Summer Session 2009
Sunday-Wednesday, August 2–5, 2009
Itinerary
Monday, |
Tuesday, |
Wednesday, |
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Welcome Reception Dinner
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Lunch |
Lunch
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Adjourn
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Sunday, August 2
5:30 p.m.
Welcome, Program Overview, Reception with Faculty
7 p.m.
Dinner at the Alumni House featuring Middle Eastern food
Monday, August 3
8 a.m.
Breakfast available
9–10:15 a.m.
Geography and the Social and Political Landscape of the Middle East
Led by
Katrinka Somdahl-Sands, Visiting Instructor in Geography, Macalester
The Middle East has long fascinated those interested in the complex patterns of interaction between society, culture, and environment. This class will explore ways in which travelers, cartographers, and journalists have imagined, mapped, and represented the region we know today as the Middle East. The primary aim is to explore the power of geographic imagery to reflect and shape our understanding of this vital and contested region. This lecture is designed for students with limited or no prior knowledge of the Middle East, but those with more experience are more than welcome to share their knowledge with the rest of us.
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10:45 a.m.–Noon
The Use and Misuse of Islam
Led by
Caesar Farah, Professor Emeritus, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota
Those who advocate the use of Islam as justification for violent acts are an active minority who despair of achieving desired goals, in the absence of what they perceive as justice, and they perceive themselves as defending Islamic communities against abuse, domestic or foreign. This presentation will present an assessment of Islam as conceived by its founder, as a way of life anchored in faith and aiming to advance moral values, communal solidarity, and peace through non-violent means.
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Noon
Lunch on campus
1–3 p.m.
Twin Cities Tour
Led by
Paul Schadewald, Associate Director, Civic Engagement Center, Macalester
We will visit sites that reflect the rich presence of Middle Eastern, Somali, and other Muslim communities throughout the Twin Cities area, including mosques, cultural centers, social service agencies, markets, and more.
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3:15–4:30 p.m.
Islam and its Jewish and Christian Roots
Led by
Khaldoun Samman,
Professor, Sociology, and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Concentration, Macalester
When violence is discussed pertaining to “Jews and Arabs” or “Islam and the West,” we tend to view it as stemming from cultural and religious differences. I hear people say that these conflicts stretch back thousands of years and are the products of fanatical religious identities. In this seminar we will visit an alternative perspective. We will turn the lens on our modern, secular identities in order to investigate how notions like nationalism, land, occupation, and power may have much to do with the issue of violence. Indeed, when we look historically, Muslims, Jews, and Christians, while experiencing periods of bloodshed among one another, share more similarities than differences. These realizations can bring us some inspiration that change is possible. The conflicts among these groups, rather than being the product of essential cultural or religious differences, are related to contemporary issues and thus surmountable.
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Evening
Dinner on your own
Tuesday, August 4
8 a.m.
Breakfast available
9–10:15 a.m.
Gender and Islam; Secular Misconceptions and Religious Stereotypes
Led by
Paula Cooey, Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Christian Theology and Culture, Macalester
We will explore modern religious and secular assumptions regarding gender and Islam in the U.S., in the European Union, and in Turkey, a legally secular country with a majority Muslim population located squarely in both Europe and the Middle East. Once we become clearer on how our own values and assumptions shape, and often distort, our perceptions, we will engage questions of how to respond with wisdom and self-critical awareness to genuine differences in a volatile world.
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10:45 a.m.–Noon
Past, Present and Future of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Led by
Binnur Ozkececi-Taner, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Hamline University
We will look at when and why this enduring and complicated conflict started, the issues at stake, and why peace has been increasingly difficult to achieve despite international efforts. We will briefly discuss the consequences of the 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars and efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution. In particular, we will focus on how the two sides have framed their grievances and how their framing of issues has created impediments for resolution of the conflict.
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Noon
Lunch on campus
1:30–2:45 p.m.
20th Century Arabic and Islamic Literature
Led by Wessam El-Meligi, Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Macalester
The talk will focus on Arabic literature written in the Middle East, and that by writers writing away from their homelands. Special attention will be given to four notable works: Naguib Mahfouz’s Children of The Alley (banned in the 1960s and the cause of death threats from fundamentalists); Alaa al Aswani’s The Yacoubian Building (controversial for its depiction of social realities including sexuality); Afghan-American Khaled Husseini’s The Kite Runner (Hollywood-ized in a movie of the same title); Iranian-French Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (the autobiographical novel of a girl growing up in Iran before and during the Islamic revolution).
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3:15–4:30 p.m.
Film: From West Beirut to Al- Bosta
Led by
Joelle Vitiello, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Macalester
Two films demonstrate the difficulty of representing every perspective of fact, history, and culture, and also the power of images in articulating difficult issues and leading to peaceful initiatives. Through the story of three children, West Beirut (1998) explores the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975. Al-Bosta (2006) captures the euphoric period between the departure of Syrian troops and Israel’s bombings of Lebanon in 2006. Complementing the films is Return to Beirut by Lebanese-Egyptian author Andrée Chedid, who raises important questions about women and children in times of war.
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6 p.m.
Dinner off campus
Bus leaves for dinner together off campus at a great restaurant (TBD)
Wednesday, August 5
8 a.m.
Breakfast available
9 a.m.
The Strength & Limits of Interfaith Dialogue - Faculty Panel
In this concluding panel, designed to create discussion between faculty and participants, we will introduce the general issue of “interfaith dialogue,” often the first method that comes to mind when thinking about the question of “what is to be done?” Now that you have explored a number of issues, from religion and gender to land and power, what are your closing thoughts on the resolution of these issues? Are there concrete steps we can take as individuals or groups to effect change? The session will begin with a brief presentation on the issue of conflict resolution, but the major portion of the time will be dedicated to a dialogical discussion among presenters and audience alike.
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11 a.m.
Adjourn