Event Archives July 2017 - August 2018 Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations Events at Duke, Events at UNC, Events in the Triangle

July 9, 2017 Persian Art Center in Carolina presents: A Night of Persian Poetry and Live Music Performance

Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location The Club House, 400 Oak Tree Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Lecture

Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for an analysis of poetry of two great contemporary Persian poets, Fereydoon Moshiri and Ahmad Shamloo. Speakers will include Dr. Amir Rezvani and Mr. Yousef Amiri. The program will begin with a social from 4-4:30, followed by a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani. From 4:45-6:00, there will be presentations by Rezvani and Amiri, followed by an open forum and discussion. From 6:45-7:45 there will be live Persian Description music and poetry readings from your favorite poets.

This event is free and open to public. *Please note that the this event will be in Persian. The Persian Poetry Group in Chapel Hill honors, respects and promotes freedom of speech and expression. For more information, please contact 919-259-0959.

Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

August 19, 2017 Presentation: History of Durham’s Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center Time 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Location Durham County Library – Stanford L. Warren Branch Library, 1201 Fayetteville St. Durham, NC Categories Presentation, Lecture

Join the Museum of Durham History for a look back at the rich history of this local institution. Started in the 1950s, the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center, formally Muhammad’s Mosque #34, is one of Description the oldest Muslim communities in North Carolina. Naomi Feste, Community Curator, and Katie Spencer, Curator, Museum of Durham History, will introduce this ongoing research project, and welcome stories about its development from the local community. Sponsored by the Durham County Library. Co-sponsored by the Museum of Durham History. For Sponsors more information, call 919-560-0268.

August 19, 2017 Pakistan’s 70th Independence Day Celebration Time 5:30 pm - 11:00 pm Location Cary Arts Center 101 Dry Ave, Cary, NC 27511 Categories Cultural Event The North Carolina Pakistani American Anjuman invites you to Pakistan’s 70th Independence Description Day Celebration featuring the amazing band, Kaarma Nation at the Cary Arts Center. For more information and tickets, contact 919-274-9373. Sponsors North Carolina Pakistani American Anjuman, Media partner: Geet Bazaar Radio.

August 20, 2017 Week of Welcome: A Taste of Asia and the Middle East Time 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Location New West UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural Event Come to New West, home to UNC’s Department of Asian Studies, to try some Asian and Middle Eastern delicacies, engage in cultural activities, and learn about courses and programs of study Description focused on the largest and most populous continent in the world. For more information, please contact Hanna Sprintzik at [email protected]. Sponsors UNC Department of Asian Studies

August 23, 2017 Cries from Syria Documentary Screening and Discussion Time 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm Location Haven Medical 121 S Estes Dr Ste 205, Chapel Hill, 27514 Categories Film/Documentary Screening Please join us for a screening of the documentary “Cries From Syria” by award winning filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky. The film will be introduced by Duke professor of Political Science Dr. Abdeslam Maghraoui. After the film, Mr. Afineevsky will skype in live from L.A. for a Description questions. This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited: please register at 919.969.1414. The film contains some mature content. It should not be viewed by children under the age of 14 without adult supervision. Sponsors Haven Medical

August 27, 2017 The International Block Party Time 3:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location Raleigh City Plaza 400 Fayetteville St. Raleigh, NC 27601 Categories Multi-Cultural Event Held at City Plaza, the heart of downtown Raleigh, this free event offers a comprehensive experience that allows participants to interact with multicultural arts in a fun and safe atmosphere through visual arts, dance, music, cuisine, and traditional expression from around Description the world. Food, Desserts, Bazaars, Dances and Live Bands from around the world in downtown Raleigh! Come see a vibrant and affluent downtown! Travel the world without flying or driving … Just walking! Sponsors International Focus NC

August 28, 2018 Memorial Service for Rula Quawas 1960-2017 Time 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Memorial Please join us for a memorial service for Dr. Rula Quawas, professor of American Literature in the Department of English at the University of Jordan. Dr. Quawas, an accomplished scholar and champion for women’s rights in the Arab World, maintained close ties with UNC Chapel Hill Description where she mentored students and collaborated with faculty on a number of projects. Friends, colleagues, and former students of Dr. Quawas are encouraged to join us in remembering this exceptional scholar and human being. Sponsors UNC Chapel Hill

Turkey Today: “Affective geopolitics: Entanglements of geopolitical lives of Syrian refugees in September 1, 2017 Turkey” Time 12:15 pm - 1:45 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 3009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture The war in Syria is transforming bodies and territories well beyond the sites of the fighting. Today, there are over 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and very few of these refugees live in camps while most live in cities. For Turkey, the war has reconfigured (geo)political and spatial imaginaries in ways that both express and exceed the real conditions of the crisis. In this talk, Dr. Banu Gökarıksel will address the embodied, affective geopolitics of the Syrian war from the Description perspective of ordinary Turkish nationals (in Istanbul, Konya, and Malatya, focus group research conducted in 2014-2016) in relation to their encounters both with Syrian refugees and the discourses that frame or contest Turkey’s official ‘open door’ policy. Dr. Banu Gökarıksel is Associate Professor of Geography at UNC-CH and the co-editor of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (2014-2018). Her work engages feminist geography and geopolitics with a focus on gender, bodies and public space.

Center for European Studies and TransAtlantic Masters Program, Duke Middle East Studies Sponsors Center, Carolina MidEast Center, Duke-UNC Consortium for MidEast Studies, Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke History Department, European Union

September 4, 2017 "The Ethics of Stories in Contested Terrain" with Ben Ehrenreich Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Room (101) West Duke Building on East Campus Duke University Categories Book Discussion On Sept. 4, journalist and novelist Ben Ehrenreich will discuss his most recent book, The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine , which the New York Times calls, “Both heartbreaking and eye-opening.” As a writer who works across genres, he will also discuss he broader Description challenges of expressing truth when few agree on the basic terms of a debate. In his reporting for the book, Ehrenreich traveled to and lived in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Sponsors Kenan Institute for Ethics

Discussion: How Do We Approach the Problem? Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the September 5, 2017 Complexities of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion Today Time 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Location Stone Center Theater UNC Chapel Hill Categories Book Discussion

How do experts from different fields approach important problems facing us today? Author Moustafa Bayoumi and UNC professors from across campus will discuss the complex issues Description raised by Bayoumi’s book, How Does it Feel to be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America . Faculty from the sciences and the humanities will join Bayoumi for a dynamic conversation of these issues and questions raised by the audience. Sponsors UNC Integrated Curricula Program, 2017 Carolina Summer Reading Program

September 6, 2017 New Gaza Short Films: The Student Eye (Discussant: Ahmed Mansour) Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Room 240 John Hope Franklin Center Duke University Categories Film Screening A program introduced by Center for Documentary Studies instructor Nancy Kalow of six recent short films by university students residing in Gaza, using a variety of forms from documentary to experimental. The films are a uniquely vital commentary on today’s closed Gaza; kinetic Description performance footage of parkour, for example, is contrasted with expressive reflections on daily challenges. Films were made by students at Al Aqsa University, Al Azhar University, and Birzeit University. A NYU documentary graduate student from Gaza, Ahmed Mansour, will be the discussant and lead a Q&A. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center, Duke International and Global Studies Center

Presentation: Moustafa Bayoumi, author of How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young September 6, 2017 and Arab in America & Book Signing Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Memorial Hall UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation, Book Signing Join Moustafa Bayoumi, author of the 2017 Carolina Summer Reading selection, How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, for insight into the book and where the characters are today. Hear his stories of what living in America post-September 11th was like Description and often still is for many Arab-Americans today. Information about tickets for this event will be posted in mid-August. Get your copy of How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America autographed by the author after his speaking engagement. Sponsors 2017 Carolina Summer Reading Program

September 6, 2017 Film: Docunight #41: Out of Focus / Promised Land Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location 1304 Campus Dr, Durham, NC, Room 209 Duke University Categories Film Screening Out of Focus profiles the artist Afshin Naghouni. Born and raised in Iran, he suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury during a birthday party in Tehran when he fell from the seventh Description floor of a building while trying to escape from Iranian police. He was able to move to Great Britain seventeen years ago for treatment and has rebuilt his life, getting married and now working as an artist from his wheelchair. Sponsors Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke

September 7, 2017 UNC Study Abroad Fair Time 10:00 am - 3:00 pm Location Great Hall, Student Union UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural Event The Study Abroad Fair has representatives from all over the world, study abroad staff, and past study abroad students are available to answer your questions about studying almost anywhere Description in the world! Come and see how you can join the #Heelsabroad network! Please come prepared with questions. Sponsors UNC Study Abroad Program

Turkey Today | Public Talk: Authoritarian Backlash: An Interregional Comparison of Turkey September 8, 2017 and Venezuela Time 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Location Old Chem Duke University Categories Lecture In this public talk, former US Ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson and Former US Ambassador Description to Venezuela Patrick Duddy will provide a comparative analysis of authoritarian government, civil society, and political crisis. Forum for Scholars and Publics, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and the Department of Political Science. Turkey Today is cosponsored by the Duke Middle East Studies Center, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Sponsors Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Duke History Department; and is supported by funding from the European Union

September 8, 2017 Film Screening: Changing the World, One Wall at a Time Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film Screening

As the largest religious minority in Iran, The Baha’is have been persecuted by the government since the Revolution in 1979; Baha’i students are systematically barred from attaining higher Description education. Join us for a film screening about one of the largest street art campaigns that emerged as part of a larger movement to call attention to these human rights violations and call for a change in the conditions of the Baha’is in Iran. UNC Baha’i Club, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, and Sponsors Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

September 9, 2017 Free Documentary Screening: The Eye of Istanbul Time 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Location 122 E Chatham St, Cary, NC 27511 The Cary Theater Categories Film Screening THE EYE OF ISTANBUL tells the story of Ara Güler, the legendary Armenian-Turkish photographer, through the culmination of his retrospective exhibition in Istanbul. At 87 years old, Ara is a complex and unforgettable character; he is still sharp, irreverent, funny and Description philosophical. Although he is mostly recognized for his black and white photographs of Istanbul, he has enjoyed an international career, which has spanned over sixty years and has generated more than 1 million photographs. Sponsors American-Turkish Association of North Carolina

September 9, 2017 A Night for Palestine Time 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location 5400 S Miami Bvd Ste 138. Durham, NC 27703 Baba Ghannouj Mediterranean Categories Cultural Event Come hear from diverse speakers who have recently visited the West Bank and/or Gaza Strip. A buffet dinner will be served at 6pm. Honored speakers include Matthew Hoh, Atrayus Goode, Description and Serene Alsous, followed by a performance by Palestinian-American artist Sijal Nasralla and the Baladna Dabkeh group. We will be paying tribute to Palestinian culture with music and dance performances. Sponsors Coalition for Peace and Justice

September 9, 2017 Eid Banquet Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Penn Pavilion Duke University Categories Cultural Event Join the Duke Muslim Students’ Association in celebrating Eid-al-Adha with the annual Eid Description Baquet! Come for free food catered from Flame Kabob and local Durham bakers, stay for individual and group performances, dancing and fun! Sponsors Duke Muslim Student Association

September 10, 2017 Persian Art Center in Carolina: Iranian Poetry and Music Time 4:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Cultural Event Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for an evening of poetry and music featuring Hayla Siddiqui. The program will begin with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30- Description 4:45pm. From 4:45-6:00pm, there will be a presentation by Mr. Shahram Mazhari. From 6:45- 7:45pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

September 13, 2017 Lecture: Muslims in South Asia with Ali Mian, Ph.D. Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Room 240 John Hope Franklin Center Duke University Categories Lecture Professor Mian will speak on the emergence, expansion and contemporary condition of Muslims in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Ali Altaf Mian is assistant professor of Islamic studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University. He completed his Ph.D. in religious studies in 2015 from Duke University. His research interests include: Islam in South Asia; Islamic law and ethics; gender and sexuality; feminist theory and practice; Sufism and Description comparative mysticism; continental philosophy; comparative religion; theory and method in the study of religion. Currently, he is working on two manuscripts: Muslims in South Asia (contracted with Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming in 2019) and Surviving Modernity: Ashraf ‘Ali Thanvi (1863-1943) and the Politics of Muslim Orthodoxy in Colonial India. His publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Islamic Studies, Muslim World, and Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center and Duke’s Islamic Studies Center

September 14, 2017 Visiting Lebanese Scholars: Reception and Presentation Time 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location 1911 Building (NCSU), Seminar Room 125 North Carolina State University Categories Presentation The Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies invites you to join us September 14th for a Description reception and presentation of the research of 7 visiting Lebanese scholars. Sponsors Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

September 14, 2017 Turkey Today | Film: Middle East Film Festival: Kedi Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location East Duke, Room 209 Duke University Categories Film Screening Witness the ancient city of Instanbul through, not the eyes of humans, but through the eyes of Description cats and kittens. This film highlights the daily lives of seven stray cats that have roamed the streets freely, enriching the lives of people that they come into contact with. Sponsors Duke University Middle East Studies Center

September 14, 2017 & October 1, 2017 Performance: Closer Than They Appear and Panel Discussions Time 9/14: 8:00 pm & 10/1: 4:00 pm Location Swain Hall, Studio 6 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Performance

Closer Than They Appear tells the colliding stories of Michael, an African American veteran undergoing virtual reality therapy for PTSD, and Zaynab, a teenager from Fallujah blogging during the Iraq war. It explores the haunted human lives—both American and Iraqi—that shadow the digital surfaces through which we wage, view, and recover from war. The play blends scripted live performance with projections developed from the animated landscapes of Virtual Iraq, a virtual-reality program based on video-game graphics and developed as a therapy Description tool for US veterans suffering from PTSD. Featuring Elisabeth Lewis Corley, Trevor Johnson, and Smita Misra. Join the Process Series for two panel discussions, one focused on virtual reality in education at the Morehead Planetarium, September 15th, and one focused on veterans and civilian casualties following the matinee on Sunday, September 24th. There will also be a talk back with the audience and the creative team following the preview on September 15th. See website for more information and to purchase tickets.

Sponsors A collaboration of The Process Series, StreetSigns, and Playwrights Welcome.

September 18, 2017 Hajj: Legacy of Abraham - An Epic Journey through History Time 11:00 am - 3:00 pm Location Islamic Association of Raleigh 808 Atwater Street, Raleigh, NC Categories Presentation The Islamic Association of Raleigh would like to open its doors and invite you as guests as we explore the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, known as Hajj, and the Legacy of Prophet Abraham through an Islamic perspective in an effort to better inform ourselves about the Description shared roots of the Semitic religions. We hope you will our enjoy our presentation about the pilgrimage and how it honors the legacy of Prophet Abraham and his family, booths that showcase Muslim life throughout the world, and delectable treats. Sponsors Islamic Association of Raleigh

September 18, 2017 Panel Discussion: DACA in Crisis Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Panel On Monday, September 18, there will be a panel discussion and information session titled “DACA in Crisis,” which brings together five panelists working on various aspects of DACA and undocumented issues on campus and in the community. The purpose of this panel is to provide information about the current status of DACA, its impending repeal, and related undocumented Description student concerns on campus. Being undocumented comes with its own obstacles and this requires special attention from university faculty, staff, and students. This session will discuss how the UNC-CH community can better understand these issues and support fellow students, colleagues, and coworkers. Sponsors UNC Chapel Hill

September 20, 2017 Reception and Talk: Meet Minister Gebran Bassil Time 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location Triangle Lebanese Center 241 Horizon Dr, Raleigh, NC 27615 Categories Presentation / Speaker Description A reception for Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Mr. Gebran Bassil. Sponsors Triangle Lebanese Center, Embassy of Lebanon, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs

September 22, 2017 Meet the Author: Zeynep Tufekci Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location Chapel Hill Public Library 100 Library Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Categories Presentation, Book talk

The Friends of Chapel Hill Public Library welcome in authors and literary figures on a regular basis to read from their works, speak with members of the audience, and share refreshments. Description Join us for a book talk by author Zeynep Tufecki on Friday, September 22. Her new book, Twitter and Tear Gas; The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, examines political movements and how governments have responded to the rise of digital tools with their own methods. Sponsors Chapel Hill Public Library

September 22, 2017 Urdu Majlis: The life and works of Akhtar Sheerani (1905-1948) Time 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join the Triangle’s Urdu Literary Forum for a conversation on the life and works of Akhtar Description Sheerani (1905-1948). Akhtar Sheerani is considered to be one of the leading romantic poets of Urdu language. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

September 25, 2017 - November 3, 2017 Art Exhibit: Annenberg Space for Photography’s REFUGEE Time Location The Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Gallery/Exhibit According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the number of displaced people has reached over 65 million globally. Through images created by five internationally acclaimed artists, REFUGEE is a multimedia art exhibit exploring the lives of refugees from a host of diverse populations dispersed and displaced throughout the world. The exhibit features photographs taken in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Myanmar, Serbia, Description Slovenia, and the United States. This timely exhibition of 125 portrait photographs, stories, and accompanying film allows audiences to engage with aspects of the plight of refugees not previously encountered, and to reflect on a full range of refugee experiences through singular images that offer visitors insight into the plight of refugees, including their efforts to survive, their needs, their dreams and their hopes for a better future. Sponsors Friday Center

Turkey Today | Lecture: The Formation of Turkish Republicanism with Professor Banu September 25th, 2017 Turnaoğlu, University of Cambridge Time 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Location DeBerry Boardroom 3009, FedEx Global Education Center UNC-Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Description This event is part of the Turkey Today Fall 2017 series. Duke Middle East Studies Center, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Sponsors Muslim Civilizations, the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Duke History Department

September 27, 2017 The Middle East and Islam in Global History: Three New Books Time 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Location Rubenstein Library Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room 153 Duke University Categories Book launch Book launch event with three authors: Cemil Aydin (UNC), The Idea of the Muslim World Description (Harvard UP, 2017), Will Hanley (FSU), Identifying with Nationality (Columbia UP, 2017), Adam Mestyan (Duke), Arab Patriotism (Princeton UP, 2017) Department of History, Duke Islamic Studies Center, and Duke University Middle East Studies Sponsors Center

September 27, 2017 Reclaiming and Retelling our Stories Featuring Mark Gonzales Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location The Landing, Bryan Center Duke University Categories Presentation Join the Center for Muslim life for Reclaiming and Retelling our Stories. In today’s world, it is more important than ever that we are able to vocalize our own narratives. But what does it mean when the narratives/stories that were given to you either no longer fit your reality. Or they are not the ones you choose to accept or pass on. Join us as we explore what it means to recreate your narrative. After the conversation, we will be physically manifesting our new narratives through multiple art mediums like painting, etc. Select art work will be featured in the Description Brown Gallery. Our speaker for the evening will be none other than Mark Gonzales: Mark Gonzales is a storyteller, professor, father, and a futurist of social possibility. He specializes in creative potential, engagement strategies, and the unique role stories play in the human operating system. For over 20 years, he has worked with the private and the public sector to synthesize the best practices and fabulous failures of civilizations into strategic visions for the next stage of human power and potential. Center for Muslim Life, The Center for Multicultural Affairs, UCAE, Mi Gente, DUU Visual Arts Sponsors and The Campus Center

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | The September 28, 2017 Anthropologist and the Settler: Updates From the Field in Israel/Palestine, Joyce Dalsheim Time 11:45 am - 1:45 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation Who are Israeli settlers? What is the Israeli settlement project? Is settlement synonomous with occupation? Having recently returned from fieldwork in Israel/Palestine, anthropologist Joyce Dalsheim will share insights from the field. She will discuss the case of religiously motivated Jewish settlers, the question of what constitutes Israeli Occupation, and Israeli opposition to Description ongoing settlement in post-1967 Israeli occupied territories. Her talk will raise questions about how perceived social, religious, and political divisions among Israeli Jews may disguise fundamental similarities and work toward promoting a political project many claim to oppose. A light lunch will be served. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Sponsors Institute, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

Public Talk: Before Kaepernick: Dissent, Human Rights, and the Black Muslim Athlete – A talk September 28, 2017 with Zareena Grewal Time 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location West Duke 101, East Campus Duke University Categories Presentation Zareena Grewal is a historical anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker at Yale University whose research focuses on race, gender, religion, nationalism, and transnationalism across a wide spectrum of American Muslim communities. Her first book, Islam is a Foreign Country: American Muslims and the Global Crisis of Authority (NYU 2013), is an ethnography of transnational Muslim networks that link US mosques to Islamic movements in the post-colonial Description Middle East through debates about the reform of Islam. Her first film, By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam (Cinema Guild 2004), examines the racialization of Islam and the scrutiny of American Muslims’ patriotism long before September 11 2001. Her forthcoming book, titled Is the Quran a Good Book?, combines ethnographic and cultural studies analyses with historical research to trace the place of the Islamic scripture in the American imagination, particularly in relation to national debates about tolerance. She has received awards for her writing and research grants from the Fulbright, Wenner-Gren and Luce Foundations. Sponsors The Kenan Institute for Ethics and Duke Islamic Studies Center

September 28, 2017 Reception and Talk: Lebanese Artist Joumana Medlej Time 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Crafts Center, 210 Jensen Dr, Raleigh, NC 27606 NC State University Categories Gallery/Exhibit and Presentation As part of its Artist-in- Residence program, the Khayrallah Center is hosting Ms. Joumana Description Medlej. Please join us for the opening of an exhibition of her work and a talk titled Art in Times of Crisis . Sponsors Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies & Arts NC State

September 28, 2017 How Did Humans Come to be on Planet Earth and Where to Next – Dr. Firouz Naderi Time 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Fitzpatrick Schiciano Auditorium Duke University Categories Presentation The Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke proudly presents a public speech by Dr. Firouz Naderi that “traces humans’ cosmic roots to present and discusses where we, or our robotic emissaries, will be headed next and the exponential technology that will disrupt our Description future, for better and worse”. Dr. Naderi was a member of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1979 until 2016 and served as NASA’s Program Manager for Mars exploration between 2000-2012. Sponsors Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke

September 28, 2017 Film Screening: Ahlaam (Dreams, 2006) Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location East Duke – 209 Duke University Categories Film Screening Baghdad 2003, two days before the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Three people are trying to survive amidst the bombed-out ruins and have found temporary refuge in a psychiatric hospital. Through their memories we discover something about their past. The student Ahlaam was just about to get married when she was stunned by the arrest of her fiancé, a soldier. Medhi is an Description idealist, a natural outcome of his role in the medical profession. Ali is a patient at the hospital, a former soldier who desired nothing else but to loyally serve his country. After American bombs destroy his unit, he becomes a traumatized wreck. The feature-length debut by Mohamed Al- Daradji, inspired by real events, through the eyes of ordinary people. Sponsors Duke University

September 29, 2017 Symposium: The Corpse Exhibition : Iraqi Literature after 2003 Time 1:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location East Duke- Pink Parlor Duke University Categories Symposium The American occupation of Iraq produced a boom in dystopian novels and short stories. Trauma from two preceding wars, sanctions, and draconian censorship by the Ba’athist regime Description flood these works. This symposium brings together writers and scholars to discuss the role of cultural production in reflecting upon the symposium in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion. Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Novel Project at Duke, AMES Presents, the Franklin Sponsors Humanities Institute, and the Program in Literature

September 30, 2017 In Memoriam: Remembering the Life of Dr. Ali Paydarfar Time 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Location Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Memorial This event is a memorial for Dr. Ali Paydarfar, a sociologist who was for many years associated with social science research at UNC, and who is also well known for his pioneering demographic Description research in Iran. It will be an opportunity for family and friends to share memories of a much admired personality. Sponsors UNC Persian Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

October 1, 2017 Paper Presentation: “Performing Hostility: the Wagah Border Soundscape” Time 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location Person Hall UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation John Caldwell will be presenting a paper on “Performing Hostility: the Wagah Border Description Soundscape” Friday, Sept. 29 at 5:00 pm on the UNC Campus as part of the Annual Conference of the South Central Graduate Music Consortium (UNC, Duke, and UVA). Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Fine Arts & Humanities in Sponsors UNC College of Arts & Sciences, UNC Music Department, Duke Music Department, UVA Music Department

Networked Revolutions: Understanding Protest Mobilization in Middle East and North African October 2, 2017 Regimes Time 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Location 271 Hamilton Hall UNC-Chapel Hill Categories Lecture/Presentation Lecture: Ashley Anderson, Carolina Postdoctoral Fellow, UNC-Chapel Hill, “Networked Description Revolutions: Understanding Protest Mobilization in Middle East and North African Regimes.” Sponsors Department of Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | Still Life: October 2, 2017 Experiences of a Palestinian Exile, Diana Allan Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Duke University Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall 114 S. Buchanan Blvd. Durham, NC Categories Film Screening

The importance of place and memory in preserving a people’s history are crucial to Diana Allan’s illuminating documentary. Still Life examines the role that a series of personal photos that survived the 1948 displacement play in the life of Said Ismael Otruk, an elderly Palestinian from Description Acre now living in exile in Lebanon. These images play a central role as Said recalls his childhood and the halcyon days of his youth. His memories are not always accurate, so he relies on the photographs he managed to take with him. They are images of young boys, of the port, of fishing boats and the sea. Allan will also be showing clips from a work in progress.

Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Co-sponsored by the Program in Sponsors the Arts and the Moving Image, Duke Screen Society, Humanities Futures, the Human Rights Archive, The Center for Jewish Studies, and the Trent Foundation, AMES Present.

October 4, 2017 Cyber Sufism: Lessons from the Landscape of American Digital Islam with Dr. Rob Rozehal Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Room 240 John Hope Franklin Center Duke University Categories Presentation Within the hybrid, multicultural landscape of American religious life, Cyberspace offers tech- savvy Muslims an alternative platform for narratives and networking, piety and performance. Since the adoption of the printing press, Sufis have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adopt and adapt to emerging media technologies. Even so, the expanding use of the Internet by global Description Sufi communities remains largely unexplored by academic scholarship. What is ‘new’ about new media, and what is the future of digital religion? Drawing on new research, this talk spotlights key patterns, tropes and trajectories in Cyber Sufism by exploring how several contemporary American Sufi orders employ the Internet as a mediascape for the refashioning of authority, identity and ritual practice. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center, and the Duke Islamic Studies Center

October 4, 2017 Photography Exhibition Opening Reception: Garmsir Marines Time 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Location Forest Theater UNC Chapel Hill Categories Exhibit Join Arts Everywhere and Click! Photography Festival for lunch and Q&A with photographer Description Louie Palu. The Garmsir Marines Photography Exhibition is an outdoor exhibition of large format portraits of U.S. Marines taken on the front line in Afghanistan. Sponsors Arts Everywhere and Click! Photography Festival

Lecture: Hanuman’s Tunnel: Space, Geography and the Unseen in the Indian Ocean before October 4, 2017 European Colonialism, Prof. Scott Reese (Northern Arizona University) Time 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Location 4003 FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

Scott Reese (PhD in African and Islamic History, University of Pennsylvania, 1996; MA in African Studies, Ohio University, 1990) is a historian of Islam in Africa and the western Indian Ocean. Reese focuses specifically on comparative history aimed at breaking down many of the regional and geographic categories currently in use across the academy. His main research interests are Description comparative Sufism, modern Muslim discourses of reform, and the construction of world systems both in fact and imagination since 1500. He currently explores the role of Muslim religious discourse in mediating the social consequences of empire. Focusing on the British Settlement of Aden, located in present-day Yemen, this new project explores how Muslims from across Britain’s empire use the commonality of their faith to fashion a new community within the spaces created by imperial rule. Reese has published numerous scholarly articles as well as two book length collections. He is currently the Senior Editor of the journal Islamic Africa.

Carolina Asia Center, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Sponsors Carolina Seminar on Transnational and Modern Global History, Erasmus +/European Union, UNC- CH Center for European Studies, and US Department of Education

Lecture: Subduing the Saints: State Control over Sufi Lodges in Late Ottoman and Modern October 4, 2017 Turkey Time 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Location West Duke 101 – Ahmadieh Family Conference Room Duke University Categories Lecture

A lecture by Prof. Brett Wilson (CEU). Increasing state control over religious institutions has played a pivotal role in modernization projects in Turkey dating back to the early nineteenth century. In 1925, the Turkish state abolished Sufi orders (mystical brotherhoods) and shuttered their lodges in what was, for the 1920s, among the most radical interventions by a state in the everyday practice of Islam. This act marked the culmination of a century religious reforms in the Description late Ottoman Empire and set the stage for the development of underground Islamic networks that formed both pious social movements as well as Islamic politics in modern Turkey. Brett Wilson is Associate Professor of History at Central European University. He received his PhD at Duke University in 2009 and is the author of Translating the Qur’an in an Age of Nationalism: Print Culture and Modern Islam in Turkey (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Sponsors Duke History Department and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

October 4, 2017 Film Screening and Discussion: The Syrian Conflict and its Everyday Heroes Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Carolina Union Auditorium UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation

You read Rasha’s story of emigrating from Syria in How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? and often hear about Syria in the news today. Join the Carolina Summer Reading Program and Student Life Description & Leadership to learn more about the current Syrian war and the civilians who risk their lives to help others. Professor Navid Bapat from Political Science will provide groundwork for a viewing of the Netflix Original Documentary The White Helmets . Sponsors Carolina Summer Reading Program

October 5-7, 2017 Annual Meeting of the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Network Time Location Bingham UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference

The Annual Meeting of the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Network is an interdisciplinary conference involving an international group of scholars dedicated to the study of the Nag Hammadi Codices as well as significant related Coptic and early Christian and late ancient literature. Each year the NHGN meets on a different university campus (Yale 2011; Princeton Description 2012; Laval 2014; Harvard, 2015; Austin, 2016) to connect doctoral students with junior and senior scholars working on this material. The conference is organized around the presentation of pre-circulated working papers and a keynote address. This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. David Brakke from the History Department at The Ohio State University. His address is entitled, “The Gnostic Origins of Christian Biblical Interpretation: From Gospel to Commentary,” and will be given on Friday, October 6th at 4pm in 103 Bingham Hall. UNC College of Arts and Sciences, UNC Department of Classics, UNC Department of Religious Studies, The Center for Late Ancient Studies, UNC Department of History, Duke University: Sponsors Classical Studies Department, Duke University: Department of Religious Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

October 5, 2017 Film Screening: My name is Khan Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location 103 Bingham Hall UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film Screeining Join us for the next film in the Fall South Asia Film Series. “My Name is Khan” tells the story of Description Rizwan Khan (played by Shah Rukh Khan) whose family struggles with Islamophobia and racism in America. In Hindi-Urdu with English subtitles – free admission. Carolina Asia Center, the Carolina Union, and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Sponsors Studies

October 6-7, 2017 Translating Islam: A Conference in Honor of Carl Ernst Time Location Hampton Inn & Suites, Downtown Chapel Hill/Carrboro 370 E. Main Street, Carrboro, NC 27510 Categories Conference Carl Ernst has devoted his academic life to translating Islam, linguistically and culturally. From his first book, Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985), to his most recent book, co-edited with Fabrizio Speziale, Perso-Indica: An Analytical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Description Traditions (2017), he has focused on how Islamic concepts have traveled across time and space. This conference, organized around themes in Islamic studies that Ernst’s work has addressed, evokes and expands on the major contributions of this fertile, creative translator of texts, ideas, and traditions within the orb of Islam.

Department of Religious Studies, Global Education Fund/College of Arts & Sciences, Chancellor’s Sponsors Global Education Fund, Institute of Arts & Humanities, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

October 6, 2017 Concert: An Evening of Persian Music, Rohab Ensemble with vocalist Sepideh Raissadat Time 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location Stone Center Auditorium UNC-Chapel Hill Categories Concert, Performance As part of the event, “Translating Islam: A Conference in Honor of Carl Ernst,” join us for an evening of Persian Classical Music. The Rohab Ensemble brings three acclaimed maestros from the celebrated Dastan Ensemble – Hossein Behroozinia (barbat – lute), Saeed Farajpoori (kamancheh – spike fiddle), and Behnam Samani (tombak – goblet drum), together with Hamid Description Behrouzinia (tar – lute). The Rohab Ensemble is accompanied by the entrancing, lilting voice of Sepideh Raissadat. Together, they offer a repertoire of classical Iranian music, featuring romantic, and joyous pieces with lyrics that include poems from the vast treasury of classical Persian poetry. Iranian Cultural Society of NC (ICSNC), The Arts@TheCore initiative at Carolina Performing Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Persian Studies Program at UNC Chapel Hill, Graduate Sponsors Student Association of Iranians at Duke University (GSAID), and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

October 8, 2017 Tribute to Forough Farrokhzad with Dr. Farzaneh Milani Time 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Location Duke University West Campus, Divinity School, Room 152 Duke University Categories Presentation The celebration will include a speech by Professor Farzaneh Milani of the University of Virginia followed by a Persian classical music by Syavoosh Pourfazli (tar) and Shahram Mazhari (santoor, tonbak and vocal). Farzaneh Milani completed her graduate studies in Comparative Literature in 1979 at the University of California in Los Angeles. Her dissertation, “Forugh Farrokhzad: A Description Feminist Perspective” was a critical study of the poetry of a pioneering Iranian poet. A past president of the Association of Middle Eastern Women Studies in America, Milani was the recipient of All University Teaching Award in 1998 and nominated for Virginia Faculty of the Year in 1999. Persian Art Center in Carolina and the Persian Students Association at Duke in collaboration with Sponsors Iranian Students Association at NCSU

October 9, 2017 Film Screening: Dalya’s Other Country Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location 201 Parks Shops, 101 Current Dr, Raleigh, NC 27607 NC State University Categories Film Screening

The Khayrallah Center invites you to attend the premiere screening in North Carolina of Dalya’s Other Country, and to a conversation with the co-producer Moustafa Zeno. In 2012 Dalya and Description her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions? Sponsors Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

October 11, 2017 Policing Muslim Identity During the Time of Trump – A talk with Khaled Beydoun Time 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location West Duke 101, Ahmadieh Family Conference Room Duke University Categories Presentation The Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, along with the Duke Islamic Studies Center, host its second event Oct. 11 as part of the “American Muslims, Civil and Human Rights” series, which examines the current human rights crisis for Muslims in the U.S. Khaled Description Beydoun, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, will present the talk, “Policing Muslim Identity During the Time of Trump” from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Ahmadieh Family Conference Room (101) in the West Duke Building on East Campus. Sponsors Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics

October 11, 2017 Presentation: Raising Moderate Voices: A Conversation with Obada Shtaya Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Student Union Room 3411 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join OneVoice at UNC as we hear from Obada Shtaya, a Palestinian working for the OneVoice Movement in Washington, D.C. He will provide a brief introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian Description conflict, share his personal experiences as an activist, and discuss what OneVoice is doing to promote grassroots efforts in the region. Sponsors OneVoice at UNC

October 12, 2017 Lunch Discussion with Ambassador Cofer Black Time 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Location Hamilton Hall, room 569 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lunch Ambassador Cofer Black is an internationally recognized authority on counterterrorism, cyber security, national security, and foreign affairs, with private sector experience and expertise in international business development and strategy, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. In a Description government career spanning thirty years and serving at the highest levels of the CIA and the State Department, Ambassador Black conceived and executed highly effective programs of international significance. Ambassador Black received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s highest award for achievement. Sponsors Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense October 12, 2017 Webinar: The Art of Revolution: Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria Time 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location UNC Chapel Hill

Categories Webinar This seminar explores the historical contexts leading to the eruption of the uprisings known as the Arab Spring in early 2011. After a brief introduction to politics in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, we turn to the flowering of music, art, graffiti, poetry, film, and digital media that gave expression to the revolutionary unrest. We focus on the influence of religion, religious parties, and religious movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria—in the post-uprising elections, Description governments, and constitutions. Although the 2011 uprisings initially seemed to be lit by the same spark, they had very different outcomes in these different cases. The Humanities in Class Webinars from the National Humanities Center are live, interactive professional development webinars on compelling topics by leading scholars for humanities educators and advocates of all levels. National Humanities Center, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations, and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

October 12, 2017 Refugees: A Global Crisis: Refugee Protection Today: Conflict and Potential Time 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Niklaus Steiner is the director of the Center for Global Initiatives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a native of Thun, Switzerland, who moved to Chapel Hill with his family when his father became a professor at Carolina. Nicklaus has had the good fortune of moving between cultures his whole life, so he is deeply committed to providing global Description opportunities to all Carolina students. He earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in international studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University. Because of his own movement across borders and cultures, his research and teaching interests are immigration, refugees, nationalism and citizenship. Sponsors Friday Center

October 14, 2017 Cultural Event: “Celebrating Resistance Bonfire” Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location 2505 Simpkins Rd, Raleigh, NC 27603-4433

Categories Cultural event The “Celebrating Resistance Bonfire” by Muslim Women For will feature various performances embracing culture and history, such as hip hop performances, step teams, Palestinian Dapka, spoken word, etc. There will also be prominent members from our community who will speak Description and ground our space, which will be shared with various community organizations and nonprofits. This will also be a kid-friendly event with social justice story time for children of all ages. Sponsors Muslim Women For.

October 17, 2017 Lecture and Book Signing with Dr. Trita Parsi: “Why Diplomacy Succeeded with Iran” Time 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location Nelson Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture The Iran Nuclear deal prevented both a war with Iran and an Iranian nuclear weapons option. The road to this historic achievement was long and arduous. Today, the current administration has threatened to kill the deal, bringing the US and Iran once again to the brink of war. Trita Description Parsi, who advised the Obama administration on the talks, tells the story of how diplomacy succeeded in his new book – as well as what is at stake if the administration kills the deal. This talk will be followed by a book signing featuring Trita Parsi’s new book, “Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy” (Yale University Press, 2017) from 7:40-8:00pm.

Sponsors UNC Persian Studies, Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies.

October 17, 2017 Lecture: Frederick Fleitz, “The Growing National Threat from Iran” Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location The Event Center, 200 S. Elliot Rd., Chapel Hill, NC, 27514

Categories Lecture Fred Fleitz is Senior Vice President of the Center for Security Policy, a non-profit Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan national security think tank, where he focuses on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, nonproliferation, the Middle East, terrorism, and intelligence reform. Description Fleitz served in U.S. national security positions for 25 years with CIA, DIA, the Department of State and the House Intelligence Committee staff. During the administration of President George W. Bush, Fleitz was chief of staff to John Bolton, then Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Sponsors Icon Lecture Series

October 18, 2017 Panel Discussion: The US, Iran & the Nuclear Issue: Sanctions versus Diplomacy Time 4:30 pm - 6:15 pm Location Duke University Perkins Library, 217 Duke University Categories Panel Join Trita Parsi, Omid Safi, and Bruce Jentleson as they discuss the US, Iran & the nuclear issue: Description sanctions versus diplomacy. Free and open to the public. Trita Parsi’s newest book “Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy” will be available for purchase and signing.

UNC Persian Studies, Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Sponsors Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

Lecture: An Italian Jesuit in Canton and the War on the Chinese: ‘Orientalism,’ Conquest, and October 18, 2017 the Eastern Indian Ocean in the 16th Century Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Lilly Library Duke University Categories Lecture Why Did Matteo Ricci of the Society of Jesus lie about the Muslims of China? This talk presents and discusses a passage in one of Matteo Ricci’s earliest reports on China in which he describes the Muslims of the city of Canton. I will analyze the passage against the broader context of the Description Portuguese and Ming China in the late 16th century explaining how Ricci addresses keys issues such the “problem” of Islam and Muslims in the Indian Ocean and their presence in China on the one hand, and plan to attack China on the other.

Sponsors Center for Jewish Studies, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Duke University Middle East Studies Center (DUMESC), and Religious Studies

Lecture: An Arab Jew in Rome: “Zionism” and “Islamophobia” in the 16th century and Now – October 19, 2017 Zvi Ben-Dor Benite (NYU) Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall – C105, Bay 4 (South) – Smith Warehouse Duke University Categories Lecture This talk revisits the story of David Ha-Reuveni, an impostor that showed in early 16th century Rome with grandiose plans to defeat Islam, and the Ottoman Empire for the small fee of a large navy and Palestine for the Jews. Against a line of interpretation that situated David within the Description contours of Jewish history and Jewish mysticism, this talk situates the story within the broader context of a global 16th Century “Theater of Operation” that brings together Europe, the Middle East, and the Western Indian Ocean during the very early age of sail. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Duke Middle Sponsors East Studies Center, Duke Islamic Studies Center

October 19, 2017 Refugees: A Global Crisis: Refugees: Pathways, Experiences, and Resettlement Time 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

Scott’s presentation: Refugees welcomed to the United States come from all over the world, represent a variety of religions, and are invariably hard-working individuals. This session will explore and examine the realities facing refugees resettling in the US, in particular North Carolina; as well as provide updates on current political contexts, such as the travel ban. The session will provide an overview of the refugee issue at the local level with an exploration of the resettlement process, examining both theory as well as practical aspects, through a discussion of local resettlement efforts. The session will also highlight means and methods for community Description engagement. | Josh’s presentation: Research shows that refugees experience disproportionately high rates of chronic health and mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and other stress-related disorders. Refugees also face a multitude of barriers to accessing healthcare services, including lack of culturally appropriate treatment and limited access to interpretation services. This session will focus on the refugee experience in North Carolina, and explore the ethical obligations of healthcare professionals to participate in their care. The session will also provide information and resources on best practices for working with refugees in North Carolina.

Sponsors Friday Center

October 19, 2017 Film Screening: “Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory” Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Richard White Auditorium (Duke East Campus) Duke University Categories Film Screening Mohanad Yaqubi’s “Off Frame AKA Revolution Until Victory” will be shown at 7 pm at the Richard White Auditorium (Duke East Campus). The Q&A will be led by Professor Nadia Yaqub of Description UNC-CH. The trailer is here: http://idiomsfilm.com/movies/off-frame/. This documentary film beautifully edits together rare footage from the Palestine Film Unit’s films made from 1968 to 1982. Sponsors UNC-Duke

October 20-27, 2017 The 32nd Annual International Festival of Raleigh Time Location Raleigh Convention Center, 500 S Salisbury St. Raleigh, NC 27601 Categories Cultural Event

The International Festival of Raleigh provides a comprehensive platform for local ethnic communities and multicultural artists to present international art in downtown Raleigh. Our yearly, three-day event serves over 25,000 attendees annually and is a key component of the Description City’s arts tradition. The Festival’s artists are both professional and amateur, and represent Raleigh’s diverse population. More than 71 ethnic groups participate to present a variety of high- quality arts through dance and musical performances, ethnic cuisines, dance, and global cooking workshops, visual art, calligraphy, textile design, and cultural expression from across the globe.

Sponsors International Festival of Raleigh

October 20-21, 2017 Conference: Against the Use of Drones in Warfare Time Location Trinity United Methodist Church and Duke Divinity School Duke University Categories Conference This conference will feature speakers from different areas of expertise on the problems with and the ramifications of the use of drones in warfare. In other words, this is not a conference to Description debate the use of drones in warfare, but a conference to encourage students, scholars, and citizens to be informed about problems related to the use of drones in warfare.

Sponsors Sponsored by the Board of Church and Society, the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute.

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | International October 20, 2017 Law and Fifty Years of Occupation, Lisa Hajjar Time 11:45 am - 1:45 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation/Discussion The Israeli government’s approach to controlling the West Bank and Gaza and changes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past fifty years involve evolving official reinterpretations of international humanitarian law (IHL) as well as human rights laws. These einterpretations, while intellectually sophisticated, deviate significantly from international consensus about the status of the occupied territories and the rights and duties of an occupying state. The reinterpretive Description project has been undertaken in order to, first, assert that the territories are not “occupied” and then “legalize” state practices toward Palestinians that violate customary legal norms and bedrock rules of IHL, including torture, targeted killing, and the use of massive force against civilians. Israel’s continuing occupation provides a unique testing ground to debate the interpretation, applicability, and enforceability of IHL. This talk addresses the reinterpretative project and its consequences. A light lunch will be served.

Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and the Duke University Sponsors Middle East Studies Center

October 22, 2017 Talk: Pilgrimage to Peace program Time 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Location St. Francis UMC 2965 Kildaire Farm Rd, Cary NC 27518 Categories Presentation/Discussion Join Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace Description (www.cmep.org) and Daoud Nassar from Tent of Nations Farm near Bethlehem as they discuss peace and reconciliation efforts in Israel-Palestine. Sponsors Coalition for Peace with Justice

Public Talk | Amir Soltani: “Religious Freedom and Hypocrisy in Iran: An Activist’s Guide to October 24, 2017 Changing the World” Time 6:00 am - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation/Discussion What is religious persecution? What forms does a modern inquisition take? Who enforces it and how? What is the role of language? What does it mean to be changed as a heretic, to spread corruption on earth, or to wage war against God? How do you resist? These are some of the Description questions Amir Soltani will consider through prism of the struggle for religious freedom in Iran. Amir Soltani is an Iranian-American writer, journalist and human rights activist who has worked in business, media, nonprofits and philanthropy.

UNC Persian Studies, Department of Asian Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle Sponsors East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Center for Global Initiatives, Department of Religious Studies, Institute for the Arts and Humanities

A TISS Dinner-Seminar: “Google, ISIS, and anti-Muslim Sentiment” featuring Christopher Bail, October 25, 2017 Duke University Time 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Seminar Chris Bail is the Douglas and Ellen Lowey Associate Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke. His research examines how non-profit organizations and other political actors shape public discourse by analyzing large groups of texts from newspapers, television, public opinion surveys, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. His research has been published by Princeton University Press, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Sociological Review, and other leading publications. In 2017, he was one of 30 academics recognized worldwide by a prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. His work has Description also been recognized by awards from the American Sociological Association, the Association for Research on Non-Profit Organizations and Voluntary Action, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Society for Study of Social Problems, and supported by the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. His research has also been covered by major media outlets such as NBC News , National Public Radio , and the Washington Post . Dr. Bail is currently studying the community-level predictors of violent extremism using Google search data, and how social networks influence political polarization on Twitter.

Sponsors Triangle Institute for Security Studies

October 26-27, 2017 K-12 World View Symposium: Human Rights and Social Justice Time October 26, 2017 | 8:00 am - October 27, 2017 | 5:00 pm Location Friday Center, UNC Chapel Hill UNC Chapel Hill Categories Education Symposium This global education symposium for K-12 educators will feature short plenary talks and sessions on human rights issues to increase awareness of human rights and social justice issues, and to provide pedagogical strategies and resources for integrating human rights and social justice Description issues into teaching. Omid Safi will give a keynote presentation, “Need for Social Justice and Finding Peace.” Omid Safi is a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern studies at Duke University, where he is the director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center. He is the current chair for Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion, and he blogs at On Being. Sponsors UNC World View

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | Posting While October 26, 2017 Palestinian: Shifting Bounds for Expression in the West Bank and Israel, Amahl Bishara Time 11:45 am - 1:45 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation/Discussion The Internet and social media once seemed to hold the promise of liberation and free expression for all those who accessed it. For Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, the Internet is a critical field of expression and organizing, especially because Palestinians are Description geographically fragmented, largely due to Israeli policies. However, the Internet is by no means free of dangers. This talk looks at what recent campaigns against Palestinian expression online can tell us about publics, politics, and borders today. A light lunch wil be served. Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and the Duke University Sponsors Middle East Studies Center Book Talk by Larry Wolff (NYU): “The Singing Turk – Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on October 26, 2017 the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon” Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Biddle 1, Biddle Music Building Duke University Categories Book discussion This talk takes place in the Music Library Seminar Room, Biddle Music Building, East Campus. Prof. Wolff discusses his new book “The Singing Turk” (Stanford UP, 2016) about the image of the Turks in 18th century operas. Larry Wolff is Professor of History and Director of the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University. He is the author of “Paolina’s Description Innocence: Child Abuse in Casanova’s Venice,” “The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture,” “Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment,” and “Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment” -all published by Stanford University Press.

Sponsors Department of History; Archives of Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean program; and DUCIGS

October 26, 2017 Refugees: A Global Crisis: Film Screening, Salam Neighbor Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film Screening Join us for a film screening of Salam Neighbor, a 2016 award-winning feature documentary that shares stories of the heartbreak and hope of refugee life, as told through the experiences of two American filmmakers. Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple were the first allowed by the United Nations to set up a tent and live among 85,000 Syrians in Jordan’s refugee camp. The session Description will include a discussion led by Dilshad Jaff, MD, MPH, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Jaff (himself a refugee now living here) will share his experience from the field working in refugee and Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDPs) camps, and will provide updates, current challenges and issues related to the refugee crisis. Sponsors Friday Center

October 26, 2017 Film Screening: “Broken: A Work in Progress” Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Richard White Auditorium (Duke East Campus) Duke University Categories Film screening Mohammed Alatar’s documentary about the Wall, “Broken: A Work in Progress,” will be at the Richard White Auditorium, also at 7 pm. The Q&A will be led by Professor Amahl Bishara of Tufts University. When the International Court of Justice elevated the Israeli-Palestine conflict to a Description new level of visibility in 2004, many saw it as turning point in the history both of Palestine and of International Law. But will history turn? BROKEN is a filmmaker’s journey across three continents, attempting to find answers. Presented with the Duke University Middle Eastern Studies Center (DUMESC).Our series is coordinated with See / Think / Act, which examines how visual culture interacts with human Sponsors rights.Co-sponsored by the Program in Arts of the Moving Image, Duke Screen Society, Humanities Futures, the Human Rights Archive, the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Trent Foundation, AMES Present.

October 27, 2017 Banquet Presentation | MSA Live: Ibithaj Muhammad Time 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm Location Great Hall, Frank Porter Graham Student Union UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join the UNC Muslim Students Association for the second annual MSA Live Banquet. With us for the night is the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics and the first female Muslim American athlete to win a medal, Ibtihaj Description Muhammad. Also joining us for the event is award-winning journalist Sean Maroney, who served as the Voice of America’s correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan before returning to Raleigh to serve as a news anchor. Sponsors UNC Muslim Students Association

October 28, 2017 Festival of New Student Films from Palestine Time 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Location Center for Documentary Studies Auditorium Duke University Categories Film screening Join us for a Festival of New Student Films from Palestine, presented by AMES 204FS. This screening of 18 films will be in two blocks, at 11 am and 1 pm. Lunch will be served in between Description the screening blocks. The event is at the Center for Documentary Studies auditorium, 1317 W. Pettigrew St, Durham. Sponsors Sponsored by the Duke Center for Documentary Studies.

October 28, 2017 Cultural Event: Urdu Majlis Time 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Location Room 219, New West, 175 E. Cameron Ave UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event Please join us Saturday, October 28, 2017 for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Urdu Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Iftikhar Description Arif (b. 1943), an Urdu poet, scholar and littérateur from Pakistan. Please plan to arrive promptly at 2:30 PM as a courtesy to the other participants who arrive on time. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

November 1, 2017 - Exhibit: Yasak/Banned: Political Cartoons from Late Ottoman and Republican Turkey March 12, 2018 Time November 1, 2017 | 8:00 am - March 12, 2018 | 5:00 pm Location Mary Duke Biddle Room, Perkins Library Duke University Categories Exhibit

“Yasak/Banned: Political Cartoons from Late Ottoman and Republican Turkey” details the extensive collections held by Duke University Library. The Library’s Turkish satirical journals and cartoons span from the late 19th century to the present. The exhibition highlights three themes: Description Historical change, Political Satire, and Gender. Each of these themes is detailed by the different cartoonists and satirists interpretations of events current to their time. Each epoch or simply decade provides an array of differing opinions, voices, dissent and contestation. Exploring these subtle differences during the over 100 year history, one gets a detailed overview and taste of the changes taking shape and the differing opinions of the effects of modernity. Sponsors Duke University Libraries, Duke University Middle East Studies Center

November 1-2, 2017 Film Screening: HUMAN FLOW: WHEN THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO, NOWHERE IS HOME. Time November 1, 2017 | 4:00 pm - November 2, 2017 | 9:00 pm Location The Carolina Theater of Durham 309 West Morgan Street, Durham NC 27701 Categories Film screening

Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow , an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. Human Flow is a witness to its subjects Description and their desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future. Human Flow comes at a crucial time when tolerance, compassion and trust are needed more than ever. This visceral work of cinema is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses one of the questions that will define this century: Will our global society emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest and choose a path of openness, freedom, and respect for humanity?

Sponsors Carolina Theater of Durham

November 1, 2017 Film Screening: Docunight #43 [Durham]: Boys With Broken Ears Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location 1304 Campus Dr, Durham, NC, Room 209 Duke University Categories Film screening BOYS WITH BROKEN EARS is an intimate look at the hopes and struggles of a handful of young Iranian wrestlers as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives; the world championship in Europe. It’s a social tale set against the qualms of committing one’s life to a dream at a young Description age. With unprecedented access to the national youth team, the film follows five characters from impoverished background as they journey through the most challenging year of the lives, examining their beliefs and aspirations along the way. Sponsors Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke

Turkey Today | Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Annual Conference: November 2-3, 2017 Yasak/Banned: Print Media and Cultural Spaces from Abdülhamit to Erdoğan Time November 2, 2017 | 9:00 am - November 3, 2017 | 5:00 pm Location Holtsi-Anderson Room, Rubenstein Library, Room 153 (West Duke) Duke University Categories Conference The Yasak /Banned Duke-UNC Middle East Studies Consortium Conference examines socio- political transformation and cultural representation in late Ottoman and Republican Turkey with an interdisciplinary focus on print media and cultural spaces. The conference begins Thursday, Nov. 2 at 5:30 PM with a Vernissage of the related Duke libraries exhibit: Yasak/Banned: Political Cartoons from late Ottoman and Republican Turkey (The Mary Duke Biddle Room). At 6:30 PM, Description Professor Edhem Eldem (Boğaziçi University, History) will present a Keynote entitled, Sultan Abdülhamid II: Founding Father of the Turkish State? in the Bostock Library Holsti-Anderson Room. On Friday, Nov. 3 we will host three conference panels in Holsti-Anderson with local and guest experts: Gender and Media (9 AM), Cultural Spaces from Empire to Republic (11 AM) and Censorship and Political Satire (2:30 PM). The conference will conclude with a Roundtable (4:30 PM). Sponsors Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

November 2, 2017 Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies Conference Keynote Speaker: Edhem Eldem Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Holsti-Anderson Room, Rubenstein Library, Room 153 (West Campus) Duke University Categories Conference Edhem Eldem teaches at the Department of History of Boğaziçi University and holds the international chair of Turkish and Ottoman History at the Collège de France. He has taught as visiting professor at Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, at the EHESS, EPHE, ENS, and has been a Description fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. Among his fields of interest are the Levant trade, Ottoman funerary epigraphy, the development of Istanbul, the Imperial Ottoman Bank, the history of archaeology and of photography in the Ottoman Empire, and late-nineteenth-century Ottoman first-person narratives and biographies. Sponsors Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

Refugees: A Global Crisis: In Our Backyard: The Realities of Post-Resettlement Life and November 2, 2017 Community-Based Approaches to Rebuilding Home Time 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Real-life stories – beyond the facts/figures, de-bugging some of the myths. What are the realities of daily life as a refugee? What are the barriers to refugee support efforts, how do we make them sustainable, what are the benefits and challenges of academic/community Description partnerships, and what solutions can we provide within the local community, to integrate refugees and respond to the need? Join us as we engage with refugee community leaders, share their stories, celebrate successes, and learn ways the community can get involved. Sponsors Friday Center

November 2, 2017 Presentation: Beyond Borders: Environmental Cooperation in Israel Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 3024 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join us for a presentation by The Arava Institute, a leading environmental and academic institution in the Middle East that tries to advance cross-border environmental cooperation in the face of political conflict. Their program brings students from Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Description around the world to collaborate on environmental studies. Two speakers (Israeli and Jordanian program alums) will present their stories, speak about their interest in the institute work, and how joint environmental projects can help solving conflicts in the Middle East. UNC Hillel, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Hebrew Sponsors program at UNC, JStreet U, and OneVoice at UNC

November 2, 2017 Rights!Camera!Action! Film Screening: Fire at Sea Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith Warehouse Bay 4 (map) Duke Univeristy Categories Film screening Gianfranco Rosi is an Italian documentarian whose previous work has taken him to the Ganges River, the California desert and inside the Mexican drug trade. Fire at Sea is the fruit of an extended sojourn on Lampedusa, an island that, while part of Italy, is closer to Tunisia than to Description Sicily. Recently, it has become the landing spot for boatloads of refugees and other migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. This is a hard, empathetic look at reality, which contains wonders as well as horrors. Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute with the Duke University Middle Sponsors Eastern Studies Center

November 4, 2017 The Balfour Declaration Forum Time 10:00 am - 1:00 pm Location Fellowship Hall, Binkley Baptist Church 1712 Willow Drive, Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Learn the story of this fateful historical decision made in 1917, the consequences we have Description witnessed, and future implications. Abrahamic Initiative on the Middle East, Coalition for Peace with Justice and Triangle NC, and Sponsors Jewish Voice for Peace

Novermber 5, 2017 Persian Art Center in Carolina: Dr. Erami Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Dr. Erami. The program will begin with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30-4:45pm. From 4:45-6:00pm, there Description will be a presentation by Dr. Erami. From 6:45-7:30pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

Novermber 7, 2017 Public Lecture | David Schanzer, “Counterterrorism in the Age of Trump” Time 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location Flyleaf Books, 752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Categories Lecture Join David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, on November 7th at 4:30 pm at Flyleaf Books for a lecture on Counterterrorism in the Age of Trump. Presidential administrations may change, but many of the national security concerns Description facing the United States and its allies remain. Chief among these is the threat of terrorist attacks from ISIS and their affiliates and other groups intent on disrupting the global order. The lecture will analyze continuities and challenges particular to the Trump administration as it attempts to keep America and the world safe from terrorism. Sponsors Carolina Public Humanities

Novermber 7, 2017 Public Talk: The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack Time 7:00 PM Location Gardner Hall, 105 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join UNC Students for Justice in Palestine in welcoming attorney Rahul Saksena from Palestine Legal, an independent organization dedicated to protecting the rights of those who speak out Description for Palestinian freedom. Mr. Saksena will discuss the legal challenges as they pertain to recent bills proposed and passed by a number of states (including North Carolina) and the federal government forbidding state-contracted companies from boycotting Israel. Sponsors UNC-CH Students for Justice in Palestine

Wednesdays at the Center: “Law, Dynasty, and Islam in Arab Monarchies, 1860s-1930s” (Dr. Novermber 8, 2017 Adam Mestyan) Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Room 240 John Hope Franklin Center Duke University Categories Lecture This talk focuses on the legal codification of dynasties in Arab monarchies between the 1860s and 1930s. In a sweeping survey, it compares how the succession order and the members of the ruling family were defined in laws, decrees, and constitutions in the new national kingdoms of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia with comparisons to older monarchies, equally impacted by European imperialism, such as Morocco and Oman. The argument I would advance is that Description constitutionalism prompted dynastic codification which rulers hastened to achieve before and within the writing of basic laws. This feature also meant that certain re-invented Islamic principles of power, such as the preference for male and sane Muslim rulers, were also codified. Thus the new and old dynasties themselves embodied a fictional core of Muslim constitutionalism in the early twentieth century.

Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center and Duke University’s International and Global Studies Center

Novermber 8, 2017 Public Talk by Professor Céline Regnard: Marseille and Arab Immigration (1890-1910) Time 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Location Room 331, Withers Hall North Carolina State University Categories Lecture Join the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies for a talk by Professor Céline Regnard, Description Aix-Marseille Université on “Marseille and Arab Immigration (1890-1910). Sponsors Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies “50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | Human Rights Novermber 9, 2017 on Camera in the Palestinian West Bank, Helen Yanovsky Time 11:45 am - 1:45 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation In 2007, the Israeli NGO B’Tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) launched its camera project, distributing video cameras and providing camera training to Palestinians living in areas of the West Bank, where tensions run high and Description clashes are commonplace. Israeli filmmaker Helen Yanovosky, a core member of the B’Tselem video project, will discuss the history of the project and the importance of cameras and filmmaking to Palestinians living under occupation. A light lunch will be served. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Sponsors Institute, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

Novermber 9, 2017 Rights!Camera!Action! Film Screening: The Boy from H2 Time 11:45 am - 1:15 pm Location Old Chem 011, Duke West Campus Duke University Categories Film screening The Boy from H2 follows 12-year-old Muhammad Burqan, who lives in Area H2 of Hebron, a section of the city under full Israeli control. Israel imposes severe restrictions on the movement – by pedestrians and by car – of some 43,000 Palestinians living there. In Area H2, soldiers routinely detain children on suspicion of stone-throwing. Muhammad, who has nine siblings, is Description one of those children. His life revolves around his crowded home and the street, where he must deal with the constant presence of Israeli security forces and settlers. Panelist Helen Yanovsky is a film-maker and works for human rights organization B’Tselem. This film was created in collaboration with B’Tselem’s field researchers and Camera Project volunteers in Hebron, and produced by B’Tselem’s video department Presented by the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute. Our series is coordinated with See/Think/Act which examines how visual culture intersects with human Sponsors rights. Co-sponsored by the Program in the Arts and the Moving Image, Duke Screen Society, Humanities Futures, the Human Rights Archive, The Center for Jewish Studies, and the Trent Foundation, AMES Present.

International Conference: TRANSNATIONAL TERRORISM TODAY: How do the Transatlantic November 9-10, 2017 Allies deal with Terrorism? Time November 9, 2017 | 4:30 pm - November 10, 2017 | 7:30 pm Location Global FedEx Center, Room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference This conference considers the manifold challenges involved when dealing with transnational terrorism. It will commence with a keynote address by distinguished terrorism expert Prof. Bruce Hoffman of Georgetown University on Thursday, November 9th, at 4:30 pm (UNC Chapel Description Hill, Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room). The conference takes place on Friday, November 10th from 8:30am to 7:30pm, consisting of 3 panels with 12 talks in total, followed by a concluding panel discussion. Sponsors UNC Center for European Studies November 9, 2017 Cultural Event: “1001 Nights” Time 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location Great Hall, Student Union UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event This annual event will give UNC students the opportunity to immerse themselves within Middle Eastern culture, music, poetry, and food. The event will feature an array of student dance and Description musical performances as well as cultural booths with cultural tokens, light food, and refreshments. The PCS cultural booth will have Persian cultural items and a Persian calligrapher to demonstrate Persian calligraphy to attendees. Persian Cultural Society, the Arab Student Organization, Hillel, the Association of Iranian at Duke Sponsors and the Iranian Association of NC State

November 9, 2017 Film Screening: Letters from Baghdad Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Richard White Auditorium, East Campus Duke University Categories Film screening

Letters from Baghdad is the story of a true original—Gertrude Bell—sometimes called the “female” Lawrence of Arabia. Voiced and executive produced by Academy award winning actor Tilda Swinton, the documentary tells the dramatic story of this British spy, explorer and political powerhouse. Bell traveled widely in Arabia before being recruited by British military intelligence to help draw the borders of Iraq after WWI. Using never-seen-before footage of the region, the Description film chronicles Bell’s extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British male colonial power. With unique access to documents from the Iraq National Library and Archive and Gertrude Bell’s own 1600 letters, the story is told entirely in the words of the players of the day, excerpted verbatim from intimate letters, private diaries and secret communiqués. It is a unique look at both a remarkable woman and the tangled history of Iraq. The film takes us into a past that is eerily current.

Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), Duke Sponsors University Middle East Studies Center, and Focus Program

November 13, 2017 Lecture: Sebastian Gorka on US-Israel relations and Middle Eastern affairs Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Genome, room 100 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Sebastian Gorka, former Deputy Assistant to President Trump, will be speaking at UNC on Description Monday, November 13th. Join us for a riveting conversation on US-Israel relations and Middle Eastern affairs under the Trump administration. Sponsors Christians United for Israel, UNC College Republicans, Turning Point USA & the Carolina Review

November 14, 2017 Industry Night: International Careers Time 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Atrium, Fed Ex Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Career night Connect with professionals that have experience working internationally. Learn about Description international career opportunities. Gain information to help with your career decision-making journey. Sponsors University Career Services

November 14, 2017 Documentary Screening: Open Bethlehem Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Dey Hall, room 307 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film screening Join One Voice at UNC as we screen Open Bethlehem, a documentary by Leila Sansour. In the words of the filmmakers: “Open Bethlehem is a story of a homecoming to the world’s most famous little town. The film spans seven momentous years in the life of Bethlehem, revealing a Description city of astonishing beauty and political strife under occupation. While telling a personal story, the film charts the creation of a campaign to compel international action to bring peace to the Middle East.” Sponsors One Voice at UNC

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | Jerusalem Fifty November 16, 2017 Years On: United or Occupied?, Daniel Seidemann Time 11:45 am - 1:45 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation Fifty years since 1967, and the dissonance between official Israel and much of the rest of the world is stark. With the former celebrating the jubilee of “a united Jerusalem,” other stakeholders are commemorating fifty years of the occupation of East Jerusalem. What is the Description state of play in Jerusalem? Is it undivided, occupied – or perhaps both? What is the current trajectory of the conflict in the city, and how does it interface with the broader geopolitical dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians? A light lunch will be served. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Sponsors Institute, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

November 18, 2017 Urdu Majlis: The Life and Works of Akhlaq Mohammad Khan ‘Shahryar’ (1936-2012) Time 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Location Room 219, New West UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Please join us on Saturday November 18, 2017 for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Akhlaq Description Mohammad Khan ‘Shahryar’ (1936-2012) the famous poet who penned the ghazals in the 1981 film “Umrao Jaan”. Khan was an Indian academician, and a leader of Urdu poetry in India. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

Urban Topography and Political Economy in the Middle East: A Digital Humanities Workshop November 20-21, 2017 Comparing Istanbul and Cairo Time November 20, 2017 | 5:00 pm - November 21, 2017 | 3:00 pm Location Rubenstein 249, Carpenter Conference Room, West Campus Duke University Categories Workshop This innovative workshop brings together leading historians and scholars of the modern Middle East with experts in visualization technology. The main focus is visualizing urban development of Istanbul and Cairo in a comparative angle. The workshop consists of four parts: 1) An Description introductory keynote address 2) a panel on topographical data, 3) a panel on visualization technologies, and 4) a concluding discussion comparing methodologies explored for historical Istanbul and the digital tools for similar projects on Cairo. Please click here for the detailed program.

Archives of Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean program at the History Department, Duke University, in cooperation with InVisu-CNRS (Paris) and IFAO (Cairo), and the Duke Project on the Political Economy of Ottoman Istanbul. Co-sponsored by Archives of Asia, Africa, and the Sponsors Mediterranean, Department of Economics, History Department, Duke University Center for International and Global Studies, Duke Libraries, Political Science Department, Digital Humanities Initiative and PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge, Information Science and Studies, Center for French & Francophone Studies, and Duke University Middle East Center

December 1, 2017 Conference: Documentary and Palestine Time 10:00 am - 2:30 pm Location Center for Documentary Studies 1317 West Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC Categories Film screening Description Join AMES 204FS for a conference at the Center for Documentary Studies! David L. Paletz Course Innovation Fund, the Center for Documentary Studies, the Duke Focus Sponsors Program, Duke Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

Lecture: Sound, Architecture, and Islamic Reform: The Attenuation of Ritual Resonance in the December 1, 2017 Built Environment of Cairene Saint Veneration, Dr. Michael Frishkopf Time 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Location Person Recital Hall, Person Hall

Categories Lecture Dr. Michael Frishkopf’s latest edited volume brings together the perspectives of ethnomusicology, Islamic studies, art history, and architecture to investigate how sound Description production in built environments is central to Muslim religious and cultural expression. Join us for a discussion about this exciting new book as well as Dr. Frishkopf’s own work on participatory music culture. Carolina Asia Center, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, UNC Graduate and Professional Student Sponsors Federation, Department of Religious Studies, Department of History, Department of Music, UNC Persian Studies

December 2, 2017 K-12 Workshop: Turkey: From the Ottoman Empire to Contemporary History and Politics Time 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Location John Hope Franklin Center, room 240 Duke University Categories Workshop The Ottoman Empire was a vast and diverse entity that spanned centuries and across Anatolia, the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Europe. In this day-long workshop, teachers will explore the historical, political, and cultural aspects of the Ottoman Empire as well as its legacies and Turkey today (recommended for secondary educators). Teachers will learn about Ottoman Description history, architecture, art, and cuisine , engage with scholars from Duke Univeristy and UNC Chapel Hill, visit an exhibit of political cartoons from late Ottoman and Republican Turkey, and may earn up to .9 CEUs by participating in the workshop and completing preparatory readings. Duke Islamic Studies Center with support from Qatar Foundation International and the Duke- Sponsors UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

December 2, 2017 Persian Art Center in Carolina: A new look at Shahnameh Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation, Cultural event Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Loghman Zaiim. The program will begin with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30-4:45pm. From 4:45-6:00pm, Description there will be a presentation by Loghman Zaiim. From 6:45-7:30pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

December 2, 2017 Concert: Echoes of the Silk Road Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Duke Energy Hall, Hunt Library NC State University Categories Cultural event, concert

A night of live Turkish and Iranian music presented by the American Turkish Association of North Carolina, the Iranian Cultural Society of NC, the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation, and the NC Description State Turkish Student Association. Our lineup features local and international talent, including ney (Turkish reed flute) player Burcu Karadağ and qanun (Middle Eastern zither) player Serkan Mesut Halili, both joining us from Istanbul. Triangle-based artists Anatoly Larkin (piano) and Alex Gordez (guitar) will join our guests from Istanbul on stage. Tickets available here. American Turkish Association of North Carolina, the Iranian Cultural Society of NC, the Aziz & Sponsors Gwen Sancar Foundation, and the NC State Turkish Student Association

December 4, 2017 Summer FLAS Fellowship Info Session Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location John Hope Franklin Center Rm, 130-132 Duke University Categories Information session The purpose of the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship is to permit students to study one of the less- or least-commonly-taught languages of the Americas or of the Middle East on an intensive basis. Undergraduate students must place at the intermediate level or above of language study. The fellowship provides a stipend of $2,500 to cover living expenses, plus up to $5,000 to cover tuition and fees for one summer session. Graduate, Professional School, and Description Undergraduate students enrolled full-time at Duke in the regular academic years preceding and following this award who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible. Each center will conduct its own competition to award fellowships for the study of the following languages: Brazilian Portuguese, K’iché Maya, Haitian Creole, Modern Hebrew, Modern Standard Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or Yucatec Maya. Sponsors Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship

“50 Years of Occupation, 1967-2017: Israel/Palestine, Histories and Futures” | Enabler or December 5, 2017 Peacemaker? U.S. Policy and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Lara Friedman Time 11:45 am - 1:15 pm Location 011 Old Chem Duke University Categories Presentation Irrespective of intentions, U.S. leadership has done more to enable the entrenchment and expansion of occupation than to end it. Looking to the future, can the United States act as an Description effective leader or steward of a political process that can end the occupation, regardless of the political outlook of the person occupying the Oval Office? And absent U.S. leadership, what options are available to change the status quo on the ground? A light lunch will be served. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Forum for Scholars and Publics, the Franklin Humanities Sponsors Institute, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

December 5, 2017 Public Student Film Showings: Inspired by Iranian Cinema Time 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Location New West 219 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film screening As part of the EE course requirement and grade, Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi’s “ASIA 124: Iranian Post- 1979 Cinema” students made 8-minute films related to the themes of the class with an original Description idea of theirs. Students received guidance from both Dr. Yaghoobi and the course GRC, Che Sokol. The campus and public community are invited on Nov. 30 and Dec. 5, 2017, at 12:30 pm to a public screening and Q&A of the student films. Sponsors UNC Persian Studies

December 6, 2017 Film Screening: Docunight #44 [Durham]: Scorpio & Javad (2 films) Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location 1304 Campus Dr, Durham, NC, Room 209 Duke University Categories Film screening In 1971 three young musicians set out to perform the euphoric rock’n roll and Latin hits of their time on the stages of Tehran. Bahram Amin Salmasi (bass guitar), Baram Saidi (guitar) and Eini Keivanshokooh (drums), along with Eric Arconte (percussions) and Andranik Asatourian (piano) formed the band ‘Scorpio’. Through their covers, they soon became very popular amongst enthusiasts of popular western music. They covered almost every big rock hit and brought them live to their fans in the nightclubs and discos of Tehran. Forty years later, their memories give us a taste of the early days of the rock music movement in Iran. Javad Yassari’s songs are Description emotional roller-coasters of love, loss, and loneliness. His songs have become the voice of a very old but overlooked part of Iranian culture: that of its hard working, hard drinking, tough, rough and devout downtown men and women. He rose to fame in the late 70’s in Lalezar, Tehran’s club strip where he sang in smoky theatres and cabarets. The revolution of 1979 turned the lights out on Lalezar and Javad’s music went to dingy venues in Dubai and small European towns, and the occasional Tehran wedding, though his music lived on through bootleg cassettes and CDs. Sponsors Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke

December 8, 2017 Research presentations by Mideast Center Carnegie Fellows Time 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Please join the Mideast Center for two talks by our visiting Carnegie Fellows, Mariam Alkazemi Description and Shimaa Hatab. The event will take place in the FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003. Lunch will be provided. Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations and the Carnegie Sponsors Fellowships in Support of Arab Region Social Science

December 9, 2017 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis Time 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm Location Room 219, New West UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Please join us for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Makhmoor Saeedi (1938-2010), an Description Urdu poet, writer, translator and journalist from Tonk, Rajasthan, India. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

December 9, 2017 Benefit Event: Sounds of Palestine Time 5:45 pm - 9:00 pm Location Global Breath Studio 119 W. Main St, Suite 300, Durham, NC 27701 Categories Cultural event Please join us for an evening to celebrate and support an amazing organization Sounds of Palestine, a program using music education to improve the lives of disadvantaged Palestinian children, many of whom live in surrounding refugee camps. The event will kick off with a yoga Description class led by 200hr Certified Kunga Yoga Teacher Jackie Cook. Following class, doors will open for guests to enjoy light refreshments, drinks, enter a raffle, and settle in to experience local Palestinian musical performances. Guests are welcome to participate in any or all of the activities. The evening schedule: Sponsors Jewish Voices for Peace of the Triangle and Coalition for Peace and Justice

December 13, 2017 Learning through Languages High School Research Symposium Time Location FedEx Global Education Center Atrium UNC Chapel Hill Categories Symposium

NC world language high school students will have the opportunity to showcase their language, research, and presentation skills in a scholarly environment. Participating students are encouraged to be at Level III or higher, including heritage speakers, in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian or Spanish. They will choose a topic relevant to four research tracks with regional focuses: Contemporary Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, or the Description Middle East and North Africa. Teams will write a research paper and present it at the symposium in their respective language. This program is designed to promote student learning in the areas of research methodology, technology literacy, and critical thinking and to encourage the learning of new academic vocabulary. The symposium will take place Wednesday, December 13.

Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations Carolina Asia Center, Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum, Duke Middle East Studies Center, UNC Center for European Sponsors Studies, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, UNC Department of Asian Studies, UNC Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures, UNC College of Arts and Sciences, UNC Global Relations, UNC Institute for the Study of the Americas, UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Lecture: “Muslim Spaces, Jewish Pasts: Genealogies of the Split Arab/Jew Figure” with Ella January 1, 2018 Shohat, NYU Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location UNC Friday Center for Continuing Education UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Description Community lecture with Ella Shohat of New York university. Sponsors Carolina Center for Jewish Studies

January 13, 2018 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis Time 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Location Room 219, New West UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Please join us for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Mehshar Badayuni (1922- Description 1994), one of the leading Urdu poets of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

January 14, 2018 Persian Art Center in Carolina: A new look at Shahnameh (Part Two) Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Loghman Zaiim on Shahnameh, a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE. The program Description will begin with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30-4:45pm. From 4:45- 6:00pm, there will be a presentation by Loghman Zaiim. From 6:45-7:30pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

January 20, 2018 Community Event: Community Conversations with Foreign-born Residents of Chapel Hill Time 11:00 am - 12:30 pm Location Chapel Hill Public Library 100 Library Dr, Chapel Hill, 27514 Categories This is an opportunity for members of the community to share their experiences and Description recommendations for local government and services with conversations in Arabic, Burmese, English, and Russian Languages. Sponsors Building Integrated Communities and the Chapel Hill Public Library

January 22, 2018 Public Talk: “The Emergence of Terrorism: A New Paradigm” with Dr. Marc Sageman Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Gross Hall 270 Duke University Categories Lecture Dr. Marc Sageman will give a public talk based on his most recent book, “Turning to Political Violence: The Emergence of Terrorism” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017). The book Description discusses various campaigns of political violence spanning two centuries and four continents. Dr. Marc Sageman is currently a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Center for the Study of Terrorism. Sponsors Duke University Center for International and Global Studies

January 24, 2018 Public Talk: “Arabs in America’s Fairs, 1876-1896” with Dr. Linda Jacobs Time 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Location Withers Hall, Room 331 NC State University Categories Lecture The Khayrallah Center invites you to attend a talk and conversation with Dr. Linda Jacobs, titled: “Creating Illusions: Arabs in America’s Fairs, 1876-189.” This talk explores Arab participation in Description world exhibition and fairs (attended by nearly 50 million Americans) and the effects these experiences had on early Arab immigration and immigrants in nineteenth century America. Sponsors Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

January 25, 2018 Book Talk and Signing: Escape from Hell: Based on the True Story of a Syrian Political Prisoner Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Book talk and signing Join co-authors Zubair Rushk and Daniel Romm as they discuss their new book, Escape from Hell: Based on the True Story of a Syrian Political Prisoner. Escape from Hell is a powerful and enlightening historical political thriller that chronicles Rushk’s motivations for leaving Syria, the Description horrors he faced, and his journey to the United States. Co-authors Rushk and Romm will discuss the main arguments presented in the book including: the US administration’s travel ban, torture in political prison, war effects on the health of children, and discrimination. The talk will be followed by a book signing. Carolina Seminars program and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations

Book Talk by Didem Havlioğlu: “Mîhrî Hatun: Performance, Gender-bending and Subversion in January 26, 2018 Ottoman Intellectual History Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Franklin Center Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall Duke University Categories Book talk The early modern Ottoman poet Mihrî Hatun (1460–1515) succeeded in drawing an admiring audience and considerable renown during a time when few women were accepted into the male-dominated intellectual circles. Her poetry collection is among the earliest bodies of Description women’s writing in the Middle East and Islamicate literature, providing an exceptional vantage point on intellectual history. Havlioglu’s astute and nuanced portrait will give audience members a fascinating glimpse into the life of a woman poet in a highly gendered society and suggests that women have been part of intellectual history long before the modern period. Sponsors AMES Presents and Duke University Middle East Studies Center

January 26, 2018 Persian Lecture Series: Treatise of Three Principles of Mulla Sadra Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Room 1005, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Join us for a Persian Lecture Series focusing on the philosopher Mulla Sadra presented by Dr. Description Mohsen Kadivar. Dr. Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. Free and open to the public. Lectures will be in Persian. UNC Persian Studies and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations

January 27, 2018 Talk with Amir Muhammad: “African Muslims in the Carolinas” Time 11:45 am - 12:15 pm Location Dogwood Classroom, SECU Education Center, Level R

Categories Presentation This event will take place as part of the broader “17th Annual African American Cultural Celebration” at the North Carolina Museum of History. Amir Muhammad, owner, Collections and Stories of American Muslims Inc. (CSAM), will give a talk as part of the CELEBRATE Education Description and Heritage program, 11:45am-4:00pm. Mr. Muhammad, author of eight books, has had several exhibitions hosted at various venues throughout the United States and abroad. He and his wife, Dr. Habeebah Muhammad, have dedicated themselves to documenting untold stories of Muslim life in America. Sponsors North Carolina Museum of History January 28, 2018 Talk with Amir Muhammad: “Muslims’ Contributions in the Making of America” Time 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Location The Vital Link Event Center 1214 E. Lenoir, Raleigh, NC 27610 Categories Presentation Please join author, historian, and co-founder of America’s Islamic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center as he discusses “Muslims’ contributions in the making of America”. Mr. Muhammad, Description author of eight books, has had several exhibitions hosted at various venues throughout the United States and abroad. He and his wife, Dr. Habeebah Muhammad, have dedicated themselves to documenting untold stories of Muslim life in America. Sponsors As Salaam Islamic Center and Cultural Enrichment Services

Book talk by Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi: “Intertwined Histories and Perspectives: Contrapuntal January 29, 2018 Reading of ʿAṭṭār” Time 6:00 am - 7:30 pm Location Room 1009, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Book talk Can modern concepts such as transgression, inclusion/exclusion, self/the other help us to better understand medieval subjectivity? Can medieval works shed light on our understanding of modern subjectivity? By looking at ʿAṭṭār’s poetry contrapuntally with medieval European literature and modern theory, this talk will map out the ways ʿAṭṭār’s poetry interacts with itself within the Persian cultural and historical framework as well as with medieval European culture Description and modern Western theoretical perspectives in regard to the concepts of transgression and the breaking of taboos, and the construction of subjectivity. Traversing linguistic, national, and disciplinary boundaries, this talks calls into question the presumed differences between Medieval Islam and the West and makes possible a rich dialogue between civilizations that have historically been pitted against one another. Carolina Seminars program, UNC Persian Studies, and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Sponsors Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

Public Talk: “Muslims Beyond the Arab World: Language, Arts and Music in Senegal” by Dr. January 30, 2018 Fallou Ngom Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location 011 Old Chem, West Campus Duke University Categories Lecture Join us for a conversation with Dr. Fallou Ngom, Director of the African Studies Center at Boston College, about Islam in contemporary Senegal. We will explore the ways in which Islam is lived in Description the country and its connections to language, the arts, and social life. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Mbaye Lo, Interim Director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center. A light lunch will be served. Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center and the Forum for Scholars and Publics

January 30, 2018 Talk with Julia Ebner, Author of “The Rage” Time 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Location Hamilton Hall, room 569 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture The Rage: The Vicious Circle of Islamist and Far Right Extremism explores the interaction between the “new” far right and Islamist extremists and considers the consequences for the global terror threat. Based on first-hand interviews, this book introduces readers to the world of Description reciprocal radicalization and the hotbeds of extremism that have developed – with potentially disastrous consequences – in the UK, Europe and the U.S. The author will be available to sign copies of the book after her talk (books available for purchase at event.) Sponsors Department of Communication and the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense

Jennifer Bryson & Ismail Royer, “Insights into Extremism: Experiences of a former January 30, 2018 Guantanamo Bay interrogator & a convicted jihadist” Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Sanford School, Room 04 Duke University Categories Lecture Fourteen years ago, he was a convicted jihadist. Ismail Royer was part of the “Virginia Jihad Network” and was indicted on terrorism-related charges in January 2004 with other members of Description the group. Now he’s fighting radical Islam steps from the White House. Join Jennifer Bryson, director of operations at the Center for Islam and Religious Freedom, and Ismail Royer as they share their insights into current extremism issues. Sponsors Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy

January 30, 2018 Religious Studies Department McLester Colloquium: Dr Shahla Talebi Time 3:30-5:30pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Dr. Shahla Talebi, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Arizona State University Description Title: Traversing Religiopolitical Metaphors in Contemporary Iran UNC Department of Religious Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Sponsors Muslim Civilizations

February 1-2, 2018 Workshop: inTransit, Arts & Migration around Europe Time February 1, 2018 | 5:00 pm - February 2, 2018 | 4:00 pm Location The Nasher Museum of Art Duke University Categories Workshop

How does the history of migration around Europe change when we consider early modern Muslims? When we consider other dispossessed peoples across French and Flemish territories in premodern times? Migrants from the South to the North, and from the Mediterranean across the British Channel or immigrants from west and north Africa? What are the artistic expressions and engagements accounting for their uprooting experiences? How are we to interpret them Description when we listen to the past to understand the present, while looking into the present to imagine the past? The inTransit workshop starts to address these questions by bringing together cultural and art historians, artists, and a curator to explore the cases of expulsions and forced movement of peoples in early modern Spain and France, today’s Maghreb, Middle East, and West Africa. The inTransit research group (Romance Studies, Art, Art History and Visual Studies, and the Nasher Museum) welcomes all those interested in the question of migration. Center for French and Francophone Studies at Duke University, Department of Romance Studies at Duke University, Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University, Duke University Center Sponsors for International & Global Studies (DUCIGS) – Observatory on Europe, inTransit at Duke University, Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University- Social Practice Lab, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

Public Talk: “The “Military-Civilian Divide:” On War, Citizenship, and Obligation” by Nadia Abu February 5, 2018 El-Haj Time 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Location Friedl Building, Room 225 Duke University Categories Lecture Nadia Abu El-Haj is Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University and Co- Director of the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia. Her publications include Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, and The Description Genealogical Science. The Search for Jewish Origins and the Politics of Epistemology. Her current work focuses on the field of psychiatry, exploring the complex ethical and political implications of shifting psychiatric and public understandings of the trauma of soldiers. Sponsors Duke Program in Literature

Duke History Department Colloquium: “The City and the Wilderness: Indo-Persian Travel February 5, 2018 Writing and the Edge of the Mughal World” by Arash Khazeni, Pomona College Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location 229 Carr Duke University Categories Presentation

This paper explores the travels of Mir ’Abd al-Latif Khan, an itinerant scholar and merchant from Iran, across the Indian Ocean from Basra in the Persian Gulf to Calcutta in the Bay of Bengal in 1788 during the waning of the Mughal Empire and the onset of East India Company rule in India. In his book of travels Tuhfat al-’Alam (Rarity of the World), written in Hyderabad in 1802, ’Abd al- Description Latif draws upon longstanding Mughal views of the wondrous nature of Southeast Asia, tinged by colonial notions of the sublime, to cast the Burmese Empire and its forest landscapes as the edges of the Mughal world. Through the narrative of a journey to the realm of a universal sovereign and ideal Persianate king, a padishah and a rajah, reigning over the city and the wilderness, ’Abd al-Latif surveyed the Burmese Empire as a vast forest kingdom, a land of dense jungles of teak, herds of wild elephants, and rich mines of precious stones, a mythical littoral region of exotics and strange customs, a distant half-known world on the frontiers of Islam. Sponsors Duke History Department Colloquium

Public Talk: “Realistic & Principled: An Argument for American Support of Democracy and February 7, 2018 Human Rights in the Middle East,” a conversation with Elliott Abrams Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Sanford 04 Duke University Categories Lecture Join the American Grand Strategy for “Realistic & Principled: An Argument for American Support of Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East,” a conversation with Elliott Abrams. Description Abrams is CFR Senior Fellow, Former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor. Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, Duke Department of Political Science, Duke Sanford Sponsors School of Public Policy

Book Talk and Signing: Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World February 8, 2018 and the Global North Time 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Location Perkins Library 217 Duke University, West Campus Categories Book talk, book signing Drawing on more than half a century of experience as a historian, policy planner, diplomat, peace negotiator, and businessman, Dr. Polk’s new book, Crusade and Jihad, explains centuries Description of hostilities between the Muslim world and Global North and the impact on current conflicts. Book signing to follow. Sponsors Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies (CSEEES)

15th Annual Duke-UNC Graduate Middle East and Islamic Studies Conference: “Map, Territory, February 9-10, 2018 Boundary” Time Location Sanford Rubenstein Hall, room 200 Duke University Categories Conference Geography and territoriality are not only the subjects of ongoing contestation, but also compelling paradigms to engage with broader interrelated questions pertaining to the modern Description makeup of the Middle East. This conference seeks to spark a discussion on the myriad of ways the themes of map, territory, and boundary open up new possibilities of insight in the contexts of the Middle East, Muslim communities, and their connected geographies.

Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke Islamic Studies Center, Duke Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC Religious Studies, Duke Religion Department, UNC History, Duke Political Sponsors Science Department, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, Duke Center for Jewish Studies, UNC History, Duke Literature Program, UNC Geography, Duke Cultural Anthropology Department + International Comparative Studies, UNC Carolina Asia Center, Duke University Middle East Studies Center

February 9, 2018 Persian Lecture Series Part II: Treatise of Three Principles of Mulla Sadra Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Room 1005, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Join us for Part II of a Persian Lecture Series focusing on the philosopher Mulla Sadra presented Description by Dr. Mohsen Kadivar. Dr. Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. Free and open to the public. Lectures will be in Persian. NC Persian Studies and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations February 9, 2018 Performance: Shattered Glass – Three Years Later Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Sheafer Lab Theater Duke University Categories Performance, poetry

Shattered Glass is a 45-minute multimedia spoken word performance about the tragic shootings in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that fuses together poetry, images, and videos. On February 10th, 2015, Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were murdered in their home. In the aftermath, people around the world are left with many questions. Who were Deah, Yusor, and Razan? What does it mean to lose your child, your sibling, or your friend? What do we do in the wake of disaster? And after our nightmares come alive, how do we Description remember how to dream? In this piece, the audience goes through a journey of loss, emptiness, comfort, and growth as they try to find answers. Shattered Glass is written and performed by Mohammad Moussa, a friend of Deah Barakat. He is a spoken word poet whose work has been featured on National Public Radio, American Public Media, and SwitchPoint. He has also spoken and performed at various universities and institutions, including TEDxUNC, The Process Series, and The Visualizing Human Rights Conference.

The Light House Project, Duke Office of Civic Engagement, Duke Islamic Studies Center, and the Sponsors Duke Middle East Studies Center

February 10, 2018 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis Time 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm Location Room 219, New West, 175 E. Cameron Ave UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Please join us on Saturday, February 10, for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Iqbal Description Azeem (1913-2000), Urdu poet and scholar of Urdu language. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

February 11, 2018 Persian Art Center in Carolina: A new look at Shahnameh (Part Three) Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation, cultural event

Description Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a third presentation by Loghman Zaiim on Shahnameh, a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

Furst Forum: “Modifying Language, Modifying Space: Multilingualism in Arab-American February 12, 2018 Literature and Film” Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location Dey Hall 305 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join Rachel Norman for the annual Furst Forum in Comparative Literature. A PhD candidate in Description Comparative Literature, Rachel Norman researches multilingualism in Latina/o literature and Arab North American literature in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Sponsors UNC Department of English and Comparative Literature

Lecture: “Bridges, Not Walls: The Life and Legacy of Forugh Farrokhzad” with Dr. Farzaneh February 12, 2018 Milani (University of Virginia) Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?” Muriel Rukeyser asked. Her response was short: “The world would split open.” And Adrienne Rich, who believed “Lying is done with words, and also with silences,” argued, “When a woman tells the truth, she is creating the possibility of more truth around her.” The Iranian poet, Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967) made a rope out of words and pulled herself up from segregated spaces and the burrows in Description which women’s voices were held prisoner. She told the truth about her life, trespassed sacrosanct boundaries, rejected ancestral silences, and split open the world of Iranian art and culture. Bridges, Not Walls: The Life and Legacy of Forugh Farrokhzad, which draws from Milani’s recently published literary biography of Farrokhzad (in Persian), is a story relevant to our times—a personal narrative and a history of twentieth-century Iran.

UNC Persian Studies, Department of Asian Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle Sponsors East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

February 14, 2018 Wednesdays at the Center: Duke Undergraduate Working Group on MENA Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location John Hope Franklin Center, Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Rm 240 Duke University Categories Presentation More than 35 Duke undergraduate students spent their 2017 summer vacation studying or volunteering in the Middle East and North African (MENA). Josh Curtis (Duke junior) and Bryan Rusch (Duke sophomore) will lead a roundtable discussion with six students who participated in DukeEngage in Lebanon, and Duke in the Arab World (Morocco) in the summer of 2017. Description Moderated discussion will include topics such as: classroom study vs. real-life experience, the people of MENA, cultural encounters, food, and lessons upon returning home. These rich and diverse experiences make Duke a unique hub of learning and engagement in the affairs of the MENA region. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

February 16-17, 2018 Middle East and African Cultures Teacher Fellows Program Orientation Time Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Program This intensive year-long professional development opportunity will explore Middle Eastern and African heritage through structured site-visits across the state, from visiting a refugee resettlement agency in Greensboro, to dining at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Charlotte, to Description attending a performance in Durham by Alsarah & The Nubatones, this program aims to enhance expertise in Middle Eastern and African cultures and communities, explore the growing diversity of North Carolina, and develop culturally competent pedagogy. Sponsors Carolna Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

February 16, 2018 Discussion: The Grey Wolf & Bear – Turkish-Russian Relations Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location 011 Old Chem, West Campus Duke University Categories Presentation The Grey Wolf & Bear: Turkish-Russian Relations will be held at the Forum for Scholars and Publics. Speakers will include: former ambassadors Jack Matlock (Russian perspective), Robert Description Pearson (Turkish perspective) as well as Dimitar Bechev (visiting scholar) who will be giving the IR perspective. Co-sponsored by the Duke University Middle Eastern Studies Center (DUMESC), the Center for Sponsors Slavic, Eurasion, and East European Studies, the Center for International & Global Studies, the Department of Political Science, and the Forum for Scholars and Publics.

February 16, 2018 Visualizing Suffering: Tracking Photojournalism and the Syrian Refugee Crisis Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Smith Warehouse Garage Duke University Categories Presentation On 2/16, Professor Astrid Giugni’s and graduate student Jessica Hines’s Data+ students from Duke University will be presenting a project tracking photojournalism of the Syrian refugee crisis, followed by a discussion on undergraduate research in digital humanities.Robbie Ha Description (Computer Science, Statistics), Peilin Lai (Computer Science, Mathematics), and Alejandro Ortega (Mathematics) spent ten weeks analyzing the content and dissemination of images of the Syrian refugee crisis, as part of a general data-driven investigation of Western photojournalism and how it has contributed to our understanding of this crisis. Sponsors Professor Astrid Giugni and Jessica Hines

Lecture: Malachi Hacohen (Duke University), “Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael : The Future February 19, 2018 of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim Relations” Time 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Location Dey Hall UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture The Holocaust and the State of Israel transformed the traditional paradigms of Jews’ Relations with non-Jews. Jacob & Esau, typologically Jews and Christians and traditionally enemies, have Description reconciled. Isaac & Yishmael, typologically Jews and Muslims and traditionally less hostile, have grown apart. This talk provides a panoramic overview of the changing dynamics of inclusion and inter-faith relations, viewed from a Jewish perspective. Sponsors Carolina Center for Jewish Studies February 20, 2018 Global Open House + Global Career Night Time 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Atrium UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join students, staff and faculty from the Global Education Center and affiliated programs to discover where global experiences and intercultural competence can lead. The reception will Description feature an art opening and showcase the global opportunities available to students, followed by a panel at 6:00pm in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium. Carolina Asia Center, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Sponsors African Studies Center, Center for European Studies, Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, and Institute for the Study of the Americas

February 20, 2018 Public Talk: “Visual Qur’an: A Conversation with Sandow Birk” Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Perkins Library Room 217 Duke University Categories Presentation At a time when the United States was involved in two wars against Islamic nations and declared itself to be in a cultural and philosophical struggle against Islamic extremists, American artist Sandow Birk’s latest project considers the Qur’an as it was intended – as a universal message to humankind. If the Qur’an is indeed a divine message to all peoples, he ponders, what does it Description mean to an individual American in the 21st Century? How does the message of the Qur’an relate to us, as Americans, in this life, in this time? What is this message that we have spent so much blood and treasure fighting against, and how can the message of the Qur’an be applied to a contemporary American life? In short, what might the Qur’an mean to contemporary Americans? Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center, and Duke University Middle East Studies Center

February 21, 2018 Wednesdays at the Center: American Qur’an with Sandow Birk Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location John Hope Franklin Center, Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Rm 240 Duke University Categories Presentation This presentation will outline Birk’s project of hand-transcribing the entire Qur’an according to historic Islamic traditions and illuminating the text with relevant scenes from American life. Nine Description years in the making, the project was inspired by a decade of extended travel in Islamic regions of the world. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center, and the Duke Islamic Studies Center

February 21, 2018 Film Screening and Panel: The Other Side of Hope Time 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Auditorium UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film screening Released in 2017, The Other Side of Hope depicts the fictional story of a traveling salesman’s friendship with a recently arrived Syrian asylum seeker. The panel will include Professor Banu Gökarıksel (Geography), Professor Priscilla Layne (Germanic and Slavic Languages and Description Literatures), and Dr. Niklaus Steiner (Director, Center for Global Initiatives). Professor John Stephens (Political Science and Director, Center for European Studies) will moderate the conversation. Carolina Asia Center, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Sponsors African Studies Center, Center for European Studies, Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, and Institute for the Study of the Americas

Public Talk: “Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Shattering Myths about Islam in South East Asia” by February 22, 2018 Dr. Khairudin Aljunied (Georgetown University) Time 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Location Perkins Library Room 217 Duke University Categories Lecture This talk seeks to deconstruct present-day images and stereotypes embedded in the works of “media pundits” and “terrorist experts” that Muslims in Southeast Asia are prone to conflict and violence. Based on my recent book Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Description Comparative Perspective (2017), I will show that cosmopolitan ideals and pluralist tendencies have been employed creatively and adapted carefully by Muslim and non-Muslim individuals, societies and institutions in Southeast Asia to produce the necessary contexts for mutual tolerance and shared respect between and within different groups in society. Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center

February 22, 2018 Documentary Screening: Budrus Time 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Location Union Room 3411 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Film screening Join OneVoice UNC, Feminist Students United (FSU), and Carolina Advocates for Gender Equity (CAGE) as we screen Budrus , an award-winning feature documentary film about Palestinian Description community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites Palestinian political factions and invites Israeli supporters to join them in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction by the separation barrier. OneVoice UNC, Feminist Students United (FSU), and Carolina Advocates for Gender Equity Sponsors (CAGE)

February 22, 2018 Cultural Event: Arabic Calligraphy Workshop Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location New West 219 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event The UNC Arabic Program is pleased to announce an amazing Workshop about Arabic Calligraphy, with usthath Lahcen Omar. Students will learn about the different calligraphy styles and have an Description opportunity to practice. The workshop is open to students from all Arabic sections as well as others who are interested in this subject. Sponsors UNC Arabic Program

February 23, 2018 Public Talk: “Situating Cosmopolitanism” with Amy Mills, University of South Carolina Time 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Location East Duke, 204D Duke University Categories Lecture Since the turn of the millennium, rapid globalization has generated debates about whether a universal “cosmopolitan ethic” is possible, compelling us to examine the extent to which globalized relations are conditioned by locality. Yet, cosmopolitanist debates originate in the Global North, and the concept of cosmopolitanism itself does not travel across contexts without Description friction. This talk situates local understandings of “cosmopolitanism” in Istanbul, a city whose geographic location, and Byzantine and Ottoman imperial histories, ground common imaginations of the city as a multicultural bridge between the East and West. It demonstrates how the act of situating cosmopolitanism demands we shift the framing of cosmopolitanist theory.

Sponsors Duke International Comparative Studies and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

February 24, 2018 Hip-hop and Peacebuilding in the Middle East: A Workshop for Educators Time Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Workshop

K-12 teachers are invited to join the Duke UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and Carolina K-12 on February 24 at UNC Chapel Hill to explore poetry, hip-hop, and peacebuilding in the Middle East. During this creative one-day workshop, teachers will deepen understanding of a complex and diverse region by exploring history, geography, religion, and more. Teachers will participate in an interactive performance/lecture with world-renowned hip-hop artist Omar Offendum to learn about major sociopolitical shifts in Syria and uprisings in the Middle East. Description Teachers will then explore how music and the arts can be an avenue to engage students in cross- cultural learning with Pierce Freelon, Durham-based professor, musician and social entrepreneur. Teachers will also learn about resources offered by Carolina K-12 and the Duke- UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies related to these themes and more. The workshop will end with teachers attending a performance by Omar Offendum at UNC Chapel Hill. His poetry and music build on American hip-hop and compel diverse audiences to consider issues of identity, belonging, and diaspora. Sponsors Duke UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and Carolina K-12

February 24, 2018 Global Spotlight Week: Omar Offendum in Concert Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History UNC Chapel Hill Categories Concert Omar Offendum is a Los Angeles-based Syrian-American hip-hop artist, activist and architect. His music and poetry, which he performs in both Arabic and English, are infused with historical, geographical and religious references and intermixed with personal accounts of faith, politics, and growing up in Washington, D.C. Omar Offendum’s focus on Syria and uprisings in the Middle Description East expose American audiences to a little-understood region. His poetry and music build on American Hip-Hop and compel diverse audiences to consider issues of identity, belonging, and diaspora. Offendum will perform a concert at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History theater on February 24, 2018 with special guests Pierce Freelon, Naji Hilal (oud) & Mahmoud Alqhumri (tabla) and UNC Cypher.

Arts Everywhere, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Carolina Summer Reading Program, College of Arts & Sciences, Curriculum in Religious Studies, Sponsors Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, First Year Seminars Program, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, UNC Center for Global Initiatives, with support from the Chancellor’s Global Education Fund.

February 26, 2018 International Legal Conference: Emergency Legal Cultures and Imperial Legacies Time 10:30 am - 3:00 pm Location Kenan Institute for Ethics Duke University Categories Conference In recent years, “The State of Emergency” as a philosophical, critical and meta-legal concept, has received much attention, particularly through the work of Giorgio Agamben and a revived interest in the German jurist Carl Schmitt. In turn, legal scholars have turned their attention to emergency legislation as a concrete legal practice, particularly in Imperial and post-Imperial contexts. They have often neglected, however, to interrogate the impact of emergency legislation over cultural production. At the same time, cultural critics examining the notion of Description emergency have paid too little attention to the particular legal structures that interpreted and embodied the state of emergency. This conference brings together legal and literary scholars to discuss the practice of emergency legislation, its particular form, and ways to think of cultural production in this context. The five speakers will address the linkages between emergency legislation in the British Empire and its offshoot nation states, focusing on Israel/Palestine and India/Pakistan. Duke Center for Jewish Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University Middle East Studies Sponsors Center (DUMESC), Duke India Initiative, The Global South After 2010: Epistemologies of Militarization

February 26, 2018 Public Talk: “Following the Prophet’s footsteps: The creation of a holy land” by Dr. Harry Munt Time 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm Location Breedlove Conference Room – Rubenstein Library Room 349 Duke University Categories Lecture The Hijaz in modern Saudi Arabia is today widely recognized as the home of the two holiest cities in the Islamic world, Mecca and Medina, which are a destination for pilgrims from across the globe. This paper will discuss the emergence of this region as the Islamic world’s holy land, Description with particular discussion of the case of Medina during the early Islamic centuries. It will show that Medina’s emergence as a holy city alongside Mecca and the development of many of the doctrines associated with its sanctity were the result of gradual and contested processes which were closely linked to questions of political and religious authority in the early Islamic world. Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center

Lecture: “Achaemenids, Royal Power and Persian Ethnicity” with Dr. Jennifer Gates-Foster February 26, 2018 (UNC-Chapel Hill) Time 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture This lecture explores the way that the Achaemenid concept of cosmic, kingly rule engaged with the ethnic and cultural identity of the diverse peoples subject to their imperial control. These ideas worked at both the metaphorical and practical level, as the imperial administration was Description faced with the task of governing an almost infinitely varied landscape in its far-reaching satrapies. Using examples from Persepolis and the Achaemenid heartland, as well as from the provinces, this lecture considers the diversity of peoples subject to the Great King, while analyzing the response of local elites to these ideas of universal rule. UNC Persian Studies and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations

February 27, 2018 Discussion with Alsarah: The New Princess of Nubian Pop and Sudanese Retro Time 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location Rhodes Conference Room, Sanford 223 Duke University Categories Lecture Please join us for a lecture by Alsarah, Artist-in-Residence at Duke University, as she discusses her approach to crafting lyrics and relationship to the Arabic language, as well as more general musical and cultural issues, followed by a Q & A session. Alsarah is a singer, songwriter, bandleader and a somewhat reluctant ethnomusicologist. Born in Khartoum, Sudan, she Description relocated to Yemen with her family before abruptly moving to the USA, finally feeling most at home in Brooklyn, NY where she has been residing since 2004. She is a self-proclaimed practitioner of East-African Retro-Pop music. Working on various projects, she has toured both nationally and internationally. Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Duke Asian and Sponsors Middle Eastern Studies, and the Duke Africa Initiative

February 28, 2018 Public Conversation: Alsarah & Saba Taj at Beyù Caffè Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Beyu Caffe 341 W Main St, Durham, North Carolina 27701 Categories Lecture In this evening talk at Beyù Caffè in downtown Durham, Sudanese-born singer Alsarah discusses her artistic process and journey, which began as a double refugee — first from conflict in Sudan, Description then from civil war in neighboring Yemen. Moderated by Durham-based artist and activist Saba Taj. Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Duke University Middle East Studies Center, the Duke Africa Sponsors Initiative, the Forum for Scholars and Publics at Duke University, and Be Connected, hosted by Beyù Caffè

March 1, 2018 Panel Discussion: Global Political Perspectives: Crash Course on Egyptian Politics Time 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Location Sanford 223, Rhodes Conference Room Duke University Categories Panel / Presentation

You may know about U.S. politics, what about the rest of the world? Have a slice of pizza and Description launch into international political discussion with “Global Political Perspectives: A Crash Course on Egyptian Politics and Their Upcoming Election,” a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Giovanni Zanalda, Director of Duke’s Center for International & Global Studies. Center for International and Global Studies, the Duke Middle East Studies Center, and the Duke Sponsors University International House (iHouse)

Public Talk: “Right to Representation: Consent, Distrust and Leadership in our Current Political March 1, 2018 Climate” with Dr. Alaa Murabit Time 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Location Perkins Library Room 217 Duke University Categories Lecture The Duke Islamic Studies Center, along with the Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, will host its keynote event on March 1st, as part of the “American Muslims, Description Civil and Human Rights” series, which examines the current human rights crisis for Muslims in the U.S. Duke Islamic Studies Center, along with the Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Sponsors Ethics

March 1, 2018 Concert: Alsarah and the Nubatones Time 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Location Motorco Music Hall Durham Categories Concert Alsarah’s circuitous journey toward stardom began as a double refugee — first from conflict in her native Sudan, then from civil war in neighboring Yemen. After arriving in New York in the mid-1990s, Alsarah turned to music as a living link to her homeland, both as an ethnomusicologist and as a singer with a velvety voice and socially conscious lyrics. Alongside Description percussionist Rami El-Aasser, bassist Mawuena Kodjovi, oud player Brandon Terzic, and background vocalist Nahid, Alsarah has given the traditional music of Sudan a contemporary pulse and finish. She is a new breed of pop star, countering the turmoil of troubled times with her effervescent music. Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Duke University Middle East Studies Center & the Duke Africa Sponsors Initiative

Public Talk: “On Orientalist Genealogies: The Split Arab/Jew Figure Revisited” by Ella Shohat, March 1, 2018 NYU Time 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Friday Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

This lecture will offer a genealogical reading of the gradual splitting of the once-linked Semitic figure into “Arab” and “Jew” and its ramifications for contemporary discourses about Jews and Muslims. Examining the shifting Orientalist imaginary in the wake of the Enlightenment and Description colonialism, the lecture traces contemporary assumptions about a longstanding Arab / Jewish divide — and the ambiguous position of the Arab-Jew within it — back to crucial shifts in 19th century representation, thus providing an historical lens which can help illuminate contemporary postcolonial tensions. Sponsors Carolina Center for Jewish Studies

Public Lecture by Visiting Scholar Dr. Geetanjali Joshi, “Bauls, Bhakti, Beats and Bob: Tracing March 2, 2018 the Indian Oral tradition in the poetry and songs of Ginsberg and Dylan” Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location Room 1005, FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

Dr. Geetanjali Joshi is from Lucknow, India and is currently a Fulbright Fellow at Portland State Description University in Oregon. His presentation, “Bauls, Bhakti, Beats and Bob: Tracing the Indian Oral tradition in the poetry and songs of Ginsberg and Dylan” will address a group of mystic singers. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. South Asia Faculty Working Group, the Carolina Asia Center, and the Center for Global Sponsors Initiatives, as well as the South Asia Section of the Department of Asian Studies

March 3, 2018 Islamic Association of Raleigh Annual Open House Time 11:00 am - 3:00 pm Location 808 Atwater Street, Raleigh, NC 27607 Islamic Association of Raleigh Categories Cultural event The Islamic Association of Raleigh (IAR) is hosting its annual Open House event Saturday March 3rd from 11 am to 3 pm, featuring American Islamic Heritage, lunch, guest appearance by Sean Description Maroney (Evening Anchor WNCN) and Q&A with Imam AbuTaleb. Come learn about Islam, Muslims’ contributions, and sample culinary treats from around the world. Sponsors Islamic Association of Raleigh

March 3, 2018 Cultural Event: Celebration of the Persian New Year (Nowruz) Time 4:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location Divinity School, Goodson Chapel Duke University Categories Cultural event The program will begin with a social from 4:00-4:30pm. At 4:30pm, Dr. Amir Rezvani will provide an introduction and welcoming remarks, followed by live Persian music, poetry, and dance Description performances from 4:45-8:30pm. Please note that doors will be closed upon the start of the program; please be on time. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina & Persian Students Association at Duke University Conference: 2018 RTI-UNC Peace War and Defense Conference: Academia, Non-Governmental March 6, 2018 Organization, and Military Perspectives on Countering Violent Extremism

Time 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Location Student Union Room 3408 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference

This conference will showcase work done by academia, a non-governmental organization, and the military to Counter Violent Extremism (CVE). Each sector offers different capabilities and unique perspectives, experiences, and ideas that will not only be mutually educational, but may Description also generate opportunities for future collaboration and cooperation. The target audience for this event is RTI employees, UNC students, and military personnel who want to learn about current research, ongoing development initiatives, and military lessons learned in the CVE space. This conference will consist of two distinct panels on two important Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) topics. Sponsors RTI International and UNC Peace, War and Defense.

Roundtable Discussion: ‘Clickbait with Footnotes’: Decolonizing the Academy and the March 7, 2018 Commodification of Scholarships Time 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Room, West Duke 101 Duke University Categories Presentation This roundtable will discuss the perverse incentives of ‘impact’ in academia; the ethics of authorship, board membership and publication; and practicing freedom of speech in our contemporary political climate. We will draw from the example of a recent publication by the journal Third World Quarterly of a ‘Viewpoint’ in September 2017 arguing for the merits of Description colonialism. This piece follows in the footsteps of several Western intellectuals who have tried to reopen debates over the balance sheet of colonialism’s impact. In the context of Trumpism and vocal white supremacy in the US and increasing xenophobia in Europe and parts of Africa, this now deeply controversial essay led to considerable outcry, including nearly half of the Editorial Board of the journal resigning in protest. Sponsors

Public Talk: AAHVS Visiting Artist Talk with Saba Taj: “Hybridities, the Evil Eye, and the March 7, 2018 Apocalypse” Time 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location Smith Warehouse – Bay 9, Room A290 Duke University Categories Presentation The Art, Art History and Visual Studies Visiting Artist Series welcomes Durham based artist Saba Taj, who will be giving a lecture titled “Hybridities, the Evil Eye, and the Apocalypse” on Description Wednesday, March 7th at 6:30pm in classroom A290 on the second floor of Smith Warehouse. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Sponsors Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke

Public Talk: “Modernizing in early modern times: Women and innovation among the March 8, 2018 Ottomans” with Prof Leslie Peirce (NYU) Time 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Location Pink Parlor – East Duke Campus Duke University Categories Presentation In the six centuries of their rule, the Ottomans arguably never viewed “progress” as a desideratum. American readers apparently do, however, for I was urged to demonstrate in a recently published book that its subject—Hurrem, the concubine and then queen of the sultan Description Suleyman I “the magnificent”—was a notable modernizer. The lecture reflects briefly on how Ottomans of the 16th and 17th centuries thought about change. It then focuses on the ways in which women were drafted into making change and at the same time established new channels of influence. This event is open to the public.

Sponsors Duke Department of History and the Program in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

March 9, 2018 Lecture: “Nezami and his Five Treasures” with Maryam Tabibzadeh Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Center for Multicultural Affairs Duke University Categories Book discussion Maryam Tabibzadeh will give a lecture on her new book, a translation of beautiful Epic verses Description written by Nezami, a famous Persian poet in the 12th century, based on a true love story. Tabibzadeh will also sign her new book at this event. Iranian Cultural Society of North Carolina and the Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Sponsors Duke University.

March 11, 2018 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis Time 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location Room 219, New West, 175 E. Cameron Ave UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation The next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will Description concentrate on the life and works of Asghar Gondvi (1884-1936). Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

March 16, 2018 Poetry Festival: Mushaira (Urdu-Hindi Poetry Symposium) Time 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location McKimmon Center 1101 Gorman St, Raleigh 27606 Categories Cultural event

This festival features some of the leading poets of India and Pakistan, and proceeds benefit Description education for orphans in Pakistan. Dr. Altaf Husain, Executive Assistant for Academic Affairs in the Office of the Provost at Howard University will provide remarks. Mushaira Program poets include: Waseem Barelvi, Iqbal Ashar, Nausha Asrar. Sponsors

March 17, 2018 Documentary Screening: Istanbul Notes Time 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Location The Cary Theater 122 E. Chatham St., Cary, NC 27511 Categories Film screening

‘Istanbul Makami’ is a cinematographic improvisation with 5 musicians from abroad who fall in love with the Maqam Music and decide to live in Turkey believing that music might best be learned in the lands it was born and performed. Each has different stories but the desire to find their own path despite modern times’ obligations intersects their roads. Constructing three layers -music, Istanbul and combination of both in the filmic platform- the film is a modern times fairytale in praise of Istanbul and its classical music; a film about obstinacy, desire, looking Description for one’s own raison d’etre, travelling, being a world citizen and the power of music to understand the other and express oneself in the pursuit of intertwining stories following passion. It tells unique stories about the common dreams we are afraid to approach, and thus, tries to give inspiration to us to free ourselves. Leaving home and making music around the world. From Montreal, Sofia, New York, Salives and Palermo, five stories hit the road, travel the world and meet in İstanbul, by Istanbul Notes. The film is in Turkish with English subtitles.

Sponsors American Turkish Association of North Carolina

March 18, 2018 Forum by the US India Policy Institute: Muslims in India Time 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Location 1076 W Chatham St, Cary, NC 27513 Cary Mosque Categories Presentation US INDIA POLICY INSTITUTE (USIPI) presents a special forum and presentation on the situation of Description Muslims in India. Sponsors US India Policy Institute

March 18, 2018 Concert: Sima Bina Live in Raleigh Time 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm Location Stewart Theater, Talley Center NC State University Categories Concert Last November, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale struck the mountainous regions of Western Iran in Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces. More than 800 people died and another 8000 were injured. The earthquake left about 70,000 people homeless, destroying approximately 12,000 homes and damaging another 15,000. The Iranian government Description announced that the disaster has caused at least $5 billion of damage. Most of casualties are from the rural villages of western Kermanshah Province and the town of Sarpol-e-Zahab. People are in desperate need for all basic items as well as medicine. All benefits of this concert will be used to help the victims of the earthquake.

Iranian Cultural Society of NC (ICSNC), Graduate Student Association of Iranians at Duke Sponsors University (GSAID), Iranian Student Association at NCSU, Persian Studies Program at UNC Chapel Hill, Duke Islamic Studies Center, and the Persian Cultural Society at UNC Chapel Hill

Ancient Magic in a New Key: Refining an Exotic Discipline in the History of Religions” by David March 19, 2018 Frankfurter Time 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Room 3009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Seminar This lecture reconsiders the ways that "magic" has been embraced and treated in the study of Early Christianity, and subsequently advocates both a more rigorous approach to indigenous Description evaluations ambiguous ritual and a more confident "etic" or descriptive use of the category of magic. Dr. David Frankfurter is William Goodwin Aurelio Chair of the Appreciation of Scripture, Boston University.

UNC Department of Classics, Center for Late Ancient Studies, Duke Department of Classical Sponsors Studies, Duke Department of Religious Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies

Public Talk: Training the Imam: Locating American Sites of Religious Authority with Nancy March 19, 2018 Khalil Time 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Location 225 Friedl Building Duke University Categories Presentation Owing to a common absence of a central religious body to authorize religious clerics, combined with the U.S. secular conception of separation of church and state, Muslim authority in the United States contends with a regulatory vacuum. The concept of clergy that drives much of how religion encounters our bureaucratic structures in the U.S. liberal-secular context does not sufficiently transpose in the context of Muslim religious authority and service. In this talk, I offer an introduction to Islamic higher education for religious-leader training in the United States and Description argue that the institutionalization of Islamic seminaries can begin to fill the regulatory void in the imam profession. Such institutionalization and professionalization, however, can both simultaneously preserve and conflict with articulated objectives to sanctify traditional values of Islamic learning when bureaucracy emerges as a formative component of religion. Nancy A. Khalil is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Yale University’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration. Sponsors Cultural Anthropology at Duke

Public Talk: “When Clerics Become Kings: A Twenty-first-century Mahdi and the Anatomy of a March 19, 2018 Messianic Movement” with Serkan Yolaçan, National University of Singapore Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location East Duke 204A Duke University Categories Presentation Yolaçan’s talk addresses the relationship between religious authority and political sovereignty. It offers a conceptual model for analyzing how transnational religious movements transform states, take over them, or produce new ones. By juxtaposing a wide range of cases from past and present, it identifies a recurring historical pattern of a messianic kind. He conceptualizes this form of sovereignty as diasporic kingship, in which saints act like kings although they don’t Description possess a state of their own. He uses this broad messianic lens to analyze Turkey’s Gülen community to argue that Gülen’s messianic endeavor – and failure – to transform a religious diaspora into a state played a central role in Turkey’s cultural, political, and economic transformations since the Cold War’s end. Serkan Yolaçan is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s’ Middle East Studies Institute. Sponsors Duke International Comparative Studies UNC World View Seminar for K-12 and Community College Educators: “Building Stronger March 20-21, 2018 Bridges: Cultural Respect and Equity in the Classroom” Time N/A Location The Friday Conference Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Seminar How can North Carolina educators build stronger bridges in their classrooms and communities to support diverse populations of learners? Through plenary talks and small group breakout sessions, K-12 and community college educators at World View’s spring seminar will explore issues of cultural respect and equity, learning what barriers need to be removed and what Description strategies can be implemented to recognize the potential for all learners. Participants will have the opportunity to consider their backgrounds, how their individual experiences have forged their beliefs and how these beliefs transpire into their everyday world, specifically the classroom or learning environment. The program will include a session on “Faith Practices in Schools with a Spotlight on Muslims and Islam.” UNC World View, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Sponsors Carolina Asia Center, African Studies Center, Institute for the Study of the Americas, Center for European Studies, CEESS

Wednesdays at the Center: “Everyday Conversations: Islam, Domestic Work and South Asian March 21, 2018 Migrant Women in Kuwait” Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location John Hope Franklin Center, Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, room 240 Duke University Categories Presentation Dr. Attiya Ahmad is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at The George Washington University. Broadly conceived, her research focuses on the gendered interrelation of Islamic reform movements and political economic processes spanning the Middle East and South Asia, in particular, the greater Arabian Peninsula/Persian Gulf and Indian Description Ocean regions. Dr. Ahmad is a Ph.D. from Duke University and recently published her first book, “Everyday Conversions: Islam, Domestic Work and South Asian Migrant Women in Kuwait” (Duke University Press, 2017). Dr. Ahmad is currently examining the development of global halal tourism networks. Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center

March 22, 2018 Discussion: “Why is the Holy Land Holy?” Time 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location Garner 105 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Join OneVoice on Campus for a panel discussion dealing with the importance of Jerusalem to the different Abrahamic religions. Background on Jerusalem historical and modern context will be provided, followed by a conversation between faith leaders from the Christian, Muslim, and Description Jewish communities in the area to discuss Jerusalem in regards to their own faith communities. Featuring Faisal Khan, Rabbi Melissa B. Simon, Pastor Jay Thomas, and moderated by Madison Perry. Sponsors OneVoice Campus

March 23-25, 2018 Censored Women’s Film Festival Time March 23, 2018 | 4:00 pm - March 25, 2018 | 3:30 pm Location Theater Room, Rubenstein Arts Center Duke University Categories Film Festival The Censored Women’s Film Festival is an annual, not-for-profit, traveling film festival and summit organized to raise consciousness and women’s rights issues through film and dialogue. Issues of women’s rights and gender equality are too often silenced and kept from mainstream cinema and discourse. The Censored Women’s Film Festival provides a space for filmmakers, activists, practitioners and students to use films as a lens through which to discuss the fight for Description women’s rights all over the world. Priority is given to films with a special emphasis on topics that have been censored or stifled, particularly as they relate to cultural and/or religious taboos. The Censored Women’s Film Festival seeks to amplify the stories that most need telling. Several of the films in the festival are by filmmakers from the Middle East including Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, and Afghanistan. Sponsors Duke University Honor Council

March 25, 2018 Cultural Event: Nowruz Time 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm Location Great Hall, UNC Student Union UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event Please join the UNC Persian Cultural Society in celebrating Nowruz, Persian New Year 1397! The event will take place on Sunday, March 25th from 5:30-9:30 P.M. in the Great Hall of the UNC Description Student Union. Enjoy a diverse program of performances, a delicious Iranian dinner, and dancing at the end of the night. There will be a DJ! Come support our performers and engage in our vibrant, long-lasting traditions! Sponsors UNC Persian Cultural Society

March 25, 2018 Reception: Visiting delegation from Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Hunt Library, Duke Energy Hall A&B NC State University Categories Reception The Khayrallah Center is pleased to host a visiting delegation from Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut, the oldest NGO in Lebanon and the Middle East. Among the Description delegates are: Mr. Amine Daouk (President of Makassed Association), MrFaysal Sinno (Vice President), Minister Mohamed Machnouk. Sponsors Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

“Férydoun Rahnéma’s Inappropriable Specters: Critique of Self-Identity and the Emergence of March 26, 2018 Iranian New Wave Cinema” – A paper by Maziyar Faridi Time 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Location Room 504, Wilson Library UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Maziyar Faridi presents his award-winning paper, “Férydoun Rahnéma’s Inappropriable Specters: Critique of Self-Identity and the Emergence of Iranian New Wave Cinema.” Faridi is the winner of the inaugural Ferdowsi Tusi Award, presented by the University Libraries and the Persian Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Faridi’s scholarly Description paper examines national identity and history in the cinema of Férydoun Rahnéma (1930-1975), who played a foundational role in the emergence of Iranian New Wave cinema and New Wave Persian poetry [Mowj-e No] in the 1960s and 1970s. Maziyar Faridi is a doctoral candidate in comparative literary studies at Northwestern University. He received his B.A. in English and M.A. in translation studies and English from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran.

Sponsors University Libraries and the Persian Studies program

March 26, 2018 Re-membering Torture: A Conversation with Shahla Talebi and Diana Coleman Time 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location FHI Conference Room C107 Duke University Categories Workshop In this workshop, we will be discussing the work of Darius Rejali (“Torture and Democracy”) as well as some of the testimony culled from the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture Description (NCCIT). Professor Talebi, herself a former detainee under two separate regimes in Iran, will be discussing some of her writings, and her student, Diana Coleman, will discuss her work on Guantanamo. Sponsors D-SIGN working group on the Global South at Duke University

Lecture: “The Makassed Schools Experience Teaching Science and Mathematics in the Native March 27, 2018 Arabic Language” by Minister Mohamed Al-Machnouk Time 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Location Peabody 02 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

In several nations around the world, debates rage on whether school science and mathematics ought to be taught in native tongues versus English or some other ‘dominant, global’ language. Passionate arguments have been advanced to articulate the benefits and burdens for student learning and outcomes as a result of using one approach or the other. In Lebanon, native Arabic speaking children mostly learn science and mathematics in English or French starting in the Description primary grades. In this talk, Minister Mohamed Al-Machnouk, will share the experience of using Arabic to teach school science and mathematics across the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association’s network of schools in Lebanon. Al-Machnouk will provide a historical overview of this ‘experiment,’ discuss the resulting student outcomes, and explicate the circumstances and reasoning that shaped the eventual end of this incredibly interesting case study.

Sponsors UNC School of Education

Public Talk: “Constitutionalizing the Muslim State: Issues, Agreements, and Disagreements” – March 29, 2018 Professor Malika Zeghal, Harvard University Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Carpenter Conference Room – 249 Rubenstein Library Duke University Categories Presentation This talk will deal with how Constitutions have most often affirmed the Muslim character of the state in the modern Middle East (19th-21st c). Professor Zeghal will more particularly focus on modern Tunisia and on the 2012-2014 constitutional episode. In drafting their constitution between 2012 and 2014, Tunisians debated how they could continue to have a state “whose religion is Islam” while shaping a democracy for the first time in their history. Malika Zeghal examines how they constitutionalized these two imperatives without introducing sharia law in Description the 2014 Constitution. She details the terms of the constitutional debates about religion and explains how they shaped the political cleavages in post-Ben Ali Tunisia. These debates revealed the notable absence of secularists and a broad agreement on the imperative of a Muslim state —whose meaning was nonetheless an object of strong disagreements. This should interest in particular scholars in political science, religion, Islamic studies, constitutional law, and Middle Eastern Studies. A light lunch will be provided.

Duke Graduate Program in Religion, Duke ICS, Duke AMES, Duke Department of Religious Sponsors Studies, Duke Cultural Anthropology, and Sanford School of Public Policy

March 31, 2018 Cultural Event: Turkish Music & Dance Night Time 6:00 pm - 11:30 pm Location Talley Student Union, BR- Mountains Ballroom NC State University Categories Cultural event Turkish Student Association at NC State organized “Turkish Music and Dance Night”, with live Description music bands, belly dancers, a dance group, DJ, authentic dinner, refreshments, competitions, and raffles. Sponsors NC State University Turkish Student Association

Public Talk: “From Palestine to America: A Militarization of Police” with Eran Efrati and Maya April 2, 2018 Wind Time 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location Perkins, room 217 Duke University Categories Presentation Hear from Maya Wind and Eran Efrati on their research as the explain the police exchange Description between Durham Police and the Israeli Army/Police. Student Organization Finance Committee, Amnesty International, and Students for Justice in Sponsors Palestine

Lecture: “A Picture of Health: Visualizing Care in Late Ottoman Istanbul” with Zeynep Devrim April 2, 2018 Gürsel Time 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm Location 310 Trent Drive, Basement 037A Duke University Categories Lecture Professor Gürsel examines formal portraits of late 19th century female patients of the Haseki Women’s Hospital from Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamit’s palace archive to ask how this album Description requires us to rethink agency in photography as well as the traditional differences between medical and political imaging technologies. In this thoughtful dive into an unusual archive, Gürsel makes us confront how care is visualized and to what political end. International Comparative Studies, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Health Sponsors Humanities Lab, and Duke Cultural Anthropology April 2, 2018 Discussion: “The American Muslim Identity: Patriot or Insurgent” with Zuhdi Jasser Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Gross Hall 103 Duke University Categories Presentation Join Duke College Republicans, the Alexander Hamilton Society, and Young Americans for Liberty for a moderated conversation and Q&A with Zuhdi Jasser. Dr. Jasser is an American Muslim and son of Syrian immigrants who fled Ba’athist oppression in 1966. Zuhdi is a physician, a former US Navy officer, and president of American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) founded in 2003.His calls for reform inspired his co-founding of the Muslim Reform Movement in 2015. Description Zuhdi is a former commissioner and Vice-Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) appointed by the U.S. Senate serving from 2012-2016. He will discuss the process of radicalization, the nature of Islamic extremism, and the unique responsibility of American Muslims. An internationally recognized expert on Islamism, he regularly testifies to the U.S. Congress on the threat of global Islamism and domestic and foreign counter-ideology strategy.

Sponsors Duke College Republicans, the Alexander Hamilton Society, and Young Americans for Liberty

April 3, 2018 Public Talk: “Afro-Arab Relationships in the Age of Militant Islam” with Dr. Hamdy Hassan Time 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Carpenter Conference Room – 249 Rubenstein Library Duke University Categories Presentation The goal of this talk is to study the Afro Arab relations within the context of dominant jihadist narratives and the nature of their appeal in the African space. All these Islamist ideologies are based on a peculiar Salafi Radicalism that aimed to transform the state and society by methods Description of preaching and violence. Therefore, studying and analyzing the principles of the Salafist discourse as a political project helps us to understand its points strengths and weaknesses. In addition, we can be better look at the future trends and prospects of afro Arab cooperation. Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center

April 3, 2018 Public Talk: “Palestine is Here” with Eran Efrati and Maya Wind Time 6:45 pm - 8:00 pm Location Bingham 103 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Since 2002, US law enforcement have been training with the Israeli military in the context of the “War on Terror” as Black Lives Matter and other movements seek accountability and an end of Description police violence. Join us for a talk with investigative researcher Eran Efrati and feminist activist Maya Wind for a conversation about how Palestine comes home to Durham. Sponsors Students for Justice in Palestine

April 4, 2018 Wednesdays at the Center: Virtual Reality in the Arabic Classroom Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall – Franklin Center 240 Duke University Categories Presentation This panel will describe what 360 video is and how it’s recorded, including some of the cameras you can use to capture an immersive experience to share a vacation memory or a family event. You will also learn about a project funded by the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) and executed with Description the support of AMES, CIT and OIT and Duke Engage in Lebanon and Jordan exploring the use of 360 video in teaching and learning Arabic at Duke. 360 video captures scenery and action from all sides and, in some cases, from above and below, too! Sponsors John Hope Franklin Center

April 4, 2018 Lecture: “Modernity, Subjectivity and Sexual Violence: Stories From Iran” by Dr. Shahla Talebi Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, room 1005 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture What is the relationship between our sense of the self and sexual violence that for many individuals it appears so radically different from other forms of violence? Why do we so often attribute such significance to sexuality that makes it possible for sexual violence to become profound means of asserting power for its perpetrators? What is behind the visceral experience Description of this kind of violence that the theoretical renditions on power or torture do not seem to adequately capture? What kind of connection is there between our subjectivity and sexuality and modernity? This presentation seeks to engage these questions through an ethnographic reading of various forms of sexual violence in the stories of three former women Iranian political prisoners. UNC Persian Studies and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations

April 4, 2018 Film Screening: Middle East Film Festival: “Omar” Time 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm Location D. H. Hill Library, West Wing Auditorium NC State University Categories Film screening “Omar,” a film by Hany Abu-Assad: A tense, gripping thriller about betrayal, suspected and real, in the Occupied Territories. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian baker who routinely climbs over the separation wall to meet up with his girl Nadja (Leem Lubany). By night, he’s either a freedom fighter or a terrorist-you decide-ready to risk his life to strike at the Israeli military with his childhood friends Tarek (Eyad Hourani) and Amjad (Samer Bisharat). Arrested after the killing of Description an Israeli soldier and tricked into an admission of guilt by association, he agrees to work as an informant. So begins a dangerous game-is he playing his Israeli handler (Waleed F. Zuaiter) or will he really betray his cause? And who can he trust on either side? Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) has made a dynamic, action-packed drama about the insoluable moral dilemmas and tough choices facing those on the frontlines of a conflict that shows no sign of letting up. (c) Adopt Films Sponsors Middle East Studies Program at NC State University

April 5-7, 2018 Conference: “Mjaddarah” to “Fatti de Luxe”: Food and Middle Eastern Diasporas Time N/A Location 1911 Building Room 129 NC State University Categories Conference

Middle Eastern cuisines seems to have been suspended outside time in popular imagination and culture. The reality is quite the opposite. Since the earliest days of Middle Eastern diasporas to the Americas (1880s-1940s), cuisines that originated in the cities and villages of the Eastern Mediterranean have undergone spectacular transformations in their evolution both within the Middle East and beyond: in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. At the same time, distance, new social and natural ecologies, nostalgia, longing and post-traumatic stress have reshuffled the role of food in Middle Eastern identity(ies). The social contexts of these cuisines — in many terms of their significance in memory, oral histories, intergenerational transmission of cultural identities and tourist promotion — have also shifted or diversified over the decades. These issues are in ways similar for every refugee and immigrant group, but they are especially Description poignant during the centennial anniversary of Middle Eastern diasporas that shaped the “home”: region and world. Yet the way in which these issues have shaped the experience of Middle Eastern food has increased to the point of rendering it into a globalized cuisine, and at a time when concomitant scholarly research is growing around this topic, there is a compelling need to delve deeper into the meanings and transformations of Middle Eastern food. This conference seeks to facilitate and advance this emerging conversation in two ways. First, we seek to unpack the power dynamics embedded in, and generated by, cultural and religious productions, economic relations and political negotiations centered on discourses about food and culinary culture. We also aim to investigate the ways that food and associated cultural expressions have morphed and diversified around Middle Eastern diaspora across time and space.

Dr. Akram Khater (North Carolina State University-Khayrallah Center) and Dr. Gary Nabhan Sponsors (University of Arizona-Center for Regional Food Studies

April 5-8, 2018 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Time Location Durham, NC

Categories Film festival Each spring, Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham, North Carolina, for a four-day, morning-to-midnight array of nearly 100 films, as well as discussions, panels, and Southern hospitality. Mideast-related films: Thursday, April 5 *The Judge: Devoted to the law and unwilling to mince words, Kholoud Al-Faqih is the first female judge in the family court system of the West Bank, navigating its bureaucracy and providing a rare glimpse into Islamic courts and gendered justice. *On Her Shoulders: When ISIS devastates her Yazidi community, survivor Nadia Murad becomes the predominant voice for her people. Following Murad as she recounts her harrowing experience time and again, this film intimately details the burden of imploring the world to intervene. Friday, April 6 Description *Rebuilding in Miniature: In this short, miniaturist Ali Alamedy, an Iraqi refugee, painstakingly creates exquisitely detailed dioramas of places he’s never been in an attempt to heal his disrupted relationship to home. *Of Fathers and Sons: With rare and chilling insights, this film takes us into the lives of a Syrian family, led by an Al-Nusra fighter, where we observe how swiftly the innocence of childhood can fade. *The Mauritania Railway: Backbone of the Sahara: In this expansive, gorgeously composed short, ride atop the railway car that serves as a 704-kilometer-long lifeline that supplies goods and iron ore to people in different cities in the Sahara Desert. World Premiere As an act of pure creative resilience, Ganja and his friends film a humorous :( انا بشة) I Am Bisha* and satirical web series, Bisha TV, starring puppets to combat the violent, genocidal regime of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. World Premiere *This Is Home: The story of four Syrian families on the path to self-sufficiency, and success, in a resettlement program in Baltimore, Maryland. *The Square (Director: Jehane Noujaim): After the 2011 Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square, citizens realize that former president Mubarak’s corrupt regime is still in power; they return to the streets to bring an end to the government, combatting controlled international media coverage, enduring violence, and navigating fragile relationships. *Control Room (Director: Jehane Noujaim), Friday, April 6 — 7:40pm, dac: It’s 2003, and the United States is on the brink of war with Iraq. Control Room follows journalists of the Al Jazeera satellite channel—broadcasting news to some 40 million Arab viewers—as they try to cut through American rhetoric and awaken the viewers to the realities on the ground. Saturday, April 7 *Sky and Ground (Directors: Talya Tibbon, Joshua Bennett), Saturday, April 7 — 10:10am, cinema 4: Incorporating a refugee family’s own footage, Sky and Ground follows a Syrian- Kurdish refugee family as they flee from a holding camp at the Greece-Macedonia border and take their chances at reaching asylum by foot on a perilous one-way trip to Berlin. *The Deminer (Director: Hogir Hirori; Co-director: Shinwar Kamal), Saturday, April 7 — 4:40pm, dac: After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Colonel Fakhir of the Iraqi army devotes his life to disarming landmines, with only a pocket knife and wire cutters, in this deeply suspenseful film that makes use of Fakhir’s own extensive video footage. North American Premiere *The Good Struggle (Director: Celia Peterson), Saturday, April 7 — 7:40pm, dac: Although few words are spoken between themselves, monks at a Greek Orthodox monastery in Lebanon provide voiceovers to their daily routines—their devout thoughts echo the beauty of their solitude. World Premiere Sponsors Duke Center for Documentary Studies

April 5, 2018 Cultural Event: Moroccan Night Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location New West, room 219 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event Join the Arabic Program at UNC for Moroccan night! Students will be sharing their study abroad Description experiences in Morocco, there will be songs by Moroccan singer Abul-Bishr Kasmi, and Moroccan tea and cookies will be served! Don’t miss it! Sponsors UNC Arabic Program

UNC Geography Colloquium Series: Refugee Political Subjectivities, Dr. Kirsi Pauliina Kallio and April 6, 2018 Dr. Jouni Hakli, University of Tampere, Finland Time 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location UNC Chapel Hill FedEx Global Education Center, Carolina Hall Categories Conference In these events Drs. Kallio and Hakli will present the findings of their research project that includes in-depth interviews with asylum seekers in Cairo, Egypt and Tampere, Finland. This project aims to gain a better understanding about the mundane political agencies of refugees and thereby intervene in the dominant representation of refugees as victims defined by their Description vulnerability. The 'ordinary refugee' who seeks to adjust to the available living conditions, struggles from day to day to meet the everyday needs, and waits for years for status determination and possible relocation, may seem to be living a non-political life. Yet they ask what this living takes, what it requires from people as individuals and groups, and how it contributes to the formation of political agency.

Institute for the Arts & Humanities, UNC College of Arts & Sciences, Center for European Sponsors Studies, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, Center for Global Initiatives

April 6, 2018 Symposium: The Struggle for Equality in Women’s Soccer Time 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Location Old Chem, Rm 011 Duke University, West Campus Categories Conference Join us for The Struggle for Equality in Women’s Soccer, a one-day symposium to be held on Description April 6, 2018, at the Forum for Scholars and Publics Forum for Scholars and Publics and the Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Sponsors Institute

Lecture: “Vicissitudes of Care: Humanitarian-Military Entanglements in Occupied Kashmir” April 6, 2018 with Dr. Saiba Varma Time 3:35 pm - 5:35 pm Location Alumni Building, Room 308 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Saiba Varma’s research focuses on health and medicine, as well as politics, inequalities, and violence and has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in psychiatric and military settings. Her work examines the global military-humanitarian complex from the prism of South Asia, specifically Indian-occupied Kashmir, the site of an ongoing conflict between an Description independence movement and the Indian military. In this talk, Dr. Varma will be discussing material from her book manuscript, Life in Pieces: Military and Humanitarian Care in Kashmir , which shows how both humanitarian and militaristic practices are both performed in the name of care. The South Asia faculty working group, the Department of Anthropology, The Moral Economies Sponsors of Medicine Working Group, Carolina Seminar: The Decolonization of the Global South, Carolina Asia Center

April 6, 2018 Dinner and Conversation with Author Diana Abu Jaber Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Sitti Restaurant 137 S Wilmington St, Raleigh, NC 27601 Categories Dinner, Presentation As part of the conference on Food and Middle Eastern Diaspora, the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies is co-hosting with Sitti Restaurant a dinner, reading and conversation Description with renowned Arab American author Diana Abu Jaber. Diana will read short selections from her writing and talk about how food fits into her literary work and identity as an Arab-American. Sitti Restaurant, Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, Center for Regional Sponsors Food Studies, and Empire Eats.

April 7, 2018 Dinner and Conversation with Barbara Massad Time 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Location Neomonde Restaurant 3817 Beryl Rd, Raleigh, NC 27607 Categories Dinner, Presentation As part of the conference on Food and Middle Eastern Diaspora, the Khayrallah Center for Description Lebanese Diaspora Studies is co-hosting with Neo Monde Restaurant a dinner, reading and conversation with renowned Lebanese American food writer, Barbara Massaad. Neomonde Restaurant, Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, Center for Sponsors Regional Food Studies, and Empire Eats

April 8, 2018 Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Festival Time 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Page-Walker Arts & History Center 119 Ambassador Loop, Cary, NC Categories Cultural event

Nâzim Hikmet was a Turkish poet, playwright and novelist. He was recognized as the first and foremost modern Turkish poet, and regarded throughout the world as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century for the “lyrical flow of his statements.” Described as a “romantic revolutionary,” his humanistic views are universal. His poetry has been translated into more Description than fifty languages. He received the World Peace Prize (the USSR’s equivalent of the Nobel) in 1950. Although he faced many challenges in his life, he always remained optimistic about the future. Celebrate poetry at this annual festival with poets, scholars, and lovers of poetry. Meet the Nâzım Hikmet Poetry Competition winners, listen to poetry readings and keynote speakers then enjoy a reception and hang out with poets from around the world.

American-Turkish Association (ATA) and co-sponsored by the Duke University Middle East Sponsors Studies Center (DUMESC)

April 8, 2018 Cultural Event: “Near & Far: A Local Celebration of Global Cultures” Time 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm Location 140 W Franklin St. Chapel Hill, NC

Categories Cultural event Celebrate global culture within Chapel Hill at this fun and funky street party! Community and campus cultural groups share their heritage through crafts, activities and interactive experiences. Music, dance, and spontaneous arts performances will fill the stage and street. Description The flavors of the world will be on offer at food trucks and in our tasting tent, featuring downtown’s diverse restaurants. Bring the whole family for this unforgettable afternoon of education, appreciation, and celebration of global cultures. Sponsors Town of Chapel Hill April 8, 2018 Sufi Plug-Ins v. 2 with Ashwini Ramaswamy and the Ragamala Dance Company Time 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Location CURRENT 123 W Franklin St. Building C Chapel Hill, NC Categories Cultural event Description N/A

Persian Art Center in Carolina: “Five treasures of Ganjavi – “Shirin and Farhad” with Mrs. April 8, 2018 Maryam Tabibzadeh Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Cultural event Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Mrs. Maryam Tabibzadeh. The program will begin with a social from 4:00-4:30pm. There will be a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30-4:45pm. From 4:45-6:00pm, there will be a presentation by Mrs. Maryam Description Tabibzadeh on a famous Persian tragic romance by the poet Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209) followed by discussion. From 6:45-7:30pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Parking is available in any space that is not marked Reserved and is not numbered. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

Talk: “Every Campus a Refuge: A Small College’s Civic and Curricular Engagement with Refugee April 9, 2018 Resettlement” with founder Diya Abdo Time 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm Location Phillips Hall, Room 328 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture

Inspired by Pope Francis’ call on every European parish to host one refugee family, Guilford College’s Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR) initiative advocates for mobilizing campus resources to temporarily house refugees on campus grounds and assist them in resettlement in the local area. Thus far, Guilford has hosted and assisted in resettling 33 refugees from the Middle East Description and Africa, 18 of them children. This presentation and conversation will outline the project’s work – including challenges and lessons learned – and allow attendees to explore adapting this flexible initiative to their campus. A first-generation Palestinian born and raised in Jordan, Dr. Diya Abdo is Associate Professor of English at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. Her teaching, research and scholarship focus on Arab women writers and Arab and Islamic feminisms.

Sponsors First-Year Service Corps, APPLES Service-Learning and UNC Refugee Community Partnership

Public Lecture: “Beyond Al Jazeera and the ‘Arab Spring’: Media, Politics and the Struggle Over April 10, 2018 Modernity in the Arab World Today” with Jaafar Aksikas (Columbia College Chicago) Time 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location University Room, Hyde Hall UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Most recent conventional accounts of dominant Arab media, both in the Arab world and in the West (including the United States), tend to focus almost exclusively on Al Jazeera or, in the wake of the “Arab Spring” of 2011 and the following political upheavals across the region, on the new and emergent media forms. In these accounts, new Arab media are seen as modernizing, democratizing and liberatory. Aksikas places these media in a broader context, looking especially at consumer and corporate culture. He considers how new forms of media, especially new TV genres, namely reality TV, appropriate and use specific elements of modernity, including such ideals as citizenship, democracy, freedom, and equality. This instrumentalization of the ideals of modernity enables corporate culture to present itself to young audiences as their ally and champion, which renders the concept of popular modernity -often used around the various Arab “revolutions” – problematic. Aksikas considers how commercial media increasingly replaces and displaces state, public and even traditional institutions in the intensity and Description dedication of its address to young men and women. Holding on to the specificity of contemporary Arab societies and cultures, he identifies the contradictions of these media developments, articulated both to the energies and strengths of emerging Arab modernities and to the production of global neoliberal Arab subjectivities and rationalities at the same time. Jaafar Aksikas is a Moroccan-born American academic, whose work focuses on media, culture, law and politics in the Middle East and North Africa. He is currently Associate Professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies at Columbia College Chicago. His books and edited volumes include Cultural Studies and the ‘Juridical Turn’: Culture, Law, and Legitimacy in the Era of Neoliberal Capitalism (2016), Arab Modernities: Islamism, Nationalism and Liberalism in the Post-Colonial Arab World (2009) and The Sirah [Epic] of Antar: An Islamic Interpretation of Arab and Islamic History (2002). He also frequently serves as consultant and expert witness on Middle Eastern and North African societies, cultures and politics.

UNC Department of Communication and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East Sponsors and Muslim Civilizations

April 11, 2018 Book Talk & Signing with Professor Nadia Yaqub: Bad Girls of the Arab World Time 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Location FedEX Global Education Center, Room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Book discussion, book signing Join Professor Nadia Yaqub (Department of Asian Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill) for a book talk on “Bad Girls of the Arab World.” This interdisciplinary collection of writings by and about Arab Description women is the first that focuses explicitly on Arab women’s often-fraught engagement with the boundaries that shape their lives in the twenty-first century. A light lunch will be served. Carolina Seminars program, the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Sponsors Civilizations, and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies

Public Lecture: “Now that you are here, I am confused with joy!”: Saʻdī’s Cosmopolitanism, April 11, 2018 Worldly Love, and Laughter, by Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz Time 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Fatemeh Keshavarz is the inaugural speaker of the Horner Jarrahi Persian Studies Speaker Series, presented by the University Libraries and the Persian Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Keshavarz will examine the poetry of Saʻdī (1210-1291), one of the Description funniest and most influential figures in classical Persian poetry. His accessible language, practical ethics, and lively humor continue to influence Persian literature today. Fatemeh Keshavarz holds the Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies and directs the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland, College Park. Sponsors University Libraries and the Persian Studies program

Public Event: “Crossing the Geopolitical Divide” with Steven David (Johns Hopkins) and miriam April 11, 2018 cooke (Duke) Time 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Social Psychology 130 Duke University Categories Lecture

Join the Alexander Hamilton Society for its final event of the year, “Crossing the Geopolitical Divide: Routes for Foreign Intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has endured since the mid-20th century. Steeped in cultural and religious ties to the Holy Land, both nations have sought land claims to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. While Israel has occupied the area for 51 years, borders wars continue. Both the Israeli Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization have engaged in negotiations under the leadership of Description Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas respectively. But what is the role of foreign actors? While unable to provide lasting peace solutions in the past, can other nations play a benign role? How does the recent declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel affect Middle East policy? Steven David, Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and miriam cooke, Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University will share their insights. Free food and drink provided.

Sponsors Alexander Hamilton Society at Duke

April 12 & 16, 2018 “Watch the Med” Events: Migrant Struggles on the EU’s Maritime Frontier Time April 12, 1:00-2:00 pm - April 16 12:00-1:00 pm Location Social Movements Lab, Smith Warehouse, Bay 5 Duke University Categories Lecture

Collaborating together since 2011, Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani have sought to develop new methodologies to contest the violence of borders and enable more freedom of movement across the maritime frontier. In 2011, Heller and Pezzani co-founded Forensic Oceanography, a collaborative project that has developed innovative methodologies to document the conditions Description that lead to migrants’ deaths at sea. Their reports have contributed to strategic litigations and intervened in ongoing debates concerning the effects of EU migration policies. In 2012, they also launched the WatchTheMed platform, a tool enabling nongovernmental actors to exercise a critical right to look at the EU’s maritime frontier, and contributed to initiate in 2014 the WatchTheMed Alarmphone project, a 24/7 emergency line supporting migrants crossing the sea.

Sponsors Social Movements Lab and Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University

Symposium: Monarchy and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Asia | Organized by Dr. April 13, 2018 Prasenjit Duara & Dr. Adam Mestyan Time 8:30 am - 5:30 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall, Room 240 Duke University Categories Conference This workshop explores the changing roles of monarchies in twentieth-century Asia in the evolving international system. The subject is comparative and transnational, looking particularly at the convergences and differences between monarchies in West Asia and East, South and Southeast Asia. Participants explore monarchies both as legal systems of external and internal Description sovereignty and as embodiments of symbolic power. The main areas of enquiry are the legal codification of monarchical power in new constitutions; nationalism and monarchism; the perception and management of rulers and internal legitimacies. The emphasis is on the interaction of nationalism and religion within monarchical polities in the twentieth century particularly under colonial rule and the Cold War. Global Asia Initiative at Duke University and Archives of Africa, Asia, and the Mediterranean at Sponsors Duke University

April 14, 2018 Conference: The 2003 Iraq War: Key Intelligence Failures and Fixes Time 8:00 am - 5:15 pm Location North Carolina Central University

Categories Conference Join us for a day long symposium reflecting on intelligence issues surrounding the 2003 Iraq War. Did we get the intelligence that led us to war wrong? If so, why? Were our intelligence Description reforms effective? What are the implications of these reforms for our current intelligence estimates in the region? Sponsors Triangle Institute for Security Studies and ICCAE

April 14, 2018 GO! Global Orientation on Culture + Ethics 2018 Time 9:30 am - 3:30 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference GO! Global Orientation on Culture + Ethics is designed to help students evaluate expectations, anticipate potential cultural and ethical challenges, prepare for engagement in communities, Description and develop intercultural competencies. First-time travelers and experienced globetrotters alike can benefit from session topics like Global Entrepreneurship, “Voluntourism,” Providing Healthcare Abroad and Decoding Culture in Education. Sponsors Center for Global Initatives

April 14, 2018 Cultural Event: 20th Annual Lebanese Festival Time 11:00 am - 7:00 pm Location Raleigh City Plaza 400 block Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, NC 27601 Categories Cultural event Want a taste of Lebanon right here in the Triangle? Join the Triangle Lebanese American Center for a day filled with delicious Lebanese food, dancing + musical performances, and fun activities! Description Event Highlights include: Authentic Lebanese food & desserts, belly dancing, traditional Lebanese Dabke Performances, Lebanese Wine, Cooking demonstrations, Children's activities, and more! Sponsors Triangle Lebanese American Center April 15, 2018 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis on Humorous/Satirical poetry Time 5:00 pm -7:00 pm Location New West, Room 219 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Cultural event Please join us on Sunday, April 15, for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on Mazahiya Shairi (Humorous and Description Satirical Poetry). You can read your original poems or works of your favorite authors. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

April 15, 2018 Film Screening: The Insult Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Hunt Library Auditorium NC State University Categories Film screening The Kahyrallah Center is pleased to announce that it will be sponsoring the screening the Description Lebanese film The Insult, directed by Ziad Doueiri and nominated for best foreign film in the 2018 Academy Awards. Sponsors Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies

April 15-18, 2018 Confeence: Nexus 2018: Water, Food, Energy, and Climate Time N/A Location Friday Conference Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference

The “Nexus” approach is the one that focuses on overlaps across sectors while respecting sectoral expertise in order to make better plans by understanding interactions (Stockholm Environment Institute, 2017). The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to reconvene our Nexus conference addressing Water-Energy-Food and Climate in Description spring of 2018. The conference will facilitate space for the development of collaborative work and focus on the science-policy interface, partnerships, solutions, review of Sustainable Development Goal commitments (2018 and for the Heads of State review in 2019), sharing of tools, indicators and methodologies, and the identification of gaps. Click here for more information and the agenda, including sessions focused on the Middle East.

Sponsors Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

April 16, 2018 Panel Discussion: Trump’s Jerusalem Decision: History, Legality, Theology Time 6:45 pm - 8:00pm Location Bingham Hall 103 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Students for Justice in Palestine is hosting a panel to understand the historical, religious, and legal significance of the United States’ recent decision declaring Jerusalem as the undivided Description capital of Israel. Panelists will discuss the historical events leading up to this decision, the legality of the move, and the theological justifications. Sponsors Students for Justice in Palestine April 17, 2018 Hallaj: A book talk with Dr. Carl Ernst (UNC-Chapel Hill) Time 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location Carpenter Conference Room, Rubenstein Library Rm 249 Duke University Categories Book talk, book signing Join DISC in welcoming Dr. Carl Ernst to campus as he speaks on his latest work, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr in Rubenstein Library. “Hallaj is the first authoritative translation of the Arabic poetry of Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, an early Sufi mystic. Despite his execution in Baghdad in 922 and the subsequent suppression of his work, Hallaj left an enduring literary and spiritual legacy that continues to inspire readers around the world. In Hallaj, Carl W. Ernst offers a definitive collection of 117 of Hallaj’s poems expertly translated for contemporary readers Description interested in Middle Eastern and Sufi poetry and spirituality. Ernst’s fresh and direct translations reveal Hallaj’s wide range of themes and genres, from courtly love poems to metaphysical reflections on union with God. In a fascinating introduction, Ernst traces Hallaj’s dramatic story within classical Islamic civilization and early Arabic Sufi poetry. Setting himself apart by revealing Sufi secrets to the world, Hallaj was both celebrated and condemned for declaring: ‘I am the Truth.’” Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center

April 17, 2018 TISS Fourteenth Annual Undergraduate Honor Student Dinner Presentations Time 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Location Friday Conference Center UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation Description N/A Sponsors N/A

April 19, 2018 Public Talk: "The Road to Peace" with Nadav Tamir Time 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Location The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, Room 103 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Join UNC-Chapel Hill Hillel on Thursday, April 19 at the Stone Center, at 7 PM, for a lecture by the Israeli diplomat and Policy Expert Nadav Tamir, the Director of International Affairs at Peres Description Institute for Peace. He will share with us his vision on a peaceful resolution in the Middle East and current initiatives by organizations working to achieve this goal. The event is free and everyone is welcome. Sponsors UNC Hillel

April 20-21, 2018 Adventures in Ideas Weekend Seminar: Whatever Happened to Global Diplomacy? Time 4:30 pm - 8:30 pm April 20 & 9:00 am - 1:00 pm April 21 Location UNC Chapel Hill

Categories Conference Older systems and methods of international diplomacy are giving way to a growing populist disdain for careful diplomatic negotiations. Complex problems are often reduced to superficial statements in the mass media or to simple tweets that ignore the history of past events. What has happened to the traditions of global diplomacy? This seminar will examine this question Description through the perspectives of leading historians and public policy scholars who will analyze past diplomatic strategies as well as recent changes in transnational exchanges. Does the decline of diplomacy create new international dangers? Presentations will include: “Middle East Diplomacy in the 20th Century–A Global Prequel to Contemporary Problems” by Sarah Shields, UNC Professor of History. Sponsors Carolina Public Humanities, General Alumni Association

April 20, 2018 Exhibit Opening: Building Bridges through Good Faith Time 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Museum of Durham History 500 W. Main St., Durham, NC Categories Cultural event

Please join the Museum of Durham History on Friday, April 20 from 6:00PM-8:00PM for the opening event for our newest exhibit, Building Bridges through Good Faith, highlighting the growth and development of one of the oldest Muslim communities in North Carolina. This event is FREE and open to the public, featuring complimentary homemade food samplings including fish sausage, bean pies, bean soup, and carrot cake. Children’s activities and live music will round out the event, which coincides with Durham’s Third Friday festivities. The Ar-Razzaq Description Islamic Center (formerly Muhammad’s Mosque #34) was founded in Durham in the 1950s under the local leadership of Imam Kenneth Muhammad, and has been an anchor of the West End neighborhood since the 1970s. The exhibition focuses on the contributions of the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center to the West End neighborhood and to all of Durham through first person accounts, photos and artifacts. In telling the stories of people in the Ar-Razzaq community, the exhibit will illuminate its economic, political and cultural impact on Durham. The exhibition, which runs through August 2018, will feature monthly programs that touch on the impact of Ar- Razzaq. A lecture series, ongoing programming and celebrations throughout the summer will be capped off by a closing event at the Museum in August. Museum of Durham History, Building Bridges 2016-17 Grants Program of the Doris Duke Sponsors Foundation for Islamic Art (DDFIA)

April 20, 2018 Mona Eltahawy at Duke StoryCon Time 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm Location Bay 4 of Smith Warehouse Duke University Categories Join Duke Story Lab on Friday, April 20th for STORYCON, a 12-hour overnight storytelling festival! Starting at 8PM on Friday, StoryCon has film screenings, art installations, games, performances, workshops, cosplay contests, and more! Kick off the festivities by hearing award- winning journalist and activist Mona Eltahawy discuss how to use storytelling to advocate for a cause. Mona is the author of “Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution” and frequently contributes as a guest commentator and op-ed writer in national Description news outlets on issues related to the Middle East, Islam, and feminism. Then grab a quick bite from one of our on-site food trucks before checking out local artist Chris Vitiello‘s reprisal of his 2017 ArtPrize installation “The Language Is Asleep.” Other things you can do at StoryCon include: • Try your hand at tabletop roleplaying games! • Enter our hallway cosplay contest for a chance to win prizes! • Catch up on anime in the early morning with our 5-hour long anime marathon! • Revisit a favorite YA novel by joining our A Wrinkle in Time read-along!

Hear at Duke, Story Lab at Duke, Third Friday Durham, UNC Wordsmiths and the Franklin Sponsors Humanities Institute

April 21, 2018 Workshop for Educators: Environmental Issues in Latin America & the Middle East Time 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Room 1009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Conference Teachers are invited to join the Duke-UNC Consortia in Middle East and Latin American and Caribbean Studies for a day-long interdisciplinary workshop to explore environmental issues in Latin America and the Middle East. During this interactive one-day workshop, teachers will explore pressing global environmental concerns including issues related to water, climate change, mining, and environmental activism. Through various learning activities, teachers will Description deepen understanding of environmental issues specific to each world region as well as comparative ways to examine these issues across regions. Participants will also gain resources and teaching strategies related to these themes and more. Sessions will include a keynote lecture, panel discussions, film screening, and interactive art activity with environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck. Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium in Latin American Sponsors and Caribbean Studies

April 21, 2018 Cultural Event: Open House hosted by the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center Time 1:00 - 3:00 pm Location 1009 West Chapel Hill Street Durham, NC 27701 Categories Cultural event Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center, located on Chapel Hill Street in Durham across from InGold Tire, will host an Open House, Saturday, April 21, 2018, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM. There will be a short presentation regarding the history of ArRazzaq as part of the Durham Museum of History project underway highlighting the long history of ArRazzaq Islamic Center in the Durham Description Community. There will also be an opportunity to observe the Islamic Prayer followed by questions and answers. No question is off limit. Refreshments will be served. Started in the 1950s, the Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center, formally Mohammed’s Mosque #34, is the oldest Islamic Community in the State of North Carolina. You can learn more about the history of the ArRazzaq Islamic Center by visiting the Durham Museum of History, located downtown Durham. Sponsors Ar-Razzaq Islamic Center

April 23, 2018 Public Talk: Human Rights in Myanmar: The Way Forward Time 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location Rubenstein Library 153, Holst-Anderson Family Assembly Room Duke University, West Campus Categories Lecture

The Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingya population is set in a tenuous backdrop of ethnic armed conflict, a stagnant national peace and reconciliation process, and a fledgling democracy led by a now-controversial Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In a special to Duke undergraduates, Yee Htun, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School with over a decade of experience in international advocacy and a refugee from Myanmar herself, will unpack the multidimensional human rights situation in Myanmar and discuss opportunities forward for both domestic and international actors. Yee has over a decade of international advocacy experience working on behalf of refugee and migrant communities. Most recently, she was a clinical fellow Description with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Director of the Myanmar Program for Justice Trust, a human rights research and advocacy organization that works closely with local lawyers and activists in Myanmar to support communities fighting for justice. In 2011, Yee was selected by the Nobel Women’s Initiative to coordinate and lead the first-ever international campaign to stop rape and sexual violence in conflict.Yee was born in Myanmar and left the country after the pro-democratic uprising in 1988, immigrating to Canada as a government-sponsored refugee. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University and J.D. from Dalhousie University.

Sponsors Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University and Duke East Asia Nexus

April 24, 2018 The Not Your Habibti Typewriter Project Time 11:00 am - 2:00 pm Location The Pit UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation BabyFist is a clothing brand based in Palestine that seeks to end street and sexual harassment and start a discussion on gender issues in the Middle East and beyond. Yasmeen Mjalli, Palestinian-American social activist and owner of the brand, is coming to UNC’s campus as part of her US tour to begin this conversation. Not Your Habibti is an ongoing series created to illuminate the issue of street harassment on urban Palestinian streets and to open an honest and uncensored dialogue amongst women affected by said harassment. This project is making Description its way to the United States in order to highlight that gender discrimination and sexual harassment is not exclusive to the Middle East — discrimination occurs in the West as well. Yasmeen will be at the Pit where students are invited to share their personal stories about harassment and gender-based societal oppression in order to allow a personal journey of emotional relief and challenge social taboos like women’s ability to speak about their experiences in a public space. Sponsors Students for Justice in Palestine and BabyFist

Public Lecture: “Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam” by Dr. April 24, 2018 Sylvia Chan-Malik Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Room 1009 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Dr. Sylvia Chan-Malik (Rutgers University) will be speaking at UNC on April 24th at 5 PM at the Global Education Center (room 1009) on her soon to be published book, Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam. This work explores twentieth and twenty- first century U.S. Muslim womanhood by centering the lived experiences of women of color, mapping how communities of American Islam became sites of safety, support, spirituality, and Description social activism, and how women of color were central to their formation. Dr. Chan-Malik’s lecture will focus on the diversity and similarities of Black, Arab, South Asian, Latina, and multiracial Muslim women, and how American understandings of Islam have shifted against the evolution of U.S. white nationalism over the past century. Please email Samah Choudhury ([email protected]) with any questions.

Islamicate Graduate Students Association, Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, Carolina Women's Center, UNC Sociology, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Sponsors Muslim Civilizations, UNC Cultural Studies, UNC History, UNC Religious Studies, and the Carolina Seminar on Transnational and Global Modern History.

Lecture: “Macabre Social Capital: The Families of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba” with C. Christine April 24, 2018 Fair Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Ahmadieh Family Grand Hall, Gross Hall 330 Duke University, West Campus Categories Lecture

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT, also known as Jamaat ud Dawa among other aliases) is the most competent, lethal and loyal proxy of the Pakistani state. LeT operates in India, Afghanistan and elsewhere in South Asia and beyond. This presentation draws from a narrative analysis of a ten percent random sample of nearly 1,000 biographies of slain LeT fighters as a part of a larger study into the battlefield motivation of the fighters. My review of these documents reveals a dark role of the families who derive various forms of social capital from male family member’s participation in so-called “jihad.” Families draw maximum social capital when these young men die in combat and attain the coveted title of “shaheed.” Whereas previous studies of terrorist motivation have downplayed or even disregarded the roles of family, my work in Pakistan over nearly fifteen years continually points to the deep significance that families play in a young man’s decision to fight in Pakistani terrorist organizations.Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT, also known as Description Jamaat ud Dawa among other aliases) is the most competent, lethal and loyal proxy of the Pakistani state. LeT operates in India, Afghanistan and elsewhere in South Asia and beyond. This presentation draws from a narrative analysis of a ten percent random sample of nearly 1,000 biographies of slain LeT fighters as a part of a larger study into the battlefield motivation of the fighters. My review of these documents reveals a dark role of the families who derive various forms of social capital from male family member’s participation in so-called “jihad.” Families draw maximum social capital when these young men die in combat and attain the coveted title of “shaheed.” Whereas previous studies of terrorist motivation have downplayed or even disregarded the roles of family, my work in Pakistan over nearly fifteen years continually points to the deep significance that families play in a young man’s decision to fight in Pakistani terrorist organizations. C. Christine Fair is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Duke Center for International and Global Studies, Bass Connections, the Department of Political Sponsors Science, and the Information Initiative at Duke

April 24, 2018 A Conversation with Yasmeen Mjalli Time 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location Gardner 008 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation

Join us later that evening for a more intimate discussion on the intersection between Arab, American, and Feminist identities and why these identities seem mutually exclusive. Yasmeen’s discussion is meant to foster empathy, break down stereotypes, and provide tools for fighting against such oppressive acts. Yasmeen Mjalli began Babyfist in Palestine to empower women to Description use clothing to combat street harassment with the defiant phrase “Not Your Habibti”, which translates to “Not Your Darling.” The clothing is made in the West Bank and Gaza by Palestinian women in order to promote economic self-sufficiency. Additionally, 10% of proceeds goes to Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development, which works towards “gender equality and the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women.”

Sponsors Students for Justice in Palestine and BabyFist

April 24, 2018 Cultural Event: Arabic Night at Duke Time 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm Location Richard White Hall, Room 107 Duke University, East Campus Categories Cultural event Join the Duke Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for Plays, Poetry Readings, Description Music, Middle Eastern Dance, Arabic Oral Proficiency Activities and more. Sponsors Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

April 25, 2018 Public Lecture: “Boko Haram in Nigeria: Issues in Ideological and Creedal (Mis)interpretations” by Amidu O. Sanni, Vice Chancellor of Fountain University, Osogbo Time 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Location Rubenstein Library Carpenter Conference Room 249 Duke University Categories Lecture

Boko Haram (BH) portrays itself as a back-to-basics Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxis movement, but its rejection of Western democratic values and indeed its brutal reactions to mainstream Muslim interpretations of Islamic texts and authors makes it one of the most prominent militant and millenarian ‘religious’ terror movements in modern Africa. For the first time, however, original texts, documentary and feature videos/audios, exhortation séances, martial anthems (nash¿d) and documents in Arabic, Hausa, and Kanuri from Boko Haram’s Description networks are being offered in an English translation, The Boko Haram Reader (A. Kassim and M. Nwankpa, 2018), which brilliantly illustrates how Boko Haram was able to delegitimize mainstream orthodoxy and/or opponents to reinforce and articulate its own legitimacy. This talk will provide a critical review of this important work on Boko Haram, highlighting the volume’s usefulness as well as some future avenues for research to establish accurate underpinnings of the movement’s textual, physical, and ideological warfare in the religio-political cosmos of sub- Saharan Africa. Sponsors Duke Islamic Studies Center

April 26, 2018 Webinar: Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine by Ibtisam Barakat Time 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm Location Online

Categories Lecture

The Middle East Book Award with support from the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies is pleased to present during National Arab American Heritage month a conversation with award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat on her book Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine, an enlightening look at the not often depicted daily life in a politically tumultuous area. Barakat will discuss a life full of challenges that inspired defiance and creative ways of finding solutions. Join us as we discuss human rights, gender equality, and the power of words to take us and our thoughts to faraway places. Register HERE today! In spring 2018, once a Description month, the World Area Book Awards will sponsor a 60 minute webinar on a book recognized by one of the awards and facilitate a discussion with the author on how to incorporate the book into the classroom. The spring webinar series focuses on social justice. We encourage you to read the books with your colleagues, students, and community, and then join us to hear more from the author. The books are appropriate for students in grades 8-12. If participating in all webinar sessions, participants will receive a certificate of completion. Be sure to join the conversation with our webinar hashtag #2018ReadingAcrossCultures. All sessions are free and open to the public. All times listed refer to Central Standard Time (CST).

Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, the South Asia National Outreach Consortium, Sponsors the Middle East Outreach Council, and Africa Access

Workshop: “Academic Networking in Sub-Saharan and North Africa: From Accreditation to April 27-28, 2018 Global Ethics” Time N/A Location 240 Ahmadieh Family Conference Hall Duke University Categories Conference Academic accreditation and scholarly networking are central features of the new kind of global university system: a system that is increasingly concerned with the ideas of ensuring accountability and expanding impact factors (competitive edge) of African countries’ academic institutions. In addressing this concern, accreditation of universities matters. It is the pathway to adopting competitive standards; one that would insure a culture of continuous accountability and improvement at the delivery level and to help stakeholders to not only imagine but to also enact how to collect reliable evidence to support a sustained future. There is also an ethical dimension to this concern. The rapid population increase in Africa has led to a growing demand for traditional “brick and mortar” universities, online course platforms, and global networking Description opportunities. Delivering quality education at reasonable cost to such a large demographic demands a high level of ethical decision-making by African educators. The consideration of ethical questions surrounding 21st century higher education in Africa aligns well with many global signature programs that encourage ethical attitude in decision-making and outcomes. As scholars and students interact through global networking, they are challenged by issues of quantity versus quality, value versus efficiency, transparency versus privacy, and the local versus the global. One of the most daunting challenges of a academic network is how to ensure the application of rigorous ethical standards in its functioning. This workshop provides a valuable platform to unpack these issues.

Duke Islamic Studies Center, the Duke Center for International and Global Studies, Asian and Sponsors Middle Eastern Studies, Duke Africa Initiative, The Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Office of Global Affairs & Research Africa

April 30, 2018 Panel Discussion: The Future of the JCPOA and Iran’s Nuclear Program Time 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Location Park Shops 210 NC State University Categories Presentation

A panel of experts will discuss the future of the Iran nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was agreed between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members – the United States, the UK, France, China, and Russia – plus Germany). President Trump has expressed a willingness to pull the United States out of the deal unless Iran agrees to significant changes to its terms. The panel will consider the implications of the Description administration’s position on the Iran deal, the future of the JCPOA, and the politics of Iran’s nuclear program more broadly. Panelists include: Ariane Tabatabai, Director of Curriculum, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University Jon Wolfsthal, Director, Nuclear Crisis Group Annie Tracy Samuel, Assistant Professor of History, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Martin Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom, Harvard Belfer Center

Sponsors Consortium for Nonproliferation Enabling Capabilities

May 4, 2018 Community Event: Heart of a River Concert Time 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm Location Reedy Creek Middle School 930 Reedy Creek Road, Cary, NC 27513 Categories Concert Join the Association for India’s Development – NC RTP Chapter for an evening of Mystical Santoor, Sufi and Bollywood music to help rejuvenate Rivers & Streams in drought affected Jharkand and West Bengal, India. Featuring: Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya – Santoor, Afroz Taj and John Caldwell – Original Sufi Compositions, Cosmic Horizon – Band playing Sufi Songs, Description Dharayen – An Adivasi musical on moods of a river, and Bollywood Melodies by the Mayur Jharna Project. An Exhibition of Clothes and Jewelry from the region will be available for sale at the show. Spice & Curry is sponsoring the event and will have a stall for snacks and dinner for purchase. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit here. AID is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, all donations are tax-deductible.

Sponsors Association for India’s Development - NC RTP Chapter and Spice & Curry.

Persian Art Center in Carolina: “Subjectivity and Transgression in ‘Attar’s Works” with Dr. May 6, 2018 Claudia Yaghoobi Time 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation, cultural event, concert Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi, Coordinator of the UNC Persian program and Roshan Institute Assistant Professor in Persian Studies on subjectivity and transgression in ‘Attar’s Works. The program will begin with a social from 5:00- Description 5:30pm. There will be a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 5:30-5:40pm. From 5:45- 6:45pm, there will be a presentation by Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi followed by discussion. From 7:30- 8:00pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

May 6, 2018 Literary Forum: Urdu Majlis on the life and works of Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006) Time 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Location Room 219, New West UNC Chapel Hill Categories Lecture Please join us on Sunday, May 6, for the next monthly meeting of Urdu Majlis, the Triangle’s Literary Forum. This Urdu Majlis will concentrate on the life and works of Ahmad Description Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006), Urdu and English language Pakistani poet, journalist, literary critic, dramatist and short story author. Participants are invited to bring refreshments to share. Sponsors Carolina Asia Center and the South Asia Section of the UNC Dept. of Asian Studies

Public Talk: “The Politics of Rationalist Philosophy in Arab Andalus, and the Reception of Hayy May 8, 2018 ibn Yaqdhanin Britain” by Samedin Kadic Time 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Location FedEx Global Education Center, Room 4003 UNC Chapel Hill Categories Presentation, lecture Join us for a presentation by Samedin Kadic, Visiting Fulbright Scholar from the Faculty of Islamic Theology, University of Sarajevo. Kadic will discuss “The Politics of Rationalist Philosophy in Arab Andalus, and the Reception of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan in Britain.” In 1671 a bilingual text in Arabic and Latin was published at Oxford, entitled the Philosophus autodidactus. The translation was made by Edwarde Pococke under the supervision of his father Dr. Edward Pococke. Philosophus Description autodidactus became literally a best-seller within a short period of time. The text was Hayy b. Yaqzan’s, a philosophical novel that was written in Arabic in a twelfth century by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl. Historical impact of this book in world’s intellectual culture was massive. We can find it all over Europe — in philosophy, science, and in educational doctrines. Samedin Kadic is a visiting scholar at the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. Sponsors Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

May 22, 2018 Cultural Event: Ramadan Dinner (Fast Breaking) at IITS/Divan Center Time 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm (Recurring, May 23, May 30, June 6, June 9, June 12, June 13 Location 1391 SE Maynard Road Cary, NC Categories Cultural event

The Institute of Islamic and Turkish Studies (www.iitsnc.org) and Divan Center are two non- profit organizations located in Cary. One of our goals is to bring together different communities in order to promote compassion, cooperation, partnership, and community service through interfaith activities. We would like to invite you, members from your congregation and your friends to break bread together with our Muslim community members in the lunar Islamic month of Ramadan in an interfaith setting. We will gather around the same table to enjoy delicious Turkish meals and to share a spiritual, interfaith atmosphere in this sacred month. Please kindly let us know whether you could honor us with your presence in one of our Description Ramadan dinners. If so, please RSVP through this link by May 18th, Friday. The dinner will start with a short pre- dinner presentation on various topics related to Islamic faith and also our organizational background. This will be followed by a question and answer session. You will have a chance to interact with our community members during the dinner at sunset (around 8:15 PM). Program: 7:30 pm: Presentation by IITS/Divan Center 8:00 pm: Question and Answer 8:15 pm: Iftar Dinner (Fast Breaking)

Sponsors Institute of Islamic and Turkish Studies and Divan Center

June 3, 2018 Persian Art Center in Carolina: “Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr” with Dr. Carl Ernst Time 4:00 pm - 7:30 pm Location 400 Oak Tree Drive (The Club House) Chapel Hill, NC 27517 Categories Presentation, cultural event, concert Join the Persian Art Center in Carolina for a presentation by Dr. Carl Ernst, William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, on Description the poetry of Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, an early Sufi mystic. The program will begin with a social from 4:00-4:30pm. There will be a welcome and introduction by Dr. Amir Rezvani, 4:30- 4:45pm. From 4:45-6:00pm, there will be a presentation by Dr. Ersnt followed by discussion. From 6:45-7:30pm, there will be live Persian music and poetry readings by the audience. Sponsors Persian Art Center in Carolina

June 3, 2018 Ramadan Iftar: Serve Hope Time 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm Location Mediterranean Deli, Bakery & Catering 410 West Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Categories Cultural event, dinner Proceeds from this special Iftar will send food and relief to families in Palestine and Lebanon. Description Come mingle and enjoy a meal with old and new friends. We are featuring Teen Vogue’s Abeer Najjar, who will demonstrate and share a delicious dessert creation. Sponsors ANERA and Mediterranean Deli

June 16, 2018 Cultural Event: "Eid al-Fitr Panel Discussion" Time 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Location Museum of Durham History 500 W. Main St., Durham, NC Categories Cultural event

Please join us Saturday, June 16 from 4:00pm-5:30pm at the Museum of Durham History (500 W. Main St.) for a program to mark the end of Ramadan. The Museum, in collaboration with Ar- Razzaq Islamic Center, will host a panel discussion focusing on the African-American Muslim experience in the United States, particularly the South and North Carolina. This discussion is part of the Museum’s ongoing programming surrounding our current exhibition Building Bridges through Good Faith, which chronicles the Ar-Razzaq community and its contributions to Description Durham. This FREE event is open to the public and will feature scholars, educators, and spiritual leaders, sharing their thoughts and insights on a range of topics, from the roots of African- American Muslims in America to addressing their concerns in today’s social climate. The event is part of a greater community celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fast of Ramadan. Guest Speakers include: Rashida James-Saadiya (Moderator), Rhonda Murray Muhammad, PhD (Panelist), Imam Abdul hafeez Waheed (Panelist), Youssef Carter (Panelist), and Imam Greg Rashad (Panelist).

Sponsors Museum of Durham History, supported by the Building Bridges 2016-17 Grants Program of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (DDFIA), and the North Carolina Arts Council

June 30, 2018 Cultural Event: Eid Around the World Time 11:00 am - 3:00 pm Location Islamic Association of Raleigh 808 Atwater St., Raleigh, NC 27607 Categories Cultural event The Islamic Association of Raleigh invites you to the celebration of Eid Al-Fitr – the celebration marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Come with your family and friends to learn about how Muslims celebrate Eid Al-Fitr, the most joyous time of the Islamic year. As diverse as Description the Muslim world is, the celebrations for Eid are also full of variety and traditions. Join us for an afternoon of culture, colorful costumes, festive displays, delicious food samples, and a chance to connect with our diverse Muslim population from around the globe. Sponsors Islamic Association of Raleigh