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Orientalism and Fundamentalism in Jewish and Islamic Critique: A Conference Honoring Sadik al-Azm

January 26-28, Thursday to Saturday, 2006
Convened by Professor Susannah Heschel
Funded by the Ford Foundation

This conference will examine the work of our keynote speaker, Professor Sadik al-Azm, professor of philosophy at the University of Damascus and a leading progressive Arab intellectual in political and religious matters. Papers will focus on two of the most influential aspects of Prof. al-Azm's work, his critique of orientalism and his analysis of Islamic fundamentalism.

Participating are scholars who are also public intellectuals and who will have an opportunity to discuss linkages among religion, nationalism, and gender. In addition, the conference will serve to establish connections between scholars of Jewish Studies and Islamic Studies.

Both Sadik al-Azm and the other invited speakers will examine the role played by the emerging Western discourse of Islamic extremism in creating the resurgence of a politicized right-wing Christianity in the United States and, conversely, the role within Islamic communities of the awareness of Christian evangelical hostility toward Islam and liberalism. Even as Muslims are being called upon to create democratic, liberal institutions, Christian evangelicals are perceived to be questioning or even rejecting democratic and liberal foundations. As Sadik al-Azm has made clear in his writings, the Islamicate world views such Christian ambivalence with some suspicion, even as it insists - mistakenly, in his view - that the very term "fundamentalism" is imbued with Christian assumptions and cannot be applied to Islam. As a pioneering critic, Professor al-Azm has demonstrated the biases on both the Christian and Muslim sides and has sought ways to overcome the alleged incomparability of contemporary Christian and Muslim religious movements.

For more information, contact Meredyth Morley, Dept Admin, 603-646-8172

Conference Program (Free and Open to the Public)
January 26-28, 2006

Thursday, 2-6 pm: Opening Session, Alumni Hall, Hopkins Center:

Welcome: Susannah Heschel
Moderator: Gene Garthwaite, Dartmouth College

• Klaus Mladek, Dartmouth College, "The Withdrawal of Law: Neoconservatism and Fundamentalism in the Age of Exception"
• Christina von Braun, Humboldt University, "The Symbol of the Veil in Transcultural Phantasy"
• Derek Penslar, University of Toronto, "Zionism Through the Lens of Subaltern Studies"
• Elora Shehabuddin, Rice University, "Women at the Muslim Center: Islamist Ideals and Democratic Exigencies"

Keynote address: 8 pm, Top of the Hop, Hopkins Center:

Moderator: Michael Ermarth, Dartmouth College

Abraham Udovitch, Princeton University, "From Holocaust to Jihad: How the Messiah Came to Lubavitch"

Friday 9-12, 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center

Moderator: Veronika Fuechtner, Dartmouth College

• Jennifer Fluri, Dartmouth College, "The Spectacle of Orientalist Feminisms"
• Nina Caputo, University of Florida, "Reviewing the Cases for Convivencia: The Politics of Representing Medieval Iberian Jewry"
• Lital Levy, UC Berkeley, "The "Re-Orientation" of Jewish Modernity: Notes on Jewish Literature and History in the Modern Middle East"

Keynote address: 2:00 pm, 105 Dartmouth

Moderator: Dale Eickelman, Dartmouth College

Sadik al-Azm, University of Damascus, "Orientalism and Fundamentalism Re-Visited"

Reception Hayward Lounge, Hanover Inn, 4 pm
Co-Sponsored by the Dartmouth Centers Forum

Saturday 10-12, 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center

Moderator: Anne Saadah, Dartmouth College

• Carrie Wickham, Emory University, "Islamist Auto-Reform in the Arab World: Causes, Dynamics and Implications for the Future"
• Kevin Reinhart, Dartmouth College, "Fundamentalism and the Transparency of the Arabic Qur'an"

Sadik al-Azm responds

Saturday 2-6, 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center

Moderator: Diana Abouali, Dartmouth College

• Emanuel Rota, Dartmouth College, "Islam and Democracy: Questioning the Question"
• Elora Chowdhury, U Massachusetts, Boston, "Global Feminism: Feminist Theory's Cul-de-sac"
• Carol Bardenstein, University of Michigan, "Revisiting "Reverse" Orientalism: A Post 9/11 Re-reading of "Season of Migration to the North"

5 pm Sadik al-Azm: Concluding Remarks