International Conference "Shakespeare's Imagined Orient", at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon, 4-6 May 2011
www.aub.edu.lb/conferences/shake_orient/
Description: "Shakespeare studies has recently experienced a noticeable and dramatic geographical shift. As the textual landscape of Shakespeare's drama changes, it takes on new forms and now points to new horizons, namely the East and the Orient, and more particularly the Levant. From the blasted heaths of England, Shakespeare moves to the most arid and yet fertile soils of the Levant. The aim of the conference, in this emergent field, is to reconsider Shakespeare's diffusion from both Pre and Postcolonial Middle Eastern perspectives and to examine Shakespeare's critical relevance to understanding religion and politics on both a local scale (in the Middle East/the Orient) and globally. Reaching across disciplinary boundaries, Shakespeare's Imagined Orient aims to prove how the critical and artistic reception of Shakespeare in the Orient is paramount to apprehending and reinventing Shakespeare as a cultural and social bridge uniting the 'East' and the 'West' in the landscape of global culture.
"The organisers of the conference hope to offer a critical insight into Shakespeare and Early Modern political theology that would help refashion, remap broader issues that engage the status of cultural and religious identity, nation, and individuality in the landscape of global culture. With such issues in mind, we invite submissions concerning the following range of topics: Representations of the Orient in Shakespeare's Work; Christian/Muslim Representation/Interaction on Shakespeare's/the Early Modern stage; Local/Global Shakespeare (from a Middle Eastern perspective); Shakespeare's Women and The Orient; Desire, Phantasm, and the Orient; Identity and Nationhood; Material Culture and the Imagined Orient on Shakespeare's Stage."
Both paper abstracts (300 words) and session proposals are invited. Proposals should be sent as a Word file and include your name, institution, city and state or country, e-mail address, and phone number. Please attach a brief CV. E-mail your abstracts/session proposals to the conference chair, Prof François-Xavier Gleyzon (AUB), to whom you may also address questions: Shakespeare&theOrient@gmail.com
Deadline: 21 January 2011
Notifications will be sent by 15 February 2011.
Please note that each presentation is limited to 25 minutes (including questions).
Keynote speakers: Jonathan Burton (West Virginia University), Gerald MacLean (University of Exeter), Margaret Litvin (Boston University), and Daniel Vitkus (Florida State University).
The conference is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the British Council, the Anis K. Makdisi Program in Literature, the Office of the Provost, the Center for American Studies and Research, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at AUB.
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
15 November 2010
20 August 2010
Report on the Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010: Political theology goes East and South
The first event held by the Geneva-based Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) in conjunction with its "Political Theology Agenda" blog, the Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010, was a full success.
It took place on 18 and 19 August 2010 at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland. Bossey doubles as an institute of the University of Geneva since all degrees awarded there (Masters and PhD degrees in Ecumenical Studies) are granted by the University of Geneva.
Keynote speakers were Professor Aliakbar Alikhani, Head of the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran, Iran, and Professor Galip Veliu from the Department of Philosophy at the State University of Tetovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 attracted seventeen papers submitted by participants from institutions such as University College London, the University of Birmingham (both UK), the University of Helsinki (Finland), the University of Quebec at Montreal (Canada), the University of Tehran (Iran), the University of the Punjab (Pakistan), the University of South Africa, the University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Malaysia, Universitas Nasional at Jakarta (Indonesia), and San Beda College in Manila (the Philippines). Other countries represented include Macedonia, Romania, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Nigeria.
Speakers – from doctoral candidates to full professors – came from the disciplines of Political Science, Philosophy, Political Theory, Theology, Church History, and Islamic Studies, giving theoretical as well as empirical presentations on subjects including secularization and religious pluralism, political theology, black theology, liberation theology, and radical Islam.
After Pisa, Italy, in 2007 and Paris, France, in 2008, this was the third symposium on political theology organized by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society and, once more, it opened up new frontiers for political theology. It was by far the most international event we ever organized (and quite possibly the most international event on political theology to take place anywhere as yet) with five participants from Iran alone and scores of submissions (not all accepted) from the Middle East and East Asia as well as Africa. Taken together with a high number of submissions from (South-)Eastern Europe, there is a significant trend to be observed: after gaining momentum in the Anglophone countries over the past few years, the study of political theology now goes East and South, spreading to Asia and Africa.
The Political Theology Agenda blog and the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society will continue to be at the forefront of these developments.
(On the downside, all prospective American and Israeli participants withdrew, one by one, from the symposium once they knew that there would be Iranians present. Way to encourage dialogue.)
It took place on 18 and 19 August 2010 at the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Château de Bossey, near Geneva, Switzerland. Bossey doubles as an institute of the University of Geneva since all degrees awarded there (Masters and PhD degrees in Ecumenical Studies) are granted by the University of Geneva.
Keynote speakers were Professor Aliakbar Alikhani, Head of the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Tehran, Iran, and Professor Galip Veliu from the Department of Philosophy at the State University of Tetovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Political Theology Agenda Symposium 2010 attracted seventeen papers submitted by participants from institutions such as University College London, the University of Birmingham (both UK), the University of Helsinki (Finland), the University of Quebec at Montreal (Canada), the University of Tehran (Iran), the University of the Punjab (Pakistan), the University of South Africa, the University of Zimbabwe, the National University of Malaysia, Universitas Nasional at Jakarta (Indonesia), and San Beda College in Manila (the Philippines). Other countries represented include Macedonia, Romania, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Nigeria.
Speakers – from doctoral candidates to full professors – came from the disciplines of Political Science, Philosophy, Political Theory, Theology, Church History, and Islamic Studies, giving theoretical as well as empirical presentations on subjects including secularization and religious pluralism, political theology, black theology, liberation theology, and radical Islam.
After Pisa, Italy, in 2007 and Paris, France, in 2008, this was the third symposium on political theology organized by the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society and, once more, it opened up new frontiers for political theology. It was by far the most international event we ever organized (and quite possibly the most international event on political theology to take place anywhere as yet) with five participants from Iran alone and scores of submissions (not all accepted) from the Middle East and East Asia as well as Africa. Taken together with a high number of submissions from (South-)Eastern Europe, there is a significant trend to be observed: after gaining momentum in the Anglophone countries over the past few years, the study of political theology now goes East and South, spreading to Asia and Africa.
The Political Theology Agenda blog and the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society will continue to be at the forefront of these developments.
(On the downside, all prospective American and Israeli participants withdrew, one by one, from the symposium once they knew that there would be Iranians present. Way to encourage dialogue.)
26 January 2010
Book: Faith-Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq
T. Walter Herbert, "Faith-Based War: From 9/11 to Catastrophic Success in Iraq" (Equinox, October 2009).From the description on Amazon: "The Bush administration was prompted to invade Iraq by a religious vision that blinded them to the realities of the struggle against terror, and propelled them into moral and political catastrophe. The propaganda campaign that promoted the war, the choice of a self-defeating 'Shock and Awe' invasion, and the expanded torture program bear witness to a faith-based policy that violated democratic ideals and perverted religious truth. The White House embraced a version of Christian nationalism in which the president serves as the agent of God's of wrath to punish evildoers, in keeping with a tradition that descends from the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, who considered themselves a 'chosen people' occupying a 'promised land.' As native peoples resisted Puritan encroachment at the frontiers of expansion, they were marked as devils incarnate, fit for total destruction.
"A modern version of this imperialist vision was invoked on 9/11, when the social and political conditions giving rise to the terrorist atrocity were forgotten, and sanctimonious wrath against evildoers ruled the White House response. At the heart of this religious mythology stands the 'frontier hero,' who takes action when the 'not chosen' strike back against the advance guard of the 'chosen.' [...] The classic mythology of the American frontier allowed Christian militarists in the Religious Right of the Republican party to make common cause with broad sectors of the American public. They achieved predominant influence in the Bush White House, and in the future will seek to regain control over U.S. foreign policy."
www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=169
Reviews: "In trying to expose the flawed political theology that may indeed animate too much of American foreign policy, Herbert simply exchanges one troubling political theology for another. Offended by the Right's secularized 'city on a hill' of imperialism and cultural and economic hegemony, he embraces the Left's secularized 'city on a hill' of international social justice. Disturbed by the Right's politicized Jesus who endorses 'Christian Americanism,' he embraces the Left's politicized Jesus who advocates a new order of humanitarian sympathy." (Richard Gamble, "The American Conservative")
"Herbert's Faith-Based War is a fascinating and richly perceptive blend of social ethical, political, theological, and historical analysis on the moral problem of American empire. Showing the relevance of political theology, it builds to a stunning meditation on the contradictions of 'Christian empire' currently playing out in Iraq." (Gary Dorrien, Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University)
T. Walter Herbert is Professor Emeritus of English at Southwestern University.
18 December 2009
CFP: Sainthood in Fragile States
A seminar of the Danish Research School of Regional Studies and the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies of the University of Copenhagen, taking place at the Danish Institute in Damascus, Syria,
12-15 April 2010
http://regionalestudier.hum.ku.dk/konferencer/sainthood/
Call for papers: "Sainthood in Fragile States"
This seminar discusses the creation, adaptation, or denunciations of claims to sainthood in local, regional, and national discourses in the Middle East, including political theologies.
Within recent decades the question of sainthood, in various meanings of the term, has emerged as a powerful theme in negotiating identities. The legitimacy of sainthood is increasingly contested, yet often nation states make use of claims to holiness as consolidating figures, while simultaneously maintaining an ambivalent position toward the legitimacy of individual claims to sainthood. From Christians performing miracles, to Islamic denunciation of saint pilgrimages, to insistence on venerating local saints, to national discourse rooted in venerated figures, sainthood "matters" in that it is not clearly discernable to all parties what makes the specific saint exceptional or to what degree sainthood is embodied.
Recognition of sainthood relies on a complex negotiation of the relationship between the visible, the forces of the unseen, authority, and creation of alternative realities. The qualities of sainthood can thus best be conceptualized as both pertaining to existential and structural dimensions, as fragile states, where mixed motivations emphasize the possibilities and dangers in the life of the individual as well as the nation.
This seminar aims at discussing how such relationships and claims are accepted, contested, or existing in parallel, and thereby has a bearing on social and political life in the Middle East.
The organizers hereby aim to challenge the way both politics and theologies are being conceptualized for contemporary Middle East, in that modernity and religious awakening both make way for disenchantment and re-enchantment. These can be seen as coterminous or opening zones of indeterminacy in which many aspects take place at the same time, with varying social outcome.
Questions that could be addressed: What makes a saint, or what qualities of sainthood apply across social, political, and religious contexts? How is "sainthood" used in negotiating identities at various levels of society? How is evidence of efficacy negotiated? What evidence is applied to substantiate relationships between the seen and the unseen, or revelation and concealment? How is the relationship between politics and theology, the "political theologies", negotiated around figures of sainthood or sanctity?
Abstracts (approx. 300 words) are to be submitted to Andreas Bandak (University of Copenhagen): bandak@hum.ku.dk
Deadline: 12 January 2010
Participants will arrange for their own transportation. The seminar will pay for visa, accommodation, and food, from the evening of the 12th to the evening of the 15th.
Form: The seminar will bring together senior and upcoming Danish and international scholars for a joint investigation of issues of sainthood in contemporary Middle East. Perspectives from all disciplines are encouraged. Keynote speakers will give 45-minute presentations, and PhD students are invited to give 30-minute presentations. All papers are followed by joint discussion. The organizers' aim is to publish the proceedings from the seminar.
Keynotes: Lisa Wedeen (Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Glenn Bowman (Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Kent)
Organizers: Andreas Bandak (PhD Fellow, Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen) and Mikkel Bille (Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)
See also suggested readings at the above web link.
12-15 April 2010
http://regionalestudier.hum.ku.dk/konferencer/sainthood/
Call for papers: "Sainthood in Fragile States"
This seminar discusses the creation, adaptation, or denunciations of claims to sainthood in local, regional, and national discourses in the Middle East, including political theologies.
Within recent decades the question of sainthood, in various meanings of the term, has emerged as a powerful theme in negotiating identities. The legitimacy of sainthood is increasingly contested, yet often nation states make use of claims to holiness as consolidating figures, while simultaneously maintaining an ambivalent position toward the legitimacy of individual claims to sainthood. From Christians performing miracles, to Islamic denunciation of saint pilgrimages, to insistence on venerating local saints, to national discourse rooted in venerated figures, sainthood "matters" in that it is not clearly discernable to all parties what makes the specific saint exceptional or to what degree sainthood is embodied.
Recognition of sainthood relies on a complex negotiation of the relationship between the visible, the forces of the unseen, authority, and creation of alternative realities. The qualities of sainthood can thus best be conceptualized as both pertaining to existential and structural dimensions, as fragile states, where mixed motivations emphasize the possibilities and dangers in the life of the individual as well as the nation.
This seminar aims at discussing how such relationships and claims are accepted, contested, or existing in parallel, and thereby has a bearing on social and political life in the Middle East.
The organizers hereby aim to challenge the way both politics and theologies are being conceptualized for contemporary Middle East, in that modernity and religious awakening both make way for disenchantment and re-enchantment. These can be seen as coterminous or opening zones of indeterminacy in which many aspects take place at the same time, with varying social outcome.
Questions that could be addressed: What makes a saint, or what qualities of sainthood apply across social, political, and religious contexts? How is "sainthood" used in negotiating identities at various levels of society? How is evidence of efficacy negotiated? What evidence is applied to substantiate relationships between the seen and the unseen, or revelation and concealment? How is the relationship between politics and theology, the "political theologies", negotiated around figures of sainthood or sanctity?
Abstracts (approx. 300 words) are to be submitted to Andreas Bandak (University of Copenhagen): bandak@hum.ku.dk
Deadline: 12 January 2010
Participants will arrange for their own transportation. The seminar will pay for visa, accommodation, and food, from the evening of the 12th to the evening of the 15th.
Form: The seminar will bring together senior and upcoming Danish and international scholars for a joint investigation of issues of sainthood in contemporary Middle East. Perspectives from all disciplines are encouraged. Keynote speakers will give 45-minute presentations, and PhD students are invited to give 30-minute presentations. All papers are followed by joint discussion. The organizers' aim is to publish the proceedings from the seminar.
Keynotes: Lisa Wedeen (Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago) and Glenn Bowman (Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, University of Kent)
Organizers: Andreas Bandak (PhD Fellow, Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen) and Mikkel Bille (Assistant Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen)
See also suggested readings at the above web link.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
