Events

Public Lecture: Love, Fear, Anger, Sorrow: Diseases of the Soul in "Islamicate" Literature

Sometime before the turn of the 8th century AD, the ruling Caliph of the Islamic world at the time, ʿAbdalmalik b. Marwān, summoned one of his court poets named Arṭāt b. Suhayya. “Will you be composing any poetry today?” asked the Caliph. “My God, how can I?” Arṭāt the poet answered. “I’m not feeling bittersweet, I’m not angry, I’m not drinking, and I don’t feel longing for anything. Poetry proceeds only from one of these four states.”

This short anecdote and others like it are the basis of this lecture, which shows how literature, art, philosophy, history, religion—in other words, the humanities in general—are all about people making sense of their experiences, most especially of their emotions. Or as W.H. Auden said of poetry, they are “the clear expression of mixed feelings.” Together, we will explore how and why this happens in the literatures of the Islamic world.

Kevin Blankinship is an assistant professor at Brigham Young University, where he teaches Arabic and Islamic Studies. His research is about classical Arabic literature, and he is now writing a book about animals in the works of 11th-century satirist, moralist, and witty man of letters al-Ma`arri. Dr. Blankinship’s work has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, the Independent Research Fund Denmark, and the University of Utah. He is also a contributing editor at New Lines Magazine and has written for popular press venues like The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Foreign Policy.

Professor Blankinship will give his lecture Monday, December 4 at 5:00pm in Stone Auditorium in the Woldenberg Art Building, followed by a catered reception. This event is sponsored by the Middle East & North African Studies Program and the Medieval & Early Modern Studies Program, with funding from the Center for Scholars.

MENA Film Night: The Blue Caftan

Thursday, November 9, 2023, 6:00pm      
Newcomb Hall 308

The Blue Caftan, directed by Maryam Touzani (2022) is the haunting story of Halim and Mina, who run a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco's oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire a young man named Youssef; slowly, Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was chosen to represent Morocco in the 2023 Oscars shortlist in the "International Feature Film" category.

The screening will be moderated by PhD student Emilie Hautemont with a Q&A afterwards.

Jack of all trades; Master of none! A Lecture by Ali Behdad (UCLA)

October 30, 6 pm      
Stone Auditorium

This reflexive talk addresses the challenges of engaging in literary studies in an era marked by the expansion of the literary globe. It argues that there is a value in viewing the work of literary comparison as a form of scholarly amateurism that embraces intellectual mobility and shuns specialization that academic institutions often valorize. It elaborates a model of literary scholarship that is critical towards the narrowness of disciplinary formation and the lure of mastery that comes with the cult of expertise.

Ali Behdad is John Charles Hillis Chair in Literature, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and the Director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies at UCLA. He has published widely on issues of travel, immigration, Orientalism, photography, and Postcolonialism, including three books, Belated Travelers: Orientalism in the Age of Colonial Dissolution (Duke University Press, 1994), A Forgetful Nation: On Immigration and Cultural Identity in the United States (Duke University Press, 2005), and Camera Orientalis: Reflections on photography of the Middle East (U. of Chicago Press, 2016) He is also the co-editor of A Companion to Comparative Literature (Blackwell, 2011) and Photography’s Orientalism: New Essays on Colonial Representation (Getty Research Institute, 2013).

Sponsored by Tulane School of Liberal Arts

Edging Toward Iberia: Theory and Practice. A Symposium honoring Jean Dangler

Tuesday, October 27 2023, 9:00-4:15      
Jones Hall 100A • Greenleaf Conference Room Tulane University

Co-sponsored with the Center for Scholars of the School of Liberal Arts, the Newcomb Institute, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Medieval & Early Modern Studies at Tulane University.

MENA Film Night: Wanderers of the Desert

Monday, Oct 23, 2023, 6:00 PM      
Newcomb Hall 404

Evocative and mysterious, Wanderers of the Desert (Les Baliseurs du désert), directed by Nacer Khémir, captures southern Tunisia in a near-mythological form. A young teacher arrives to take over a remote village school isolated in the desert to find that there is no school, only disparate talk of the “wanderers,” a group of men from the village who left, and now spend their lives walking the desert, singing in unison. In the village, the young teacher discovers a singular and unreal world, where magic and reality intertwine.

The screening will be moderated by PhD student Carolina McPhail with a Q&A afterwards.

MENA Film Night: Babam ve Oglum (My Father and My Son)

Tuesday, October 3 2023, 6:00 PM      
Newcomb Hall 403

Please join the Middle East North African Studies Program for the first film in the 2023-2024 MENA Film Night Series, Babam ve Oglum (My Father and my son), 2005. Directed by Çağan Irmak, the film tells the story of how the family of a left-wing journalist is torn apart after the 1980 military coup in Turkey.

The screening will be moderated by Professor Esra Özcan with a Q&A afterwards.

“Made of Smokeless Fire,” an exhibition by Camille Farrah Lenain

Monday, April 24 – Friday, May 19      
Newcomb Hall Third Floor Hallway      
Co-sponsored with the Kathryn B. Gore Chair in French Studies

“Feu Sans Fumée” (Made Of Smokeless Fire) is an exploration of LGBTQIA+ identities within Muslim culture in France. This project is an homage to my uncle Farid who passed away in 2013. Without the ability to speak with him, I turned towards other people carrying these plural identities, often underrepresented and misunderstood.      
- Camille F Lenain

Abdellah Taia: “Salvation Army.” Film Screening and Q&A with Abdellah Taia.

Monday, April 24, 5 pm      
Stone Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center Co-sponsored with the Kathryn B. Gore Chair of French Studies      
Contact: Edwige Tamalet Talbayev (etamalet@tulane.edu)

MENA Studies Film Night: “The Kite-Runner” (2007).

Tuesday, February 28, 6 pm      
Newcomb Hall 308

Dir. Marc Forster      
Based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini      
In Dari, Pashtu, Urdu, and English with English subtitles      
Followed by a Q & A with Tulane Global Visiting Scholar Mariam Taqaddusi

Contact: Mariam Taqaddusi (mtaqaddusi@tulane.edu)

Driss Ksikes “Les Sentiers de l’Indiscipline”

Monday, December 5, 5:30      
LBC 202 (Rechler Conference Room)      
Co-sponsored by the School of Liberal Arts, Department of French and Italian.

Contact: Edwige Tamalet Talbayev (etamalet@tulane.edu).

Arab and Mediterranean Cuisine and Music Event

Friday, November 4th, 1:00 – 3:30 pm      
Audubon Park, Shelter 25

Don't miss out on some great food and some great tunes!

Contact: Khedidja Boudaba (kboudaba@tulane.edu)

MENA Studies Film Night: "Persepolis" (2007)

November 3rd, 6:00 pm: NH 308

Dir. Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud      
Based on the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi      
In Persian, German, English, and French with English subtitles

Followed by a Q&A with Professor Andrew Leber      
Light refreshments will be served

Contact: Andrew Leber (aleber@tulane.edu)

Arabic Movie Night: "The Yacoubian Building" (dir. Marwan Ahmed).

October 18, 5 pm: NH 404      
In Arabic with English subtitles. Followed by a Q&A.

Contact: Bouchaib Gadir (bgadir@tulane.edu).