2000 Conference, 8-9 Septemper

2nd International Conference:
IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES: IDEAS AND IDENTITIES

 

Friday Sessions:

Opening Session: "Immigrant Identities,"

Chair:
Linda Holler, Department of Religious Studies, SDSU

Papers:
1. Immigration, Globalization, and Social Imaginations
Doreen Mattingly, Women's Studies & Department of Geography, SDSU 

2. Imitations, Identifications, and Identities
Samy Swayd, Department of Religious Studies, SDSU

 

Evening Session: Coming to America: An Evening of Poetry

Lamea Abbas Amara, An internationally acclaimed poet and writer who read selected poems dealing with diasporic experiences and multicultural understanding.) 

Donald Shojai, Department of English and Comparative Literature, SDSU Read the English translation of poems and also moderated the session

 

 

Saturday Sessions:

Panel I: NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES

Chair:
Rebecca Moore, San Diego State University (SDSU)

Papers:
1. Changing Fast: Defining Ramadan in an American Context
Danielle Baer, Vassar College 

2. Negotiating Muslim Identity and Gender: Concerns of Women Immigrants
Huma Ahmed Ghosh, San Diego State University (SDSU)

3. Home Away From Home: African Immigrant Churches
Akintunde Akinade, High Point University

 

Panel II: BRIDGING THE DIASPORA

Chair:
Risa Kohn, San Diego State University (SDSU)

Papers:
1. Russian Jews in the US: Then and Now
J.M. Gess, Independent Scholar, Seattle 

2. Sephardi Jews in Los Angeles
Eliezer Chammou, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

3. Yemenis in San Joaquin Valley
Jonathan Friedlander, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

 

Panel III: DISPLACEMENT AND ASSIMILATION

Chair:
Willard Johnson, San Diego State University (SDSU)

Papers:
1. The Identity of American Muslim Youth
Shabana Mir, Indiana University 

2. Armenians in Los Angeles
Gohar Keledjian, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 

3. The Diasporization of Yezidi Identity in Germany
Andreas Ackermann, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Essen, Germany 

Panel IV: OLD TRADITIONS, NEW REALITIES

Chair:
Florence Gillman, University of San Diego (USD)

Papers:
1. Copts: From Egypt to North America
Lorna Kamber, University of Utah 

2. Mandaeans: Past and Present
Lamea Abbas Amara, Poet and Writer, San Diego 

3. Zoroastrians: East and West (Cancelled)
Touraj Daryaee, California State University, Fullerton 

 

Panel V: "MIGRATING" ARTS AND ARTISTS

Chair:
Irene Bierman, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Papers:
1. Arts of 'Exile' in the Mouride Diaspora
Allen Roberts & Mary Nooter Roberts, World Arts & Cultures, Fowler Museum, UCLA 

2. Asmahan and Farid al-Atrash
Sherifa Zuhur, President, Middle East Women Studies Association

3. Immigrant Longing: The Case of Khalil Gibran
Jana Castillo, San Diego State University (SDSU)

 

Panel VI: "MIGRATING" MANUSCRIPTS

Chair:
Irving Alan Sparks, San Diego State University (SDSU)

Papers:
1. Druze Manuscripts in European Libraries
Paolo Branca, The Catholic University at Milan, Italy

2. Isma'ili Manuscripts in the West
Ismail Poonawala, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

3. The Dead Sea Scrolls in America
James Robinson, Claremont Graduate University

 

Special Thanks:

This 2nd conference was made possible due to the financial support and organizational assistance of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), San Diego State University (SDSU), the Society for the Academic Study of Religion (SASR), and others.

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