Islam, The Public and Private Spheres
5 to 7 December 2002, New York, United States
The distinction between public and private is one of
society's most crucial and contested issues. Islam, the
world's most populous religion, is also, at least in the
West, perhaps the most misunderstood. This conference
explores the diversity of Islamic societies worldwide,
probing their varying conceptions of privacy as a way of
illuminating how these societies resemble and differ from
each other and our own, at a time when this
understanding is of critical importance.
Conference Program:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5th
Session 1: Keynote Address 6:00 - 7:30 p.m
Understandings of public and private in Islamic societies.
Speaker: Abdolkarim Soroush
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6th
Session 2: Islamic Law: Boundaries and Rights:
Case Studies 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
How are questions of boundaries and rights negotiated in
states governed by Sharia? How do these negotiations
compare with those in predominantly Muslim states
governed by civil law, or possibly Islamic communities in
the diaspora?
Speakers: Baber Johansen, Brinkley Messick, Roy
Mottahedeh, Frank Vogel. Moderator: Talal Asad
Session 3: Individual, Family, Community and State:
Case Studies 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
What is the concept of the individual? How are
distinctions between public and private articulated within
and across the boundaries of individual, family,
community and state?
Speakers: Juan Cole, Nilufer Gole, Mehrangiz Kar, Saba
Mahmood. Moderator: Leila Ahmed
Session 4: Media and Information: Case Studies
6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Who determines what and how information is made
public? What is the role of the media in civil society and
its impact on privacy?
Speakers: Geneive Abdo, Jon Anderson, Hafez al-Mirazi,
Hassan Mneimneh. Moderator: TBA
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7th
Session 5: Representations of Privacy in Literature and
Film: Case Studies 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
How are the concepts of privacy and the private sphere
interpreted and represented in literature and film?
Speakers: Hamid Dabashi, Assia Djebar, Azar Nafisi,
Orhan Pamuk. Moderator: Farhad Kazemi
Session 6: Film Screening and Discussion 2:00p.m. -
4:00 p.m. WAITING (Iran, 1975), A film by Amir Naderi.
The film will be followed by a discussion between Amir
Naderi and Hamid Dabashi focusing on how privacy is
represented in this and other of his films.
Moderator: Hamid Dabashi
Admission to this conference is $30 or $7 for each
individual session. Full-time students with a valid ID are
admitted free.
For more information or to register for the conference
please see our website at http://www.socres.org
E-mail enquiries: [log in to unmask]
Organized by: Social Research Journal
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