Events > Archive > Fall 2008 Conferences and Talks

Talk: “Self-Orientalization or Revitalization: The Decline Discourses in Egypt and Turkey”

A talk by
Akif Kireççi
Assistant Professor of History, Bilkent University

Discussed by
Richard Bulliet
Professor of History, Columbia University

A reception will follow.

Date: November 20, 2008
Time: 12:15-1:45 pm
Location: International Affairs Building, Room 801 (420 West 118th Street)

This talk is part of the Religion and Politics Lecture Series, which is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR), Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL), and The Middle East Institute (MEI).

For more information, please contact Ahmet Kuru at ak2840@columbia.edu.

Distinguished Senior Scholar in Residence: Charles Taylor

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at McGill University and Templeton Prize-winning author of A Secular Age (2007).

The Secular Age in a Global Context
Date: Wednesday, November 19
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Kellogg Center, International Affairs Building, Room 1501

Co-sponsored with Center for Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Committee on Global Thought (CGT).

What is Enchantment?
Date: Monday, November 17
Time: 8-10pm
Location: International Affairs Building, Room 1501

Co-sponsored with Center for Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR); Committee on Global Thought (CGT); and Heyman Center for the Humanities.

Talk: “Funny Jihad: Islamophobia and Muslim Ethnic Comedy”

A talk by
Mucahit Bilici
Assistant Professor of Sociology, John Jay College

Discussant:
Taylor Carman
Professor of Philosophy, Barnard College

Abstract:
Since the tragic events of 9/11, there has been an upsurge in ethnic comedy by Muslims in America. More and more Muslim individuals (among them Azhar Usman, Ahmed Ahmed, and Maz Jobrani) and groups such as Allah Made Me Funny and Axis of Evil are appearing on stage with comic routines-and attracting larger and larger non-Muslim audiences. Paradoxically, a tragedy that triggered widespread Islamophobia in American society seems also to have opened the field for Muslim comedy. This talk will explore the landscape of Muslim ethnic comedy in the United States and its intricate relationship with Islamophobia.

Prof. Bilici received his PhD from the University of Michigan with the dissertation entitled "Finding Mecca in America: American Muslims and Cultural Citizenship." A cultural sociologist, he has done ethnographic research on various aspects of the cultural settlement of Islam in the United States. He is currently at work on a book that explores previously unexamined dimensions of Muslim cultural citizenship in America, including questions of how America is made Muslim (e.g., qibla codification, Islamizing English, and the appropriation of America as a Muslim homeland) and how Muslims are made American through various citizenship practices (among them civil rights advocacy, interfaith activism and ethnic comedy).

Date: November 18, 2008
Time: 4:15-5:45 pm
Place: Room 801, IAB

A reception will follow the talk.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR), Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP), and the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL).

For more information: Ahmet Kuru: ak2840@columbia.edu

Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan: “Turkey's Role in Shaping the Future”

This World Leaders Forum program features a keynote address by
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

Date: November 13, 2008 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm EST
Location: Columbia University, Morningside Campus, The Italian Academy, Teatro

Hosted by
Alan Brinkley
Provost and Allan Nevins Professor of American History at Columbia University

The program will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience, moderated by
Alfred C. Stepan
Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at the School of International and Public Affairs, director of the Center for Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion, and co-director of the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life, at Columbia University

This event is co-sponsored by the School of International and Public Affairs; the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL); the Center for Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR); and the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

For more information, and to register, please visit www.worldleaders.columbia.edu

Discussion: “Rethinking Secularism: Rajeev Bhargava, José Casanova, and Alfred Stepan”

Rethinking Secularism: Refining the Concepts of 'Public Religions,' 'Principled Distance' and the 'Twin Tolerations'

A public roundtable with Rajeev Bhargava (Center for the Study of Developing Societies), José Casanova (Georgetown University) and Alfred Stepan (Columbia University).

Date: Thursday, November 13
Time: 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Location: International Affairs Building, Room 802 (420 West 118th Street)

Co-sponsored with Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and Center for Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

Conference: “600 Years of Religious Conflict and Accommodation in India”

A conference on India's tradition of social peace and tolerance in public life, an example that demonstrates a successful democracy does not depend on the decline of religious belief in society.

Convened by Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, and Rajeev Bhargava, Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, and Director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies.

Date: Monday, November 10
Time: 10am-1pm
Location: Kellogg Center, International Affairs Building, Room 1512

The conference is cosponsored with the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life.

Conference: “Transforming Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on Turkey”

Date: March 6-7, 2009
Time: TBA
Location: TBA