2014-2015 MESP EVENTS

October 28, 2014:Screening of “The Other Son” (2012) by Lorraine Lévy

“The Other Son” tells the story of two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who were accidentally switched at birth and raised by the wrong families for 18 years. The film portrays the reactions of the two families upon learning of the mistake and the questions that arise concerning identity and religion.

March 16, 2015:Screening and discussion with director of “On the Side of the Road” (2013) by Lia Tarachansky

The  documentary  film  focuses  on  Israeli  collective  denial  of  the  events  of  1948  that  led  to  the  country’s independence and the Palestinian refugee problem. It follows war veterans Tikva Honig-Parnass and Amnon Noiman as they tackle their denial of their actions in the war. The film also tells the story of the director, Lia Tarachansky, an Israeli who grew up in a settlement in the West Bank but as an adult began to realize the problems of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinians. The film was shot over the course of five years and premiered at the First International Independent Film Festival in Tel Aviv.

March 17, 2015:Muslim Women’s Struggle for Equality: Between Theology and Politics

In  celebration  of  International  Women’s  Day,  MESP  hosted  Dr.  Ziba  Mir-Hosseini,  the  renowned  scholar and women’s rights activist. Dr. Mir-Hosseini gave a talk on Islamic feminism and discussed the political and hermeneutical challenges faced by the advocates of gender equality in Muslim contexts.

March 19, 2015:Film Screening and discussion with director of “Terrace of the Sea” (2008) by Diana Allan

Terrace of the Sea was shot in 2008 in Jal el Bahar, a Palestinian Bedouin gathering established in 1948 on a strip of coast in South Lebanon. Structured around a collection of family photographs taken over three generations, the film engages with the historical experience of the community by focusing on their precarious relationship with the physical environment in which they are living

March 23, 2015:Lecture by Michelle Hartman

Michelle Hartman, an Associate Professor of Arabic Literature at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill  University,  visited  SU  to  give  a  talk  on  her  new  book,  Native  Tongue,  Stranger  Talk  (SU  Press, 2014).

April 10, 2015:Lecture by Neha Vora

Neha Vora, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lafayette College, spoke about her recent book, Impossible Governments: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora (Duke University Press, 2013).

April 22, 2015:Lecture and book signing by Edward J. Erickson

Edward Erickson, a Professor of Military History at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, and an internationally recognized expert on the Ottoman Army in the last decades of the empire, spoke about his recent book, Gallipoli: Command Under Fire (Osprey Publishing, 2015).