The
Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
at Oregon State University
and The Center for Middle Eastern Studies
at Portland State University
The Berbers and
Other Minorities in North Africa:
A Cultural Reappraisal
International
Conference
May
13-14, 2005
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon

Berber
culture and the cultures of historically rooted North African minority
groups (Jewish, Coptic, Turkish, among others) are not common foci
of study in higher education. These cultures also remain shadowed in
public discourse and in public policy. The same cultures have existed
and thrived for a long period of time under the dominance of successive
colonial powers in North Africa. Unfortunately, there is still a huge
misunderstanding and a knowledge-gap regarding the diversity that constitutes
the richness of a large region, situated between the East and the West
and between Europe and Africa.
This
conference's purpose is to promote a clearer comprehension of the complexity
of these North African cultures. It will situate them in space (from
Egypt to the Canary Islands) and in time (from early history to the
present) within the larger dynamics of successive colonial epochs.
Keynote
Speakers:
Jane
Goodman (Indiana University, USA)
Kamal
Salhi (Leeds University, UK)
This project was made possible in
part by a grant from the Oregon Council for the Humanities, a statewide
nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment
for the Humanities, which funds OCH's grant program. It is also sponsored
by Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA). Sponsors at Oregon
State University include: The Center for the Humanities, Convocations
and Lectures, the Women Studies Program, the Department of Anthropology,
and the Department of Ethnic Studies.
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