March 1997, pg. 110

Bulletin Board

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Convenings

Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies presents a lecture by visiting scholar Lamis Abu Nahleh, assistant professor at Birzeit University, on “Palestinian Women Between Intifada and the State,” Feb. 11, 6 pm, in the Intercultural Center (ICC) Room 241; Dr. George Saliba, professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University, will deliver the Kareema Khoury Annual Distinguished Lecture in Arab Studies on “Arabic Science and the European Legacy,” focusing on the influence of Arabic astronomy on the making of European Renaissance science, Feb. 20, 7 pm, in the ICC auditorium; and the 22nd Annual CCAS Symposium, on “The Arab American,” will take place April 3-4 in the ICC auditorium. For complete information contact CCAS, ICC 241, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, phone (202) 687-5793, fax (202) 687-7001, e-mail ccasinfo@gunet.georgetown.edu

The Southern California College Middle East Studies Center and Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding–Western Region will co-sponsor the 1997 annual conference on “The State of the Church in the Middle East,” March 7-8, at the college’s Newport Mesa Christian Center. The program includes workshops, a keynote address by EMEU president David Neff, and a special pre-conference session on “Christian Women’s Human Rights in the Middle East.” For registration and complete information, contact Dr. Nancy Heidebrecht, Middle East Studies Center, Southern California College, Fifty-Five Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, (714) 668-6142.

The University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, as part of a series of campus lectures on “Freedom of Expression: Human Rights in a Global Perspective,” presents Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, author of The White Palace and The Black Book, on “A Novelist Looks at Freedom of Expression,” March 25, 7:30 pm, in Thomson Hall, Room 101; and psychologist and human rights activist Dr. Eyad Sarraj, April 15, time and place to be announced. For additional information contact Felicia Hecker, Middle East Center, 225 Thomson Hall, Box 353650, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, phone (206) 543-4227, fax (206) 685-0668.

Films and Exhibits

New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies presents its 1997 Film Festival on the theme “Debating Center and Margin: Minorities in Middle Eastern Cinemas,” featuring films from Iran, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria and Iraqi Kurdistan. Screenings will be held Feb. 13 and 14, 6:30-9 pm, and Feb. 15, 10 am-12:30 pm and 2-5 pm in the Irving H. Jurow Lecture Hall, Main Bldg., Room 101A, 100 Washington Square East in New York City.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center will co-sponsor a film series on “Contemporary Egyptian Cinema,” featuring Arabic-language films with English subtitles, seminars and appearances by directors, Feb. 27-March 1, at the International House of Philadelphia, 3701 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. For complete information call (215) 898-6534 or visit the Web site at http://www.libertynet.org/~ihouse

The Brooklyn Museum of Art will present, as the first in a series of Centennial/175th Anniversary shows, a major exhibition entitled “Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt,” exploring the roles of women through almost four millennia of ancient Egyptian history, Feb. 21 through May 18 (open Wed.-Sun., 10 am-5 pm). For additional information contact BMA, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238, (718) 638-5000.

Deaths

Mohammed Hafez Ismail, a career diplomat who served as national security adviser to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, died Jan. 1 in Cairo at the age of 77. A graduate of military schools in Egypt and Britain, he was Foreign Ministry undersecretary from 1961 to 1964 and, for the remainder of the decade, was Egypt’s ambassador in London, Rome and Paris. After his 1971-74 term as security adviser and head of Egyptian intelligence, he was appointed ambassador to Moscow.

Dr. James B. Pritchard, an archeologist who investigated and uncovered biblical sites in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, died Jan. 1 at a nursing home in Philadelphia, PA at the age of 87. A native of Louisville, KY, he received a B.A. in philosophy from Asbury College in Kentucky and a Ph.D. in Oriental Studies from Penn State University, where he taught from 1962 until his retirement in 1984, and where last September he dedicated the James B. Pritchard Chair of Biblical Archeology. He was the first to identify the location of the biblical town of Gibeon, by translating three words written in paleo-Hebrew on the handles of wine jugs. He dug in the Jordan Valley in the 1960s and in 1964 was awarded a medal by King Hussein for his work on seven excavations in Jordan. His excavation headquarters was blown up during the Six-Day War and, when the continued presence of live ammunition shells prevented his return in 1977, he retreated to his site in Lebanon. Pritchard was the author of the popular books Gibeon: Where the Sun Stood Still and Recovering Sarepta, a Phoenician City.