The Middle East



Robin Wright • William Chittick • Hisham Matar • Gidon Bromberg • An Evening of Sufi Music:n • Jamil Abu-Wardeh and Dean Obeidallah 



Currently in the midst of dynamic change, the Middle East is a nexus of diverse intellectual, spiritual, artistic and cultural traditions. The 2012 Wooster Forum focuses upon the complexity and richness of this region. Please join us as scholars, authors, musicians, and artists engage us in an informative celebration of Middle Eastern culture.


Robin Wright


Arab Spring: The Morning After

Friday, August 24th

(10:30 am, McGaw)

Robin Wright has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for The Washington Post, the Los AngelesTimes, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, The Atlantic, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News, Foreign Affairs and many others. Her foreign tours include the Middle East, Europe, Africaand several years as a roving foreign correspondent worldwide. She has covered a dozen wars and several revolutions. Until 2008, she covered U.S. foreign policy for The Washington Post. The New York Times and The Washington Post both selected “Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East” (2008),  as one of the most notable books of the year.


Check out the links below for more information on Robin Wright: 

Back to Top


William Chittick


Islam: A Religion of Love?

Thursday, September 27th

(7:30 pm, McGaw)

Chittick is author and translator of twenty-five books and one hundred articles on Islamic thought, Sufism, Shi’ism, and Persian literature. His more recent books include The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-`Arabi’s Cosmology (State University of New York Press, 1998), Sufism: A Short Introduction (Oneword, 2000), The Heart of Islamic Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2001), and Me & Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams-i Tabrizi (FonsVitae, 2004). He is currently working on several research projects in Sufism and Islamic philosophy.


Check out the links below for more information on William Chittick:

Back to Top


Hisham Matar


Never Believe What an Artist Says

Tuesday, October 2nd

(7:30 pm, McGaw)

Hisham Matar (Arabic: هشام مطر‎) (born 1970) is a Libyan author. His debut novel In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Matar’s essays have appeared in the Asharq Alawsat, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times and The New York Times. His second novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, was published on 3 March 2011. He currently lives and writes in London.


Check out the links below for more information on Hisham Matar: 

Back to Top


Gidon Bromberg


Water and Middle East Peace – Challenges and Opportunities

Monday, October 8

(7:30 pm, McGaw)

Gidon Bromberg is the Israeli Director of EcoPeace / Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME). FoEME is aunique regional organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to promote sustainable development and advance peace efforts in the Middle East.  Having spent much of his childhood in Australia, Mr. Bromberg’s return to Israel was driven by a desire to contribute to peace building efforts in the Middle East. He has written extensively on the relationship between water issues and Middle East peace. He is an attorney by profession, is a fellow of the New Israel Fund and alumni of Yale University’s World Fellows program.


Check out the links below for more information on Gidon Bromberg:

Back to Top


An Evening of Sufi Music:


A Performance, Meditation and Discussion

Tuesday, October 23rd

(7:30 pm, McGaw)

 

Welcome to Wooster’s online Sufi music community.   (A space to interact, educate and communicate with the community about the Sufi music performance.)

Back to Top


 Jamil Abu-Wardeh and Dean Obeidallah


A Funny Middle East Revolution, 

Thursday, November 1

(7:30 pm, McGaw)

Jamil Wardeh and Dean Obeidallah are comedians who discuss issues within the Middle East. Both were a part of the “Axis of Evil” Comedy TV special which aired in the US on Comedy Central and in the Middle East on Showtime Arabia.

Back to Top