"ISLAM: THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SPHERES"
Conference at New School University Challenges
Assumptions About Islam
Speakers include Iranian dissident Mohsen Kadivar,
Al-Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief Hafez al-Mirazi, novelist Orhan Pamuk
Thursday, December 5 - Saturday, December 7, 2002

(New York, NY – December 2, 2002) "This is 'about Islam'," wrote Salman Rushdie nearly one year ago, in response to the events of September 11th In last week's New York Times, Rushdie described Islam as an "ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection... hijacked" by what he described last year as "paranoid Islam... the fastest-growing version of Islam in the world."

And while legislators talk in terms of international terrorist networks, dictatorial regimes, and weapons of mass destruction, Islam---ill-defined and misunderstood---remains the backdrop to the United States of America's ominous preparations for war.

A conference taking place at the New School University this weekend is also "about Islam," and the goal is understanding. "Islam: The Public and Private Spheres," to be held Thursday, December 5- Saturday, December 7, 2002, brings together 22 speakers over three days to explore how Islamic societies worldwide understand the crucial distinction between private and public---a difference, conference organizers believe, that is the key to understanding a society's character.

"The boundary between public and private is contested in all cultures, not least in the Islamic world," says conference director Arien Mack, Editor of Social Research journal and Marrow Professor of Psychology at the New School University, pointing out that understandings of public and private are at the core of the relationships between individual and state, religion and state, and the way relations between men and women are handled in any given society.

"Now more than ever, it is critical that we move beyond stereotypes toward a more nuanced understanding of Islam," says Mack. "This conference takes a familiar issue, that of privacy, to illuminate how Islamic societies resemble and differ from each other, as well as from our own."

The conference will bring together leading scholars, journalists, writers, and filmmakers, including Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, and the Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera Television, Hafez al-Mirazi.

The keynote address on Thursday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m. will be given by Mohsen Kadivar, Iranian philosopher, theologian, and dissident. Mr. Kadivar is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tarbiat Modares University in Iran; Visiting Scholar, Islamic Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, and author of Theories of State in Shiite Fiqh.

Conference sessions will examine issues related to the understandings of public and private in Islamic societies. Panels will include: "Islamic Law: Boundaries and Rights"; "Individual, Family, Community and State"; "Media and Information"; and "Representations of Privacy in Literature and Film."

A film screening of "Tooba," directed by Shirin Neshat will conclude the conference on Saturday, December 7 at 2:00 p.m.. A discussion between Neshat and Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Department will follow the screening.

Support for the conference has been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, Open Society Institute, and others.

Conference sessions will take place at Tishman Auditorium, New School University, 66 West 12th Street, NYC. Admission is $30 for all conference sessions, or $7 per individual session. For further information, call 212-229-2488 or visit the conference Web site at www.socres.org/islam.

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New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students and 25,000 continuing education students, is a New York City university committed to critical scholarship, artistic integrity, and ethical responsibility in the social sciences, humanities, the arts and design. It is comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Eugene Lang College and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Actors Studio Drama School, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program. New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School University, call (877) 5Ave-321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu.

The Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science awards M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Anthropology, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. In addition, interdisciplinary M.A. programs are offered in Historical Studies and Liberal Studies. Teaching and research at the Graduate Faculty, which derive from a progressive political tradition, are grounded in the core social sciences and broadened with a commitment to philosophical and historical inquiry. The Graduate Faculty has an enrollment of about 1,050 students. International students comprise nearly 30% of the student body and come from about 70 different countries. Richard Bernstein is Dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science. For further information on the Graduate Faculty, call (212) 229-5777 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu/gf.