Fall 2021-2022
PERIOD POVERTY, WOMEN'S HYGIENE AND WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT
Presented by the Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) as Part of its Theme “Environments East and West" and the Initiative for Global Engagement at the American University of Beirut, Co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Initiative at AUB:
This digital panel explored the vital issues of menstrual equity, women's health and hygiene, and the role of public policy in ensuring the availability of safe, sanitary, affordable, and environmentally sustainable menstrual products for women and girls.
(Access to menstrual hygiene products from Regle Elementaire via Instagram)
Time: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6 at 7PM (BEIRUT TIME)
Jhumka Gupta is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Community Health in the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University. Her research applies a social epidemiology framework towards advancing the science of gender-based violence against women and girls. She has authored or co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications on these topics. She is the Associate Editor of BMC International Health and Human Rights. Prior to coming to Mason, Gupta was an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Public Health.
Alissar Yehya is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MSFEA, AUB and an Associate in Material Science and Environmental Geomechanics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is the founder of SEnLi initiative (Sustainable Engineering and Lifestyle) at AUB.
Amani Abou Harb is a policy professional who works at the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation office in Amman, Jordan. In her current role, Amani works on developing bankable private sector investments in the Middle East with a focus on sustainable development. In her previous role at the World Bank's MENA Chief Economist's Office, Amani researched land regulation and personal status laws and their economic ramifications on women in the MENA region. She has an MA in English from AUB and an MPP University of Chicago.
Lina Abou-Habib is the director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at AUB, chair of the Board of Haven for Artists and collective for Research and Training for Development – Action, board member for Gender at Work and Marsa for Sexual Health and is the MENA strategic advisor for the Global Fund for Women.
Michela Bedard, Executive Director of PERIOD., is committed to building a better future. She also currently serves as Chair of the Board of Rahab's Sisters, a Portland non-profit serving marginalized women or those whose gender makes them vulnerable. She serves on several menstrual equity advisory councils and women's health advocacy advisory boards. Michela has Master's in Public Administration and a B. A. from the University of Southern Californ
ia.
For reservations and Zoom link please contact: Rana Baghdadi, Program Coordinator CASAR [email protected]
Find the link to the panel here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/171ot5A7dwpp4wg3gSqUto_ktw0dCOF4Y/view?usp=sharing
STORYTELLING AS A START TO HEALING A BROKEN SOCIETY
The Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) Presents: Storytelling as a Start to Healing a Broken Society With Sahar Assaf, Director of Golden Thread Theater in San Francisco, Najat Saliba, Director of Khaddit Beirut, and other Khaddit Members discussing the Role of Storytelling, Testimony and Theater in Preserving Memories, Ameliorating Trauma, and Beginning to Heal the Wounds Caused by the August 4 Explosion and Lebanon's Multiple Crises.
Time: September 15, 2021 7pm Beirut
The panel's participants included:
Sahar Assaf: Director of Golden Threads theater in New York and assistant professor at the American University of Beirut where she headed the minor program in Theater Arts and co-founded the Theater Initiative. She is currently an ensemble member of The Faction, an award-winning theatre company in London, and is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Directors Lab Mediterranean. Her most recent work is “I Want to Tell You About Beirut" (https://fb.watch/7QSmmCQ5tk/), which presents a reading of testimonies of survivors of the Beirut Port explosion followed by a conversation commemorating the 1-year anniversary of the blast.
Najat Saliba: Professor in Analytical Chemistry at the American University of Beirut and the Executive Director of Khaddit Beirut. She developed innovative methods to characterize smoke in tobacco and non-tobacco nicotine delivery systems. She was voted among the top 100 most influential women by BBC in 2019 and is the recipient of the 2019 L'Oreal-UNESCO International Award for Women in Science.
Iman Nuwayhid: Professor of Public Health at the Faculty of Health Science (FHS) at the American University of Beirut, where he formerly served as dean for 12 years (2008-2020). He is American Board Certified in Occupational Medicine and applies a social and political lens of analysis in his research, which focuses on health of workers, including health of working children, environment and health, and conflict and health.
Rima Karami: Associate Professor of Educational Administration, Policy and Leadership in the department of Education at the American University of Beirut. She is the director and the principal investigator of the TAMAM project launched in 2007 to initiate school-based reform and research on how to build leadership skills for sustainable schools where currently she is operating in 67 schools in 8 Arab countries.
Nuhad Dumit: Associate Professor at the School of Nursing at the American University of Beirut. She is the convener of the undergraduate division and coordinator of the administration and management MSN track at the School, as well as the co-director of the Continuing Medical Education Office of the Faculty of Medicine.
For information contact Robert Myers, [email protected]
Link to the full panel:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sm6eru6Z7XAIQQspP67MwRdBE84pfYjl/view?usp=sharing
For more information on this year's theme, ENVIRONMENTS EAST AND WEST, click here. For more information on our ongoing collaborative initiative with the Issam Fares Institute (IFI), Policy and Politics in the Americas, click here.
Spring 2021
Party in the Sky: The Photo-DJ Lucien-Samaha
AUB Art Galleries is inviting you to a virtual discussion with the artist Lucien Samaha.
Time: Apr 28, 2021 03:00 PM Beirut
This exhibition brings to the attention of our audiences the activities of the Lebanese/American photographer, artist, traveler, archivist, and DJ Lucien Samaha. It focuses on one of Samaha's gigs, on the 107th floor of the North Tower of the original World Trade Center (WTC) from the late 1990s until 9/11. The exhibition comprises several online galleries, containing photographs, videos, clips, and documents related to his party in the Twin Towers. A partyinskypdf.pdf places Samaha's cultural activities in a broader cultural and political context, amid historical transitions: from analog to digital photography, from the WTC as center of NYC's tourism to “ground zero" of terrorism; from an artist residency program located in the North Tower to its links to art institutions in Beirut; from 9/11 to 8/4, the “ground zero" that devastated the cultural capital of the Middle East this past summer.
"Party in the Sky" was initiated in collaboration with, and with financial support from, the Center of American Studies and Research (CASAR) at the American University of Beirut, as part of CASAR's "Arts in the Americas" series
Reading and Interview with writer Zaina Arafat--April 23 @4pm Beirut time
Register here: https://bit.ly/3myotfJ
Please join us on Friday April 23 @4pm for a reading by and interview with writer Zaina Arafat. Zaina Arafat is an LGBTQ Arab/Muslim-American fiction and nonfiction writer. She is the author of the novel You Exist Too Much, which was selected as a most anticipated book for 2020 by O, The Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America, Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Granta, The Believer, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, BuzzFeed, VICE,Guernica, Literary Hub and NPR. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the Arab Women/Migrants from the Middle East fellowship at Jack Jones Literary Arts. She holds an M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from Iowa. She lives in Brooklyn and is currently at work on a collection of essays. You Exist Too Much is a finalist for the 2021 Lamba Literary Award in Bisexual Fiction.
At this event, Arafat will begin by reading from You Exist Too Much. On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12–year–old Palestinian–American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgment will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother's response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much," she tells her daughter.
Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East—from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine—Zaina Arafat's debut novel traces her protagonist's progress from blushing teen to sought–after DJ and aspiring writer. Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, the novel is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings—for love, and a place to call home.
After the reading, Arafat will be interviewed by Dr. Zeina Tarraf. There will also be time for audience questions. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required: https://bit.ly/3myotfJ
Hosted by the Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) at the American University of Beirut.
Selected praise for You Exist Too Much https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082NTLLLP/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Roxane Gay: "Sexy in its own way."
NPR: "At once complicated and engaging, this is the kind of debut novel that announces the arrival of a powerful new author who, besides writing beautifully, has a lot to say."
Teen Vogue: "When being a queer Muslim seems too complex for the world to handle, You Exist Too Much is a testimony as otherwise. There is nothing more of an attestation to our narratives than an LGBTQ Muslim author with a bisexual Palestinian-American main character."
The Guardian: "A nuanced, sparkly debut"
The Fares Center in collaboration with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) cordially invite you to a joint Fletcher-AUB panel discussion – webinar entitled: "Studying and Teaching the Encounter between the U.S. and the Middle East" on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, 12:30 - 1:45 ET (6:30 pm till 7:45 pm Beirut time).
This event will be an interactive panel that seeks to define the different ways students and scholars understand the study of the encounter between the U.S and the Middle East. The Fares Center is pleased to welcome Professors Malik Mufti and Waleed Hazbun, as well as two Fletcher alums: Columbia University Dean Emerita Lisa Anderson (F'74) and AUB Professor Karim Makdisi (F'96, '01). The conversation will be moderated by Director Joseph Bahout of the Issam Fares Institute at AUB, and Fares Center Director Nadim N. Rouhana.
The weibinar took place via Zoom.
A Leadership Development Initiative of American University of Beirut, Duke University, EARTH University and The University of Texas at Austin
Seminar I
Social Justice, Asymmetries of Power and the Climate Crisis
March 10, 2021
12 – 1:30 pm New York time, 7-8:30 pm Beirut time
The second and third seminars will be on March 31 and April 21.
YOUTUBE LINK TO EVENT: https://youtu.be/X1tvyJ8UMng
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 - 12PM EST / 7PM Beirut
Speakers
Leopoldo Bernucci, Distinguished Professor of Spanish at the University of California, Davis, will speak on the rubber boom in the Amazon, the genocide of indigenous peoples and his study of José Rivera's novel The Vortex.
Anne Spice, Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Ryerson University, will speak on Indigenous resistance to resource extraction and pipeline infrastructures in so-called "Canada."
Adam Waterman, Assistant Professor of American Literature and Culture at the American University of Beirut, will speak on his forthcoming book The Corpse in the Kitchen, which examines the so-called Black Hawk War and colonization of the upper Mississippi River lead region as an instance of primitive accumulation for purposes of mineral accretion.
Moderator
Robert Myers, Director of CASAR and Professor of English, American University of Beirut
This event is co-sponsored by the Global Engagement Initiative, NYC and the English Department at AUB.
From Al-Qaeda to the US Capitol Insurrection: What Makes Violent Extremists Tick?
Former FBI special agent Ali Soufan has spent 25 years tracking and analyzing Al-Qaeda, ISIS, American White supremacists, and other violent extremists. He discusses with AUB's Rami G. Khouri the common traits and distinct differences among Middle Eastern and American violent extremists.
Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 11AM EST / 6PM Beirut
Presented to you by:
The AUB Global Engagement Initiative, NYC
The Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR)