Nazım Hikmet - Akrep Gibisin Kardeşim

American Presidential Election

A Public Lecture: A New Voice of Islam for World Peace and Hope: The Gulen Movement by Dr. Hasan Ali Yurtsever

African Movies at Virginia Tech

Panel: American Foreign Policy and Neo-Imperialism in Central Asia

Dear all,

This year, CESS (Central Eurasian Studies Society) conference will take place at Georgetown University and Gary Wood and I have organized a panel on American Foreign Policy and Neo-Imperialism in Central Asia. Dr. Kemal Silay will be a discussant in the panel. You are very welcome to come. Please share and distribute widely, apologies for cross-posting.

You will find the panel information below.


Central Eurasian Studies Society
Ninth Annual Conference, September 18-21, 2008
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
http://www.cess.muohio.edu/

American Foreign Policy and Neo-Imperialism in Central Asia
Friday, September 19, 2:00-3:45

Organizer: Gary Wood (Virginia Tech. University)

Chair: Tugrul Keskin (Virginia Tech. University)

Discussant: Kemal Silay (Indiana University)

1) Ajay Kumar Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University), “Export of Democracy: US Geopolitical Moves in Central Asia”

2) Azeem Ibrahim (University of Cambridge), “Motivational Drivers of US Policy in Post Soviet Era”

3) Tugrul Keskin (Sociology-Virginia Tech University) and Gary Wood (Sociology-Virginia Tech University) “New-Imperialism and Promotion of Democracy in Central Asia: Case of NED and NDI”

4) Reed Taylor (ASPECT-Virginia Tech. University), “Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Uzbekistan: a Post-Colonial Critique”


Peace to you all,

Tugrul

Palestinian poet Darwish dies

http://www.mahmouddarwish.com/english/index.htm

I Come From There

Mahmoud Darwish

I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.

I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother,
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood,
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up,
To make a single word: Homeland....

Mao to Neoliberaism: Beijing 2008

Rudyard Kipling's The White Man's Burden in China

China is an amazing place to see the transformation that has been embedded in global economic structures. Today, the Beijing 2008 Olympics began; however, the Olympics remind me of Moscow in 1980, when unfortunately, politics could not be separated from sports.

Peace,

Tugrul Keskin

Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies Newsletter

SOCIOLOGY OF ISLAM & Muslim societies
SPRING 2008 Newsletter No. 1

The Sociology of Africa: Fall 2008

AFST-4354 Index No. 97048 (AFST)
Issues in Africana Studies
Sociology of Africa
Fall 2008

INSTRUCTOR: TUGRUL KESKIN

Tuesday and Thursday - 3:30 PM - 4:45PM - Surge 107

The Sociology of Africa course will explore the relationship and ongoing dynamics between colonizers and the colonized in 20th century Africa in the context of post-colonial studies. Nationalist, socialist, anti-colonialist, and Apartheid movements in Africa are each a direct consequence of imperialism and its legacy. In this course, we will try to understand the social, political and economic implications and dimensions of imperialism in the 20th century. Ethnic tensions in Kenya, Apartheid racism in South Africa, the Darfur conflict in Sudan, Christian and Muslim religious misunderstanding in Nigeria, and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda are each related with exploitation and a product of colonialization. In this course, we will also attempt to understand the positions of African leaders from an inside as opposed to an Orientalist perspective, such as the anti-colonialist Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), conservative African Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Idi Amin Dada (Uganda), the pro-African Nationalist Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and South African leader, Nelson Mandela.

One of the main objectives of this course is to build a website which will consist of as many as possible of the Nationalist, Anti-Colonialist and Socialist Movements and leaders in 20th century Africa. All of your final papers will be used in this website as a direct contribution to African civilization.


For more information: tugrulk@vt.edu or http://www.africanastudies.vt.edu/

Lecture: Islamist Imaginations of Turkey Ottoman's Past by Prof. Kemal Silay

Virginia Tech Presents

A Free Public Lecture

by

Professor Kemal Silay
Professor of Central Eurasian Studies,
Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair Professor,
Director of the Turkish Studies Program at
Indiana University, Bloomington
http://php.indiana.edu/~ksilay/

ISLAMIST IMAGINATIONS OF TURKEY’S OTTOMAN PAST:
COUNTER-REVOLUTION THROUGH
CULTURE AND POLITICS

Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 5:00–7:00 pm
655 McBryde Hall

Sponsored by the Sociological Association at VT (SAV) with the support of the Department of Sociology; the Turkish Student Association at Virginia Tech; the Religious Studies Program; the Department of Science and Technology in Society; the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT); IDST; the International Studies Program; the Middle East Working Group, the Department of Political Science, the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University, and the Africana Studies Program

For more information:
Tugrul Keskin, tugrulk@vt.edu
Gary Wood, garywood@vt.edu

Kemal Silay is a leading scholar of Turkish Studies. Among his numerous publications are Nedim and the Poetics of the Ottoman Court: Medieval Inheritance and the Need for Change (Indiana, 1994); An Anthology of Turkish Literature (Indiana, 1996); Ahmedi’s History of the Kings of the Ottoman Lineage and Their Holy Raids against the Infidels (Harvard, 2004); On the Book of Handsome Ones: Same-Sex Discourse in Ottoman Court Literature (forthcoming); and Anatomy of a Folk Manuscript: The Hagiography of Abu al-Wafa (forthcoming).

the “Facebookification” of our lives

American Sociological Association

Contexts Magazine

Volume 7, Number 1, Winter 2008

Social networking Internet sites might
be doing more to drive us apart than
bring us together. At least that’s what
the Washington Post suggested as sum-
mer wound down and it took a look at
the “Facebookification” of our lives.
From the 1954 work of J.A. Barnes
to Columbia’s Duncan Watts’ Six Degrees:
The Science of a Connected Age, the
report spanned the sociological trajectory
behind the actual and electronic
networks that, throughout history, have
done everything from help us find jobs
and homes to read about the minutia of
our lives that we post to the Internet.
Perhaps, interviews with sociologists
suggested, these sites miss the
mark because we’re busy adding
“friends” to our network and not busy
networking with friends.
In the end, the Post asked how we
“prevent social networking sites from
becoming the death of social networking”
perhaps the fundamental question
of this new cultural form.

Call for Papers: Sociology of Islam and Muslims Societies, April 11-14, 2008 Richmond

Panel – Sociology of Islam and Muslims Societies

The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society

http://www.southernsociologicalsociety.org/

April 9-12, 2008, Richmond, Virginia - USA

Invitation for Panel Papers

Dear all,

At the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting last year there were five panels with 20 presentations on Islam, the Sociology of Islam, and Islamist Movements. This coming year, the annual meeting will take place on April 9-12, 2008 in Richmond, Virginia and we will be organizing panels on Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies.

Islam and Muslim societies are being increasingly studied by sociologists, particularly by those interested in how different Islamic groups are responding to globalization. In the current political, social and economic conflict between the West and Muslim Societies, Islam has entered the political arena as a manifestation of Muslims against Western-based capitalism and hegemony. In this context, religion has transformed from a belief system to an ideology of political resistance in both the mind and within the actions of Muslims. From Turkey to Indonesia, this conflict may be creating the unified Muslim identity—the Muslim Ummah— Islamist and social thinkers such as Sayyid Qutb and Abul A’la Mawdudi were promoting nearly a half a century ago. From the Danish and Swedish cartoon crisis to Islamophia, Muslims appear to be crafting a collective identity that transcends the old categories of tribe, community and nation-state. This ‘new’ identity now exists beyond the nation-state, both in the West and in Muslim-populated countries, and is reshaping the understanding of globalization by Muslims.

We are organizing two panels entitled, "Sociology of Islam and Muslims Societies," and welcome submissions related to but not limited to the following subjects:

• Islam, Modernity and Secularism
• Islamist Movements and Collective identity,
• Islam and Muslims in Europe and US
• The Middle Eastern Politics

The deadline for abstract paper submissions is: DECEMBER 12, 2007

Please send abstract to: sociologyofislam@vt.edu

Tugrul Keskin
tugrulk@vt.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University


Stephen Poulson
poulsosc@jmu.edu
James Madison University


Kemal Silay
ksilay@indiana.edu
Indiana University

On Living by Nazim Hikmet

ON LIVING

Living is no laughing matter:
you must live with great seriousness
like a squirrel, for example-
I mean without looking for something beyond and above living,
I mean living must be your whole occupation.

Nazim Hikmet (RAN)
(1902, Selanic - June 3, 1963, Moscow)
Poet, playwright, novelist


THERE MUST BE SOMETHING

Is the sea as beautiful as this every day?
Does the sky look like this all the time?
Is this furniture, this window
always as lovely as this?

No
by God no,
There must be something behind this somewhere.

Orhan Veli Kanik

Translated by Bernard Lewis (1982)

War on Democracy Showing in UK cinemas

War on Democracy Showing in UK cinemas

'The War on Democracy' is John Pilger's first major film for the cinema - in a career that has produced more than 55 television documentaries. Set in Latin America and the US, it explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

"The film tells a universal story," says Pilger, "analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called war on terror".

If you are in UK or around London, you must see this film, I think you will enjoy watching this documentary.

http://warondemocracy.net/

The Sociology of Islam discussion list at Virginia Tech University

Dear all,

I have created a listserve for scholars who may be interested in exchanging academic information related with Islam. You will find the information necessary to be a subscriber to this list. Please circulate this information widely.

The Sociology of Islam discussion list at Virginia Tech University is a new free professional and academic networking tool to encourage interaction between individuals & organizations involved in Islam/Sociology of Islam/Islamist Movements and related fields worldwide. Members and subscribers are encouraged to dialogue and share resources on books, articles, conferences, teaching, and other related purposes.


If you want to subscribe to the list, please send me an email:

tugrulk@vt.edu


Best to all,
--
Tugrul Keskin

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Department of Sociology
560 McBryde Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
http://www.vt.edu

Virginia Tech. Massacre

We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness ... We will prevail ...

-- Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist



I want to extend my deepest, sincerest, and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims ...

-- Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger



We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on. We are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech ...

-- Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist

Panel - Central Asian Studies in light of Imperialism: A Neo-Orientalist Approach within Western Academia

Panel - Central Asian Studies in light of Imperialism: A Neo-Orientalist Approach within Western Academia

The 2007 CESS conference at the University of Washington
October 18-21, 2007 in Seattle, Washington
http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/CESS_Conference.html


Dear all,

We are in the process of organizing a panel entitled: Central Asian Studies in light of Imperialism: A Neo-Orientalist Approach within Western Academia

In the work, Orientalism, Edward W. Said elaborates on the idea behind Middle Eastern studies in Western academia. Said is interested in questioning the discourse of Orientalists, and furthermore, claims that the actual purpose of Middle Eastern Studies is not academic, but rather a policy-oriented approach that facilitates imperialism and colonialism. In this context Said argues that Europeans referred to the Eastern world as the ‘Orient’, a term that has only a vague meaning. Today, the region historically known as Turkistan has similarly been renamed ‘Central Asia’ in the context of the Neo-Orientalist process in policy oriented academia. In this field, some of the so-called “scholars,” working with policy-based institutions such as think-tanks, governmental and “non governmental” entities are the forefront of this approach, within the framework of imperialism and exploitation. These institutions, including think-tanks and non-governmental interest groups operate as a bridge between academia and the policy-oriented world. Additionally, academia has become a facilitator of an exploitative process towards Turkistan. The same process has been observed in Middle Eastern Studies for over a half century.

Today, the best example of this Neo-Orientalist or Colonialist approach can be found within the discipline of Central Asian studies within the U.S., and its relation with think-tanks, governmental, and non-governmental organizations. Thus, academia has been losing its objectivity, transforming from C. Wright Mills’ conception of the sociological imagination, to a facilitator of imperialism. This is occurring through its implicit representation of political interests. We can see this destructive trend taking place within Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Turkmen studies.

We welcome submissions related to Neo-Orientalism and Central Asian Studies, and also including the following:

• Neo-Orientalism and Central Asian Studies,
• Imperialism, think-tanks and Central Asia,
• Role of SOROS, National Democratic Institute, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Carnegie Endowment and US Helsinki Commission on Central Asia,
• Colorful revolutions and imperialism/exploitation of the market,
• Sultan Galiev and Imperialism in Turkistan

Deadline: APRIL 3, 2007

Please send abstract to: tugrulk@vt.edu or rhaija@vt.edu

Tugrul Keskin

Rammy Haija

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Department of Sociology

SSS 2007 Annual Meeting- Islam, the Sociology of Islam, and Islamist Movements

The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society

http://www.msstate.edu/org/sss/07Meet/Publish/

April 11-14, 2007, Atlanta, GA


"Islam, the Sociology of Islam, and Islamist Movements"


Organizers:

Tugrul Keskin keskintx@jmu.edu Virginia Tech. University
or
Dr. Dale Wimberley dale.wimberley@vt.edu Virginia Tech. University

FIRST PANEL: ISLAM, IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM

CHAIR -Dr. Dale Wimberley -Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Discussant -Dr. Kemal Silay -Indiana University, Bloomington

(1) Islam and Terrorism: Reason and Assessment

Dr. Mohamed El-Attar -Department of Sociology - Mississippi State University - USA

(2) The Traditional Islam versus Western Based Islam in the Framework of Transnational Movement: As a case of Fethullah Gulen “Islamist” Movement in Turkey

Tugrul Keskin -Sociology - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - USA

(3) Uncivilized Christianity, Decolonized Islam: Evading Conflict through Dialogue

Darrell Ezell -Graduate Institute for Theology & Religion - University of Birmingham - England

(4) The Local Contexts of Islam

Dr. Ejder Okumus - Dicle University - Divinity Faculty - Turkey

SECOND PANEL: ISLAM. MODERNITY AND CIVIL SOCIETY

CHAIR - Tugrul Keskin -Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Discussant - Dr. Stephen Poulson -James Madison University

(1) The Liberation Theology of Ali Shariati

David L. Reznik -Department of Sociology - University of Florida - USA

2) Possibilities of a more Plural Society

Salim Cevik - Political Science - Bilkent University - Turkey

(3) Islamic Civil Society

Jeremy Walton -Department of Anthropology - University of Chicago - USA

(4) Islam and the Problem of Participation in the Contemporary Situation

Dr. Ejder Okumus -Dicle University - Divinity Faculty - Turkey

THIRD PANEL: ISLAM THE MIDDLE EAST AND EURASIA

CHAIR - Dr. Dale Wimberley -Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Discussant - Dr. Birol Yesilada -Portland State University

(1) Islamic Dissent De/Remobilization: Egypt and Syria

Feriha PEREKLI -Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures - Indiana university-Bloomington USA

(2) Bedouin issues in both Israel/Palestine and in Egypt

Dr. Jesse Benjamin -Department of Sociology - Kennesaw State University - USA

(3) Reviving of Social Justice Concept in the Post-Modern World: An Islamic Alternative

Fuad Aliyev -Center of Economic Reforms - Baku, Azerbaijan Republic Azerbaijan

(4) Towards a Sociological Understanding of Islamophobia

Robert Heck -Sociology - University of Florida

FOURTH PANEL: ISLAM AND ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS

CHAIR - Dr. Michael Hughes - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Discussant - Dr. Stephen Poulson -James Madison University

(1) Islam and Modernity: Islamist Movements and the Politics of Position

Dr. Said Mentak -Department of English, Oujda - Morocco

(2) The Nation of Islam and Womanhood

Dr. Toni Y. Sims -Assistant Professor -Sociology & Anthropology Department - University of Louisiana Lafayette - USA

(3) Islamic Sociology in Iran

Dr. Taghi Azadarmaki -Department of Sociology - The University of Tehran - Iran

(4) Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and the need for an Islamic “Protestantism”

Dr. Fadil Maloku -Globalization and Civilizations - University of Kosovo - Kosova

FIFTH PANEL : ISLAM AND POLITICS

CHAIR - Dr. Judith Blau -University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Discussant - Dr. Dale Wimberley -Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

(1) Student Engagement with Contemporary Islamic Social Movements through Existentialist Thought

Dylan Wittkower -Department of Philosophy - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - USA

(2) Islamic Authority and Knowledge in Europe: The case of Revolutionary Islamist Kaplan Community

Dr. Ahmet Yukleyen -Sociology and Anthropology Dept - University of Mississippi - USA

(3) The Use of Strategic Violence among Social Movements in Middle East:

Examples from Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine

Dr. Stephen Poulson -Department of Sociology & Anthropology - James Madison University - USA

(4) Headscarf: As a Political Symbol or As a Demand of Freedom?

Meryem Atlas and Merve Kutuk -Political Science - Bilgi University - Istanbul/Turkey

Panel – Islam, Sociology of Islam and Islamist Movements

The 2007 Annual Meeting of the Southern Sociological Society

http://www.msstate.edu/org/sss/07Meet/Publish/

April 11-14, 2007, Atlanta, GA

Invitation for Panel Papers

Today, Islam is a belief system that represents one-fifth
of the World’s population located from Morocco to Indonesia,
and one of the world’s fastest growing religions. The
contribution of Islam to world civilization is undeniable,
however in the last one hundreds years, Muslims have been
faced with economic underdevelopment, dictatorship and
antidemocratic regimes, and most importantly, modernity.
What does modernity mean for Muslims? Will there be an
Islamic renaissance? How about an Islamic reformation?

On the other hand, Islam is not just a religion, it is also
likely to manifest itself as a social, economic and political
structure; therefore, one must understand the socio-historical
background and origin of the Islamic belief system, as well as
its underpinning theoretical thinkers and Islamist Social Movements.

We would like to organize a panel entitled, "Islam, the Sociology
of Islam, and Islamist Movements" and we welcome submissions
related to the subject, but not limited to the following:

Islam and Modernity,
De-secularization Process in the Muslim Populated Countries,
Islamist Movements and Collective identity,
Islam/Alternative Globalization versus Western Based Weberian Capitalist Globalization
Islam and Imperialism/Colonialism/Orientalism


Deadline: DECEMBER 12, 2006


Please send abstract to:

Tugrul Keskin keskintx@jmu.edu James Madison University
or
Dr. Dale Wimberley dale.wimberley@vt.edu Virginia Tech. University

Central Eurasian Studies Society Seventh Annual Conference (2006)

Central Eurasian Studies Society

Seventh Annual Conference (2006)
September 28-October 1, 2006
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.


Friday, September 29, 9:00-10:45

Domestic Politics in the South Caucasus

CESS 2006 Program

Harutyunyan Arus Organizer Domestic Politics in the South Caucasus

Keskin Tugrul (Chair)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute &
State University and James Madison University, Virginia tugrulk(at)vt.edu

Ledsky C. Nelson (Discussant)
National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs Nelson(at)ndi.org

Harutyunyan Arus
Western Michigan University arus.harutyunyan(at)wmich.edu
Estimating National Identity via Positional Method: Comparing Party Manifestos and Policy Positions in Armenia from 1994-2005

Tuite Kevin
University of Montreal kj.tuite(at)umontreal.ca The Georgian banquet as sociopolitical microcosm

Bravo E. Karen
Indiana University kbravo(at)iupui.edu
Smoke, Mirrors and the Joker in the Pack? On Transitioning to Democracy and the Rule of Law in Post-Soviet Armenia

Khachatrian Haroutiun
Noyan Tapan Information and Analysis Center har(at)noyan-tapan.am
Economic Policy of South Caucasus Countries:Differences of Strategy


Saturday, September 30, 11:00-12:45
The Future of Uyghur Nationalism in Turkistan/Central Asia

Keskin Tugrul (Organizer)
Virginia Tech. University tugrulk(at)vt.edu
The Future of Uyghur Nationalism in Turkistan/Central Asia

Keskingoren Tugrul (Chair)
Virginia Tech. Univesity tugrulk(at)vt.edu


Wimberley Dale (Discussant)
Virginia Tech. University dale.wimberley(at)vt.edu

Dwyer Arienne M.
University of Kansas anthlinguist(at)ku.edu
Nationalism one word at a time: language purification in the Uyghur exile community

Thwaites Dilber Kahraman
The Australian National University dilber(at)thwaites.com.au or Women of Power in Uyghur Arts and Literature

Klimes Ondrej
Charles University ondrejklimes(at)email.cz
Creating Modern Uyghur Identity - Adoption of Soviet Ethnic Policy

Thum Rian R.
Harvard University thum(at)fas.harvard.edu
The Apaq Khoja Shrine in Uyghur Historical Discourse