BETWEEN TWO WORLDS is a groundbreaking personal exploration of the community and family divisions that are redefining American Jewish identity and politics. The filmmakers' own families are battlegrounds over loyalty to Israel, interpretations of the Holocaust, intermarriage, and a secret communist past. 

Filmed in the United States and Israel, this first-person documentary begins with a near riot at a Jewish Film Festival in San Francisco, reveals the agonizing battle over divestment from Israel on a university campus, and shows the crackdown on dissent in Israel itself. 

Please watch the trailer here: http://btwthemovie.org/ 

A documentary on Frantz Fanon, Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work, (Cheikh Djemai, 2001, 52 min.) will be shown on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Buell Hall, East Gallery. 

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Frantz Fanon's death, an international group of scholars addresses the diverse sources, trajectories and reinscriptions of his thought. Participants will consider Fanon's biographical and intellectual migration between the French Caribbean and North Africa, and between the theory of race and the project of anticolonial nationalism, and discuss his legacy across continents and across disciplines. 

A Talk by: Magda M. Elsanousi Omer
Lebanon Country Director and Director of the Middle East Regional
Gender Equality Program, OXFAM GB. 

Magda Mohammed Elsanousi Omer is the Oxfam Great Britain Country Director for Lebanon, where she also directs Oxfam?s Middle East Regional Gender Equality Program. She is currently leading a women?s empowerment program with an innovative Arab Spring strategy. Magda has extensive experience working in the area of gender justice with a special focus on engaging men and boys in promoting gender equality. She holds Masters degrees in both Rural Development and Gender and Development from the University of Sussex. She worked previously in several capacities for Oxfam GB in Yemen, and with several organizations and research teams in Sudan. 

Sponsored by SIPA's Gender Policy Working Group, the Middle East Institute, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and SIPA's Economic and Political Development Concentration.

A Lecture by Devrim Umit
Moderated by Richard Bulliet.
 
The lecture will elaborate on the encounter between the Ottoman officialdom and the American Board missionaries for the time period in question with a two-fold aim. First, it will address the activities of the American Board, mainly the schools, and the concerns and reactions of the Ottoman central and provincial authorities to American missionaries and their establishments. Second, it will discuss how the missionaries were instrumental in the orientation and articulation of American foreign policy towards the Ottoman Empire. The lecture will further shed light on the complex relationship between the Ottoman bureaucracy, American missionaries and government, and the local Ottoman communities, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. 

Panelists: Michael Doyle, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, and Mahmood Mamdani
Moderated by Timothy Mitchell.

This panel discussion will focus on the recent events in Libya, including the origins and evolution of the conflict, the role of the UN and the African Union, Gadhafi's death, and the implications of foreign intervention. Following each panelist's presentation, there will be a 1 hour discussion between the panel and audience. A small reception will follow. 

Co-sponsored by the Middle East Institute, and the Institute for African Studies. 

With Hossam el-Hamalawy, Timothy Mitchell, Gigi Ibrahim, and Nada Matta. 

Seating will be on a first come, first serve basis. 
Please register for the event here. 

The conventional version of Egypt's revolution promoted by the mainstream media goes as follows: the Egyptian people won a Facebook revolution that lasted just eighteen days. According to the US press, opposition leaders like expatriate Mohamed Elbaradei, members of the youth movement and "bloggers," like Google executive Wael Ghonim, have been the leaders of this movement. Finally, the revolution is effectively over and Egypt is smoothly transitioning to democracy. 

This panel will analyze the present situation of the labor movements in Egypt and how they will affect the outcome of the revolution, while placing them into the historical context of Egypt. 

Following the popular demonstrations which culminated in the referendum on constitutional reforms on July 1st, 2011, Morocco will hold parliamentary elections on 25 November 2011 where for the first time, an elected parliament is supposed to be granted a real legislative authority. 

The panel will discuss the current events, the constitutional reforms as well as upcoming elections in Morocco in the context of the Arab spring. The panelists will address the current political and socio-economic situation in Morocco including the significant events that have led to the constitutional reforms and the forthcoming elections. 

A talk with Jean-Pierre Filiu, Professor of Middle East Studies at Science Po (Paris), moderated by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. 

In his book, The Arab Revolution: Ten Lessons from the Democratic Uprising, Jean-Pierre Filiu offers a concise but sweeping account of the earth-shattering revolts that began in Tunis and continue today throughout the Middle East. Stressing the deep historical roots of the events, Filiu organizes the book around ten lessons that illuminate both the uprisings in particular and the region in general. This talk, followed by a Q&A will be based on the arguments put forth in his book. 

A Talk by Author, Eamonn Gearon, Moderated by Richard Bulliet.

The Sahara is the quintessence of isolation, epitomising both remoteness and severity of environment unlike any other place on the face of the earth. From whales in the desert to the arrival of camels; chariots of the gods and the motor-cars of the colonialists; Egyptian Land of the Dead to Timbuktu; mines of salt and gold, fields of oil and gas, and a Man-Made River. From the 50,000-strong army of Cambyses, swallowed in a sandstorm in the Sixth century BC, to the US Marines first foreign engagement, in 1805, countless invaders have fought and died from the heart of the desert “to the shores of Tripoli." Larger than the continental United States, this vast area is home to just three million people: Africans and Arabs, Berber and Bedu, Tuareg and Tebu. Eamonn Gearon explores the histories and landscapes of the Sahara – literal and imagined – a place whose name is familiar to all, but known to few. 
 

REGISTRATION REQUIRED 

Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, will discuss the Israeli pattern of flagrant defiance of international law, as sustained by American geopolitical leverage inside the UN and beyond. This talk will be moderated by Bashir Abu-Manneh, Assistant Professor of Literature at Barnard College. 

Free: ID required
This documentary tells the story of the story of the struggle for democracy in Egypt that led to the historic uprising in January-February 2011. Filmed on the ground in Egypt over the preceding fourteen months, this story is told through the eyes of Egypt’s youth activists, labor movements and political opposition figures. It is an account of their struggle against extraordinary odds to remove an uncompromising US-backed authoritarian regime determined to stay in power. Going beyond the recent headlines, director Lillie Paquette offers the background story of years of mounting political resentment against the ruling regime. 

This event is sponsored by the Institute of African Studies, Institute of Comparative Literature and Society, and the Middle East Institute. 

A Talk with Youssef Belal; Introduction by Ousmane Kane.

Presented as anti-modern and anti-secular in several academic writings, Islamic movements are, in fact, affected by modernity and secularization. This talk will discuss how a new approach using sociology of religion can help us understand the complex and subtle relationship between the religious and the secular in Islamic movements, particularly in the context of the "Arab Spring." 

In this groundbreaking play, Director Valantina Abu Oqsa, highlights the strength and defiance of Palestinian political prisoners, particularly women, that are incarcerated in Israeli occupation prisons. 

Tickets: http://anahurra.uspcn.org/newyork 
$20 Advance. $25 Door, $15 Students (must show valid student ID at door) 

Sponsored by the Middle East Institute & the Arab Student Association at Columbia University. Tour organized by the US Palestinian Community Network

There has been little research or policy analysis about the ways Muslims in America engage politically and civically, and about how recent laws, policies and social pressures have affected their civic and political engagement. We are inviting scholars and policymakers to speak at this conference on this and other topics. We believe this conference is among the first to look at the Muslim American experience from the standpoint of rights, political participation and relations with the state. 

Co-sponsored by SIPA, CDTR, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), the Middle East Institute, and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life. 
 

Dr Tibi will be speaking on the upcoming UN vote for Palestinian statehood Dr. Tibi was a political advisor to former Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat. In 1999, Dr. Tibi was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Balad Party, run by Azmi Bishara, but left this party during his time in the Knesset to form his own party, Ta'al. 
Registration Required