Past Events
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Apr 10Film: “Bouchra”Music Hall, 925 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI 53706
An immigrant story like no other, Bouchra blends 3D animation, documentary, and anthropomorphism to depict a queer Moroccan finding her way in Manhattan.
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Apr 10Lecture: “Captives and Communities in the Early Modern Ottoman Mediterranean”Memorial Union, check TITU
Professor Ali Atabey (University of Texas at San Antonio) Due to the changing dynamics of the early modern Mediterranean, the seventeenth century witnessed a marked rise in captive-taking, affecting thousands of Ottoman subjects who traveled the region as merchants, soldiers, and pilgrims. This talk examines the redemption and post-captivity experiences of Ottoman subjects through Ottoman …
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Apr 10Film: “Do You Love Me”UW Cinematheque, Vilas Communication Hall, 821 University Ave, Madison, WI 53706
Do You Love Me is an exciting, sometimes jolting, and surprisingly tender excavation of Beirut’s past and present, crafted entirely from 70 years of archival footage - news documentaries, home videos, TV variety shows, action movies, and musicals.
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Apr 10Workshop: “Piracy, Law, and Maritime Power in the Mediterranean World.”Memorial Library, check TITU
We will explore the use of Ottoman legal documents for Mediterranean history. It prioritizes court records from seventeenth-century Istanbul and supplements them with other valuable sources, such as complaint registers and registers of important affairs.
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Apr 6Jāl Mythmaking: Embodied Indigeneity in the Marshlands and Coasts of the Persian/Arabian GulfIngraham 206
Hanan Al-Alawi (UW-Madison) will explore how the marshland inhabitants of Iraq and coastal communities of southern Iran reimagine Indigeneity through mythmaking practices and embodied interactions with land and water.
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Mar 24A Conversation with Ahmed Badr, 2026 Keynote Speaker for MENA Heritage MonthPlay Circle Theater, Memorial Union
Ahmed Badr is an Iraqi-American author, professor, and social entrepreneur working at the intersection of creativity, displacement, and youth empowerment.
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Mar 13Hybrid Lecture: Byzantium, Historical Nostalgia, and Digital ExtremismMemorial Union, Beefeaters Room, Third Floor
This talk examines the highly politicized and frequently extremist reinterpretations of Byzantium circulating in the digital world, focusing particularly on the platforms 4chan and TikTok.
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Mar 6Teach-In: US Empire & IranPyle Center, 121 Auditorium
Panelists: Monica Kim: US Empire Giuliana Chamedes: Fascism Daniel Williford: Middle East/Tech Alfred McCoy: War/Global Empire/CIA Others to Be Confirmed
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Mar 6Inheriting An Invented Tradition: Islamic Art in the Arabian PeninsulaMemorial Union, 800 Langdon Street
With Professor Jennifer Pruitt, Howard & Ellen Louise Schwartz Professor of Islamic Art & Architecture, UW–Madison
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Mar 4Film: “The Voice of Hind Rajab”Union South, 1308 W Dayton St, Madison, WI 53715
Winner of the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and current nominee for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.