Society of Universal Dialogue hosted the Third Annual Dialogue Dinner entitled “Who is my neighbor?" at Commodore Ballroom, Student Life Center - Vanderbilt University on Monday, November 16th, 2009. 120 distinguished guests came together. SUD would like to cordially thank each person who participated in our 3rd Annual Dialogue Dinner. Your support and warm regards allow us to continue our programs throughout the year!
Mr. Alp U. Levent, The President of the Society of
Universal Dialogue, provided brief information about the Society of
Universal Dialogue along with a video presentation.
Prof. David Rowe talked about the Dialogue and Cultural Trip to Turkey that he attended on Summer 2009.
Prof. David J. Wasserstein (Department of History, Vanderbilt University)
Who is Prof. David J. Wasserstein?
David
Wasserstein studies medieval Islamic and Jewish history. With a
background in classical studies, he is also interested in the classical
tradition in Islam, and in particular in the ways in which Judaism,
Islam and the classical world intersect culturally, linguistically and
politically. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, as well
as of The Rise and Fall of the Party-Kings, Politics and Society in
Islamic Spain, 1002-1086 (Princeton 1985); The Caliphate in the West.
An Islamic Political Institution in the Iberian Peninsula (Oxford
1993); and, with his late father Abraham Wasserstein, of The Legend of
the Septuagint, From Classsical Antiquity to Today (Cambridge 2006).
He is also the editor (with U. Rubin) of Dhimmis and Others: Jews and
Christians and the World of Classical Islam (1997); (with A. Arazi and
J. Sadan) of Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luga: studies in
memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948-1997) (1999); (with A. Ayalon) of
Madrasa: Education, Religion and State in the Middle East (in Hebrew;
Tel Aviv 2004); (with A. Ayalon) of Mamluks and Ottomans, Studies in
Honour of Michael Winter (London 2006); (with M. Gammer) of Daghestan
and the World of Islam (Helsinki 2006); (with E. Bremer, J. Jarnut and
M. Richter) of Language of Religion - Language of the People: Medieval
Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Munich 2006); and (with H.M. Cotton,
R.G. Hoyland and J.J. Price), From Hellenism to Islam: Cultural and
Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East (Cambridge, 2009).
For
eleven years he was an editor of Scripta Classica Israelica. He serves
or has served on the editorial boards of Israel Oriental Studies,
Al-Qantara, Israel Numismatic Research, and other academic journals.
David
Wasserstein has received grants and fellowships for research from the
British Academy/Royal Irish Academy, the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique (France)/EOLAS (Ireland), the Spanish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, the Israel Science Foundation, and the
German-Israeli Fund for Scientific Research and Development. He has
been a Lady Davis Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a
visiting Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for
Advanced Study Berlin, and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced
Studies in Jerusalem, He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
and the Royal Asiatic Society. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Shelby
Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University,
2008-2009.
David Wasserstein came to Vanderbilt from Israel,
where he was a professor of Islamic history at Tel Aviv University
between 1990 and 2004. Before that he taught at University College,
Dublin (Ireland).
Emre Celik (Rumi Forum, Washington, D.C.)
Who is Emre Celik?
Emre
Çelik was born in Izmir, Turkey. He migrated to Sydney , Australia with
his family, at the age of one. He has a degree in Computer Engineering
(UTS) and a Masters Degree in Teaching (CDU). He has spent 37 years in
Australia
He has been involved in educational and interfaith
projects in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. He was on the executive
committee that established the first Turkish private college in
Australia. He has also served as the Secretary of one of Australia 's
largest mosques - the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in Sydney .
He was
involved in the establishment of two education centres in Melbourne and
Sydney and was their founding principal. He has also been a Religious
Studies teacher in Sydney and Melbourne. Emre was General Coordinator
of the Queensland Education and Cultural Foundation while in Brisbane
working on the development of a new private school in the south east
region.
Emre, during his stay in Melbourne with the Australian
Intercultural Society was involved in two groundbreaking projects, "
Building Bridges " and "Embracing Youth", both sponsored by the
Australian Government's 'Living in Harmony' initiative, bringing
together the Jewish and Muslim communities. In November 2006, he
presented a paper at Oklahoma University on the contribution to
interfaith dialogue by Australia ’s Muslim community.
Emre Celik
moved to a new position in Washington DC in August 2009 where is he is
currently President of the Rumi Forum, an organisation dedicated to
bringing people and ideas together around the concept of positive
dialogue. He has a keen interest in intercultural and interfaith
dialogue and its importance to the community.
One
of the most unique and beautiful forms of Turkish art is Ebru, or water
marbling. Ebru is formed by drawing designs with dye on top of water, and then
carefully placing paper on the surface of the water in order to absorb the dye.Mrs. Mine Calik illustrated the Art of Marbling (Ebru) on the stage.
