Session 3

Destroying books has a very strong symbolic power. However, sometimes an individual just has to dispose of a text—even a sacred one—so what is one to do in that situation? This presentation provides a window into Muslim practices and debates on the question of what the acceptable ways are by which to retire, recycle, or destroy a sacred text, and trace these practices from the beginning of Islam to today and compare them to similar ones among Jews.

This presentation has been cancelled.

Monochrome Multitudes, an exhibition at the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, September 22, 2022–January 8, 2023, revisits a notoriously hermetic art to reveal its creative possibilities and conceive pedagogical strategies that make abstraction accessible from multiple perspectives. The exhibition aims to expand existing histories of “the monochrome” in three ways: articulating cultural, social, political, racial, or gendered meanings of monochrome art; emphasizing the hermeneutic significance of materials and media; and engaging North American art in a global dialogue.

Destroying books has a very strong symbolic power. However, sometimes an individual just has to dispose of a text—even a sacred one—so what is one to do in that situation? This presentation provides a window into Muslim practices and debates on the question of what the acceptable ways are by which to retire, recycle, or destroy a sacred text, and trace these practices from the beginning of Islam to today and compare them to similar ones among Jews.

Traditional Kazakh culture displays a richness of oral literature and musical performance, all of which is directly linked to the art of the Kazakh baqsy, who were originally pre-Islamic healers, poets, and sound artists. The place of the baqsy (healer) and of their offshoots the zhyrau (epic singer) and the küyshi (sound artist) remains central to Kazakh cultural identity to this day.

In this session, the presenter discusses some central ideas of the Hellenic tradition—such as logos, paideia (or, education), truth, examined life, and the good—with the aim to highlight their diachronic character in shaping humanistic thought. The presenter argues that the way these concepts are understood and studied in Plato and Aristotle offers a useful framework for analyzing contemporary contexts and problems, specifically by acknowledging the universality of reason and the potential of education to improve human life.

At the start of the 20th century, archaeologists digging in Meröe, the ancient capital due of Nubia discovered a bronze head of Caesar Augustus, which had been hacked off a statue “of heroic or monumental size” and then deliberately buried in a pocket of clear sand under the steps of the temple of Victory, one of the chief buildings of the royal palace. This great hall is decorated with frescos showing the Nubian king and queen in scenes of ceremony and triumph.

Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) is a pedagogical approach that addresses immediate needs of learners who use languages in specialized settings related to their education, training, or job. Conducting a domain analysis—a research framework designed to describe the language used in a real-world context, such as a hospital, courtroom, or financial institution—lays the groundwork for assessing language learning, which makes it possible to reverse engineer the course design. This session introduces domain analysis and shows examples of proficiency assessments.