Encounters and Exchanges: Reframing the “Clash of Civilizations”

With support from the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations

November 1, 2008

Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations gained popularity after the events of 9-11 as a way of framing world conflict. The idea of a clash of civilizations is problematic, not only because it presumes that human society can be neatly summarized into singular categories, but also because it blurs the distinctions and divisions present in any complex society and underestimates the reach and influence of interactions that cut through the borders of such civilizations in terms of the constant exchange of people, goods and ideas.

Our seminar recognizes the appeal of the civilizational thesis; it invokes, as economist Amartya Sen has noted, “the richness of history and the apparent depth and gravity of cultural analysis.” However, we hope to complicate the issue of clashing civilizations by focusing on a variety of time periods and subjects that challenge polarized definitions and instead focus on encounter and exchange. Our larger goal, which echoes the mission of the Humanities program, will be to foster intercultural understanding by considering how framing the “other” serves in the formation of identity, as well as recognizing how “others” have been present and engaged with “insiders” in a variety of historical periods and settings.

Topics and Speakers

Crusade and Conversion: Medieval Christendom Faces the Islamic World
Brett Whalen, Assistant Professor of History

Looking Beyond the Clash: Identities in the Middle East
Sarah Shields, Associate Professor of History

In the Material World: Medieval Islamic Luxury Objects and Mediterranean Encounters
Glaire Anderson, Assistant Professor of Art History

American Interactions with Islam
Timothy W. Marr, Associate Professor of American Studies

Encounters and Exchanges
Professors Whalen, Shields, Anderson, and Marr

Time and Cost

9:15 a.m.-5:15 p.m., Saturday, November 1, 2008. The tuition is $120 ($105 by September 10). The optional lunch is $10. Tuition for teachers is $60 ($52.50 by September 10). 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit.

For information about lodging click here.

Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association.
For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here.

Register for this seminar.