BAGHDAD: CRADLE OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION, 1013-2013

On November 15-16, 2013 there will be a conference on Baghdad co-organized by the Iraqi Cultural Center (ICC) and The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII). The sessions will be held at the Iraqi Cultural Center, 1630 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, DC 20009

Draft Program

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15

9:00. Welcoming remarks. Mohammad Alturaihi (Iraqi Cultural Center) and McGuire Gibson (TAARII)

POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL LIFE OF MEDIEVAL BAGHDAD

Chase Robinson (CUNY Graduate Center), “Baghdad and Islamic Cosmopolitanism”
Stephen Humphreys (UC-Santa Barbara), “Islam’s First Imperial City: Baghdad from 763 to 945”
Sydney Griffith (Catholic University of America), “The Cultivation of Philosophy and Interreligious Colloquy in Abbasid Baghdad: A Convivencia of Jews, Christians, and Muslims”
Roy Mottahedeh (Harvard University), “The Twilight of Buyid Baghdad”
Richard Bulliet (Columbia University), “The Economic Rise and Fall of Medieval Baghdad”

12:30-2:00. Lunch

THE MAKING OF MODERN BAGHDAD
Abbas Kadhim (Boston University Institute for Iraqi Studies), “Baghdad’s First Encounter with Modernity (1869-1871)”
Sara Pursley (CUNY Graduate Center), “Familiar Futures: Reforming the Iraqi Family in the Age of Development”
Eric Davis (Rutgers University), “Pluralism or Sectarianism? Baghdad and the Production of Political Space in Iraq”

Discussion
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16
9:00
LITERARY AND CULTURAL LIFE IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN BAGHDAD
Samer Ali (University of Texas at Austin), “When the Night: Having Fun in Medieval Baghdad”
Suzanne Stetkevych (Georgetown University/Indiana University), “Arabic Poetry and the Invention of the Abbasid Golden Age”
Fawzi Kareem (Poet/Writer/Painter), “Witnessing Iraq’s Contemporary Culture”
Fatima Ali (Social Cases Performing Arts Company), “Being a Theatre Maker in Post-2003 Baghdad: Challenges and Realities”

Tea Break

REMEMBERING AND DEPICTING MODERN BAGHDAD
Magnus Bernhardsson (Williams College), “A Golden Age in Baghdad? Nostalgia and Remembering the 1950s”
Muhsin al-Musawi (Columbia University), “Seductive Memories: A Cultural Index of Baghdad Topographies”
Ikram Masmoudi (University of Delaware), “The Image of Baghdad in Fiction Published after the Occupation”

1:00-2:30. Lunch

THE MODERN CITY OF BAGHDAD
Mina Marefat (Design Research/Georgetown University), “When Baghdad Was Proud to be Modern”
Caecilia Pieri (Institut français du Proche-Orient), “Remembering Modern Baghdad: A Challenge for Tomorrow”
Abeer Shaheen (Columbia University), “Calculative Violence: Mapping Legality onto Urban Enclaves of Baghdad”

Brief video: “I am Iraqi, I read”

Discussion