MEMEAC (Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center):

Humanism in Ruins: A Conversation with Professors Aslı Iğsız, Dina Khoury, and Anthony Alessandrini with Beth Baron moderating

Thursday, January 30th at 6:30 PM
In the Skylight Room (Room 9100) of the Graduate Center, CUNY

Please join MEMEAC for a conversation about Humanism in Ruins between author Aslı Iğsız, Dina Khoury, and Anthony Alessandrini with Beth Baron moderating.

Humanism in Ruins maps the links between liberal discourses on peace and the legacies of this forced migration. Aslı Iğsız weaves together past and present, making visible the effects in Turkey across the ensuing century, of the 1923 exchange. Liberal humanism has responded to segregative policies by calling for coexistence and the acceptance of cultural diversity. Yet, as Iğsız makes clear, liberal humanism itself, with its ahistorical emphasis on a shared humanity, fails to confront an underlying racialized logic. This far-reaching and multilayered cultural history investigates what it means to be human—historically, socially, and politically. It delivers an urgent message about the politics of difference at a time when the reincarnation of fascism in different parts of the world invites citizens to participate in perpetuating a racialized and unequal world.

Aslı Iğsız is an Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University.

Dina Khoury is a Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University and the President of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).

Anthony Alessandrini is an associate professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and the Master of Arts program in Middle Eastern Studies at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.

Beth Baron is a Distinguished Professor of History at City College and The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.

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Free and open to the public

The Graduate Center, CUNY

365 5th Avenue, New York NY 10016