American Studies Conference Scores High Marks

At the podium: Professor Patrick McGreevy inaugurating the conference at Gefinor Rotana Hotel

American studies specialists from around the world descended on Beirut on January 7 for the second international conference of the Prince al Waleed bin Talal Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR), entitled, "Liberty and Justice: America and the Middle East."

At the opening ceremony, Prince Waleed's representative, Latifa al Busseir, applauding the role of such centers in promoting greater understanding between the Islamic world and the West, said, "Those who sacrifice liberty for security will have neither." Djelal Kadir of Pennsylvania State University considered philological implications of the word justice, while Melani McAlister of George Washington University spoke of the significance of religious conservatives in American life. The speakers also included center director Patrick McGreevy, Provost Peter Heath, and Rami Khouri of AUB's Issam Fares Institute.

During the four-day conference some 67 speakers explored liberty and justice in America-Middle East relations from a variety of angles. Papers were presented in panels, round tables, open lectures, and plenary sessions. All presentations were open to the public. A Palestinian group added spice to the academic sessions with a relevant hip-hop performance, "Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets: Hip Hop and the Language of Liberation." On the final day around 30 conference-goers traveled south to view the destruction of the 2006 summer war in south Lebanon.

Conference speakers probed multiple issues revealing the thorny relationship between the United States and the Middle East. Through the lens of liberty and justice, lecturers explored language, literature, the media, travel, religion, public policies, secularism, freedom, insecurity, and fear. Homeland security and foreign policy came in for special scrutiny, as did the composition and effectiveness of American studies programs across the Arab world.

Excitement ran high throughout the conference as speakers from eleven regional universities and a number of institutions tackled sensitive issues such as homeland security, "Pentagon speak," cluster bombs, and student perceptions of the "hostility" of the United States. Participants spoke freely of the advantages of the conference. Attendees described AUB's center as a model for regional programs and networking, praising the organization of the conference, the leadership of Patrick McGreevy, and the organizational powers of Administrative Assistant Nancy Batakji. Several from Europe and the United States underscored the advantages of being able to discuss potentially explosive issues with academics of the region.

Djlal Kadir, founding president of the International American Studies Association, emphasized the timeliness of the topic, and the broad variety of the presentations. Amy Kaplan, who gave the closing address, emailed her impressions to Director Patrick McGreevy: "You've succeeded in creating and expanding important intellectual networks that will reverberate far beyond the conference. Even events that can simply become added entertainment at conferences-in this case, the wonderful spoken word performance [the hip hop group], and the trip to southern Lebanon, were powerful and moving events, which generated stimulating conversations. From my personal perspective, for example, how often does an American Jew have the opportunity to visit powerful memorials to the victims of Israeli attacks in Qana and to discuss [their] impact and broader political implications with new colleagues from Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Germany and Morocco?" For Professor Stan Katz, the conference was "a seminal event."