Contact: Melissa Bokovoy 277-2451 mbokovoy@unm.edu
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
September 9, 2004
UNM INTERNATIONAL STUDIES INSTITUTE PRESENTS ISLAM AND EUROPE LECTURE SERIES
The University of New Mexico's International Studies Institute presents “Islam and Europe,” its first fall lecture series, Monday, Sept. 13 – Thursday, Sept. 16 in Woodward Hall, room 101 on the main UNM campus.
Distinguished speakers from UNM and across the continent will present a series of lectures to introduce New Mexicans to the complex interactions of European/Western and Islamic civilizations from the time of the Crusades to present day.
Melissa Bokovoy, director of the International Studies Institute, said, “With the end of the Cold War, some observers have claimed that Islam and more particularly ‘Islamic fundamentalism' is the new ‘enemy' of Western Civilization. These feelings have been reinforced by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. This lecture series will examine the origins and substance of this claim by drawing not only on the history of the encounter between Islam and Europe, including Russia, but on current politics, art and literature.”
Lectures will cover history, archaeology, sociology, religion, gender studies, art and architecture. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Topics and schedule is as follows:
Monday, Sept. 13
4 p.m., Jay Rubenstein, “Islam in the Medieval Imagination”
7 p.m., Andrew Rippin, “European Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur'an”
Tuesday, Sept. 14
4 p.m., Jim Boone, “The Contested Islamic Past in Spain and Portugal”
7 p.m., Mary Neuburger, “The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Modern Nationhood in Bulgaria”
Wednesday, Sept. 15
4 p.m. Stephen Bishop, “French Identity, ‘Muslim Hordes' and the Chanson de Roland”
7 p.m., Robert D. Crews, “Russia's Islamic Past-Europe's Future?”
Thursday, Sept. 16
4 p.m., Eleni Bastea, “Memory and Architecture in Greece and Turkey”
7 p.m., Jytte Klausen, “Banning the Muslim Headscarf: Europeans Debate Religious Toleration and Gender Equality”
For more information, visit ISI's Web site: www.unm.edu/~isi/ .
The International Studies Institute serves as an umbrella organization for the College of Arts and Sciences' three undergraduate areas studies programs, European Studies, Asian Studies – including the Middle East – and Russian Studies.
The institute's goal is to pursue broad-based initiatives involving all three groups. ISI activities include coordinating lecture series, outreach to secondary schools, and writing larger grants for international or interdisciplinary study, research and outreach programs.
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