Islam, The Public and Private Spheres 5 to 7 December 2002, New York, United States UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT The distinction between public and private is one of society's most crucial and contested issues. Islam, one of the world's most populous religions, is also, at least in the West, perhaps the most misunderstood. This conference explores the diversity of Islamic societies worldwide, probing their varying conceptions of privacy as a way of illuminating how these societies resemble and differ from each other and our own, at a time when this understanding is of critical importance. Conference Program: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5th Session 1: Keynote Address 6:00 - 7:30 p.m Understandings of public and private in Islamic societies. Speaker: Moshen Kadivar FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6th Session 2: Islamic Law: Boundaries and Rights: Case Studies 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. How are questions of boundaries and rights negotiated in states governed by Sharia? How do these negotiations compare with those in predominantly Muslim states governed by civil law, or possibly Islamic communities in the diaspora? Speakers: Baber Johansen, Brinkley Messick, Roy Mottahedeh, Frank Vogel Moderator: Talal Asad Session 3: Individual, Family, Community and State: Case Studies 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. What is the concept of the individual? How are distinctions between public and private articulated within and across the boundaries of individual, family, community and state? Speakers: Juan Cole, Nilufer Gole, Mehrangiz Kar, Saba Mahmood Moderator: Leila Ahmed Session 4: Media and Information: Case Studies 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. Who determines what and how information is made public? What is the role of the media in civil society and its impact on privacy? Speakers: Geneive Abdo, Jon Anderson, Hafez al-Mirazi, Hassan Mneimneh Moderator: Kian Tajbakhsh SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7th Session 5: Representations of Privacy in Literature and Film: Case Studies 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. How are the concepts of privacy and the private sphere interpreted and represented in literature and film? Art imitating life/life imitating art? Speakers: Hamid Dabashi, Assia Djebar, Azar Nafisi, Orhan Pamuk Moderator: Farh ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu