We are what we do. Here are some events developed to further the understanding and appreciation of Muslim and Arab culture in and around UNT.
Art 223 @ 6PM
Kamran, a 12 year old boy, travels from the U.S. to England and Iran in pursuit of the life story of his ancestor, the 11th century mathematician, astronomer and poet, Omar Khayyam. The film moves between his journey and the epic past where the friendship between Omar Khayyam and Hassan Sabbeh is destroyed.
more details (pdf)
April 12th Meadows Museum, SMU campus @ 4PM
April 13th Art 223 @ 4PM
Nature & the Natural in the Middle Ages
more details (pdf)
Art 223 @ 6PM
Islamic Contribution to American Music
Billie Holiday’s wavy intonation has its roots in the muezzin’s call to prayer. The syncopated riffs and rhythms of blues guitar legend John Lee Hooker echo a traditional call and response, with painful lyrics about life, love, and faith.
more details (pdf)
April 5, 2012 in the Business Leadership Building 070
April 6, 2012 in the Business Leadership Building 010
Kashmir conflict has been one of the many intractable conflicts of the modern world. Largely seen as a territorial dispute between the rival countries India and Pakistan and an outcome of the “unfinished business of Partition” (in 1947, when India and Pakistan got independence from the British rule), there are many different dimensions of this long-lasting conflict which make it very complex and complicated vis--vis any prospects of enduring peace.
more details (pdf)
UNT Peace Symposium
March 25th, 2011
This three-part event was organized by Dr. Qaisar Abbas, a member of CAMCSI's Internal Advisory Board. The event featured a keynote speech by Dr. Ori Soltes, from Georgetown University, entitled "Mysticism and Peace: Weaving a Common Thread across World Religions." Also included was a panel discussion featuring two UNT scholars. The event ended with a performance of Sufi music.
Margins and Centers in South Asian Islam: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry
March 9th, 10th, and 11th, 2011
This three-day event interrogated the issue of "margins and centers" in South Asian Islam through original research papers by international scholars, two talks by a senior scholar of South Asian Islam, and the screening of a documentary film that introduced key issues addressed in both the conference and the talks. This event was coordinated by Dr. Neilesh Bose, of the History Department and CAMCSI core faculty member, and was made possible with contributions from several departments of the university, including Department of Art Education and Art History, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Philosophy and Religion International Studies Program, and the Multicultural Center.
March 9th: In conjunction with the events surrounding Margins and Centers in South Asian Islam: An Interdisciplinary Inquiry, CAMCSI screened Ram Ke Naam (In the Name of God). This screening was coordinated with CAMCSI's Muslim Cultures Film Series to facilitate the goals of both the film series and the conference/talks at hand. The film introduced important issues that would be addressed in the subsequent presentations.
March 10th: Dr. Barbara Metcalf visited UNT to give two talks about Islam in South Asia. One of the talks, The Most Dangerous Place in the World? Historical Reflections on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, was a lunchtime lecture directed towards history students and focused on historical and contemporary issues surrounding the formation and continuation of the nation of Pakistan. The second of these talks, Islam, Islamists, and Democracy in India, was open to a wider audience and addressed the status of Islam in the context of South Asian politics.
Prof. Barbara Metcalf, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, South Asian history and President of the American Historical Association:
Prof. Metcalf has authored, translated, and edited numerous works on South Asian Muslim history, politics, and culture, including Islamic Contestations: Essays on Muslims in India and Pakistan (Oxford, 2006), Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900 (Oxford, 2002 2nd edition, Princeton 1982 1st edition), Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (California, 1996), Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Bihishti Zewar (California, 1990), and the co-authored textbook, with Dr. Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of India (Cambridge, 2006, 2nd edition, Cambridge, 2002, 1st edition). Prof. Metcalf has also served as the Director for the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan and the Dean for the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California Davis. She has taught at the Universities of California Davis and Berkeley and the University of Michigan.
March 11th (9am-5pm): A one-day workshop about South Asian Islam. This workshop introduced UNT students and faculty members to a facet of Islamic civilization and culture that is often overlooked in many public discussions of Islam, that of South Asia. Twelve national and international scholars participated by presenting original research and engaged in thoughtful dialogue following each session.
Participating scholars:
Barbara Metcalf, University of Michigan
Neilesh Bose, University of North Texas
Afsar Mohammed, University of Texas-Austin
Denis McGilvray, University of Colorado-Boulder
Torsten Tschacher, University of Heidelberg
Megan Adamson Sijapati, Gettysburg College
Amber Abbas, University of Texas-Austin
Sean Killen, University of Texas-Austin
Jose Abraham, Concordia University
Sundar Vadlamudi, University of Texas-Austin
A.Azfar Moin, Southern Methodist University
Gail Minault, University of Texas-Austin
Seminar: Oral literature and ritual culture in Muslim Middle East and South Asia
April 9th 2010
CAMCSI co-sponsored a one-day seminar entitled Oral literature and ritual culture in Muslim Middle East and South Asia, with special focus on ritual discourse in India, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran.
Speakers and Paper Topics Included:
Open Shutters Iraq Film screening and Exhibition
Film Screening: April 8th 2010, Exhibition: April 5th-May 14th 2010
The Open Shutter Iraq event included an exhibition, film, panel discussion, and a one-day symposium. The exhibition, directed by Eugenie Dolberg, consisted of nine photographic essays and examined the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines, through the eyes of women from all over Iraq, of different social and political backgrounds with no previous photographic experience. The exhibition was mounted at the UNT on the Square Gallery, April 5-May 14 2010. The film, Open Shutter Iraq, documents this remarkable photography project; a group of women, from five cities in Iraq, live and work together in a traditional courtyard house in the Old City of the Syrian capital, Damascus. There they learn to take photographs, and at the same time, present their 'life maps' to each other. The Open Shutter Iraq project exemplified part of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute's (CAMCSI) commitment to support cultural activities and programs at UNT and the larger community of North Texas.
The major accomplishments of the exhibition and promotion of Open Shutter Iraq, both film and works, include the cultivation of international collaboration, raised awareness of global issues specifically relating to lives of Iraq women, and the fostering of dialogue regarding those issues. By providing visually stimulating subject matter, the audience was able to engage with the women behind the photographs and a life beyond and in the midst of war. Awareness was raised as students, as wells as those from the greater Denton community, were exposed to a side of the "War on Terror" that is not shown in popular media.
The Open Shutter Iraq exhibition is now travelling to various institutions under the auspices of CAMCSI. It was exhibited at the University of California at Berkeley in October of 2010 and will be at Denison University for the months of November 2010 – February 2011.
