April 8, 2011: First Fridays Speakers Series, "America's Invisible Moors" 
Date: Friday, April 8, 2011
Time: 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Location: Hamilton Smith Hall, room 101
Join us for our final First Fridays Speakers Series event of the spring semester. Anouar Majid, Professor of English, Director of the Center of Global Humanities and Associate Provost for Global Initiatives at New England University will present a talk titled "America's Invisible Moors'. His work has dealt with the place of Islam in the age of globalization and Muslim-Western relations since 1492. He has been described by Cornel West in his book Democracy Matters as one of a few "towering Islamic intellectuals." Majid’s work has been profiled by Bill Moyers in the Bill Moyers Journal and by Al Jazeera's Date in Exile program. He has been interviewed by several media organizations nationally and internationally. Prof. Majid has provided the following abstract about his presentation:
"We often tend to think of Moors in the context of European history and culture. Shakespeare's play Othello, for example, has done much to popularize the notion of the Moor as an alien, ill-fitting body in a racially defined European civilization. Far less explores or understood is the strange life of the Moor in American history. As in Europe, or perhaps even more so, white Americans blended race and Islam to define their non-European identity. This strategy didn't go unchallenged by novelists and other writers. And in the process of challenging their nation's Eurocentric prejudices, white and black American writers gave substance to the American republic's quest for equality and justice."
You may read more about Prof. Majid's current research on his University of New England website: University of New England/Anouar Majid, Director of the Center for Global Humanities
This event is free and open to the public. Please contact the UNH English Department for more information about this event: 603-862-1313.
