engage Students in Understanding our Global Environment”
Focusing on the GLOBE program, this session will provide ideas and resources for globalizing STEM courses and providing international connections across the United States, Middle East, North Africa, and beyond. As an international science and education program, GLOBE is dedicated to supplying the STEM professionals of tomorrow with the scientific knowledge necessary to tackle Earth's biggest challenges. GLOBE is a worldwide community of students, teachers, scientists, and citizens working together to better understand, sustain, and improve Earth's environment at local, regional,…
Find out more »Performance: Kayhan Kalhor
Three-time GRAMMY nominee Kayhan Kalhor is an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the kamancheh, (“little bow”), a bowed string instrument with a thousand-year history. Through his many musical collaborations, Kalhor was instrumental in popularizing Persian music in the West and is a creative force in today’s music scene. His performances of traditional Persian music and multiple collaborations have attracted audiences around the globe. He has studied the music of Iran’s many regions, in particular those of Khorason and Kordestan, and has toured the…
Find out more »Conference: Come Together: The Future of Arabic Language in North Carolina
The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies is pleased to host a conference for Arabic language educators this fall: Come Together: The Future of Arabic Language in NC. This conference, held November 13-14, 2021, at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will gather educators, administrators, and other representatives from K-16 institutions all working to expand Arabic as a world language offering. Featuring grade level-specific sessions as well as keynote presentations, the conference will connect Arabic language educators across the…
Find out more »Kitab Talk: “Grooves and Waves: Phonograph Records as Historical Sources in the Digital Age” with Christopher Silver (McGill University)
In the decades following the advent of the phonograph at the end of the nineteenth century, thousands of shellac records circulated across the Middle East and North Africa. Etched between their grooves were a stunning array of popular, classical, and folkloric songs, sketches and monologues, and the otherwise sublime sounds of an extended era of profound change. At mid-twentieth century, in the midst of decolonization, mass migration, as well as the appearance of vinyl, most of the region’s earliest…
Find out more »Presentation: Study Abroad Week: Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Programs (virtual)
The Study Abroad Office invites you to register for Study Abroad Week, November 15-19! Join us virtually to learn about the exciting variety of global opportunities available to Tar Heels! Throughout the week, we’ll offer sessions on best-fit programs for students by area of study, showcase our language and culture programs, and share funding information. A session on Asian & Middle Eastern Studies programs will be offered on November 16 at 4pm. Check out the webpage to view all the sessions. Register to attend in…
Find out more »Book Talk: “Global Jihad: A Brief History” with Glenn Robinson (Naval Postgraduate School)
Most violent jihadi movements in the twentieth century focused on removing corrupt, repressive secular regimes throughout the Muslim world. But following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a new form of jihadism emerged—global jihad—turning to the international arena as the primary locus of ideology and action. With this book, Glenn E. Robinson develops a compelling and provocative argument about this violent political movement's evolution. Global Jihad tells the story of four distinct jihadi waves, each with its own program…
Find out more »Seminar: Zuhra Altymyshova (Manas Kyrgyz-Turkish University & CSEEES) and Eren Tasar (UNC Chapel Hill)
The Carolina Seminar on Russia and its Empires will host an event featuring Zuhra Altymyshova (Manas Kyrgyz-Turkish University & CSEEES) and Eren Tasar (UNC Chapel Hill). The Carolina Seminar: Russia and Its Empires, East and West is co-sponsored by the Carolina Seminar Program, the UNC Department of History, and the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies. For more information, contact Dr. Eren Tasar, etasar@email.unc.edu. UNC-Chapel Hill
Find out more »Iranian Literary Diasporas: Esha Momeni in Conversation with author Fereshteh Molavi (virtual)
This virtual lecture series is dedicated to exploring how Iranian diaspora authors reflect on the community’s attempts at carving out forms of belonging to their host nations. Authors and discussants may address specific modes of power and representation that Iranian diaspora community has developed to rehabilitate their position as members of a minoritized population with ambivalent feelings of belonging. November 20, 2021 @ 12:00pm-1:00pm Esha Momeni in Conversation with author Fereshteh Molavi Register: https://go.unc.edu/Molavi Convener: Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi, Roshan Associate…
Find out more »December 2021
Book Talk: Dr. Waleed Ziad in conversation with Rustin Zarkar (virtual)
The remarkable discoveries of over 300 new varieties of local copper currency from the Sakra region in northwestern Pakistan, covering a 700-year period, have opened up new vistas in the study of Gandhara in late antiquity. This monograph introduces the native Sakra copper coinage, which can be dated from ca. 500 to 1100, corresponding to the Nezak, Turk Shahi, Hindu Shahi, and Ghaznavid periods. Dr. Waleed Ziad is Assistant Professor and Ali Jerrahi Fellow in Persian Studies in…
Find out more »January 2022
K-12 Teacher Training: “How Islam is Portrayed in Comics” with Maryanne Rhett (Monmouth University)
During this webinar we will discuss how Islam and Muslims have been, and continue to be, portrayed in comics and other forms of sequential art since the 1800s through today. Focusing largely on US comics the discussion will also take into account global examples including, but not limited to, works from Canada, Spain, and various elements of the Punch "empire." Scholar: Maryanne Rhett (Professor of History and Anthropology, Monmouth University) The Humanities in Class webinar series features live, interactive…
Find out more »April 2022
Educator Travel to Jordan
Educators: spend your spring break with The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies touring Jordan, April 9 – 16, 2022. We are partnering with GEEO to offer this great travel program. Participants will explore Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum, and the Dead Sea among other important historical cities and sites. GEEO offers cost-subsided travel programs for educators during the spring, winter, and summer. The trips are designed and discounted to be interesting and affordable for teachers – and you…
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