Association for Baha’i Studies North America 2007 Annual Conference Program
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If you haven’t yet made your plans to attend this year’s Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, don’t delay! The conference begins on Thursday, 16 August and offers an exciting array of sessions, beginning with three special all-day programs. These special sessions are (1) Student Development Program, for university students (and prospective students), offering an opportunity to develop and share insights, skills, and strategies for pursuing Bahá’í scholarship in a university setting; (2) Faculty Development Program, for university faculty (including prospective faculty and advanced graduate students) which will provide a forum to consult about aspects of Bahá’í scholarship; and (3) Scholarship and Community-Building: An Intensive Study of the Bahá’í Writings Relevant to the Conference Program, open to all participants, which will offer guided study of the Bahá’í writings relating to the conference theme, including presentations by prominent Bahá’í scholars, as well as participatory workshops and study sessions. This session will be an invaluable preparation for the remainder of the conference, and a unique opportunity for developing one’s understanding of the Bahá’í writings.Presentations during this program will include Gerald Filson, “Evolving Relationships: Communities of Scholars and External Affairs Work”; Abdu’l-Missagh Ghadirian, Scholarship and Covenant in the Bahá’í Community”; Kurt Hein, “‘Abdu’l- Bahá on Leadership: The Spiritually Learned”; Ian Kluge, “The Philosopher in the Bahá’í Community”; and Alexander Kolodner, Shirin Majidi, Talel Aissi, and Munib Lohrasbi, “Why Become a Bahá’í Scholar.” Plenary speakers This year, the prestigious Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Will van den Hoonaard, whose lecture will be entitled “Stop, Listen, and Look: Mutual Learning at the Intersection between the Bahá’í Community and the Social Sciences.” The roster of plenary speakers willalso include Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Michael Penn, of Franklin and Marshall College, will speak on “The Garment of Learning and Knowledge: Reflections on the Role of Scholarship in the Protection and Refinement of the Human Spirit.” Haleh Arbab, from the Bahá’í World Centre, will speak on “Generation of Knowledge and the Advancement of Civilization.” Augusto Lopez-Claros, Chief Economist of the World Economic Forum, will present on “Coping with the Challenges of Globalization.”A panel of young scholars, coordinated by Lisa Dufraimont, will reflect on the relationship between Scholarship and Community Building, and will include panelists Tahirih Naylor (Bahá’í Internationa l Community, New York), Nadim Sobhani (University of Toronto); and Layla Parker - Katirai (University of Toronto).
The session on “Scholarship, Community and Diversity: A Cross Cultural Perspective” coordinated by Deborah van den Hoonaard, will consist of a panel of Bahá’í scholars who will directly address how different peoples and groups understand and define scholarship and the roles it plays in community development processes, and in particular in relation to the Bahá’í community. Panelists will include Marie Gervais, Elizabeth Wright, and others to be announced. Member of the Continental Board of Counsellors Ann Boyles will inaugurate a plenary dialogue series entitled “Reflections on Scholarship and Service.” The purpose of the session is to provide a forum in which a widely accomplished senior Bahá’í scholar will share, through a public dialogue with an interviewer, reflections on experiences as a scholar within the Bahá’í community. She will interview Ross Woodman, Professor Emeritus, University of Western Ontario. It is hoped that through such a dialogue,younger scholars, as well as the community at large, will gain a deeper appreciation of the dynamics of creating a learning community, the collective journey that has been taken thus far, and the pathways that may open to us in the future. Association for Baha’i Studies North America 2007 Annual Conference Program The final conference schedule and abstracts are available here |