Workshops | Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

The Living Sahara: New Horizons in Teaching Africa and the Middle East

Location: Room 208, Levis Faculty Center, 919 West Illinois Street, Urbana, Illinois, 61801

Friday, September 29

4:00 pm Keynote Address: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University: “On the Trans-Saharan Routes: Disrupting Area Studies”

Introduction by Teresa Barnes, Director of Center for African Studies

Saturday, September 30

8:30 am Light Breakfast

8:55 am Welcome by Wail Hassan, Director for Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

9:00 – 10:30 am Debora Heard, Doctoral Candidate, University of Chicago

“A Matter of Time: An Analysis of Ancient Saharan and Nile Valley Population’ Space-Time Orientation”

Moderated by Maimouna Barro, Center for African Studies

10:30 – 10:45 am Short break

10:45 am – 12:15 pm Shayla L. Monroe , Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University

“What is Rendered versus What Remains: An Integrated Chronology of Human-Animal Relationship in Saharan Prehistory”

Moderated by Inka Alasade, Center for African Studies

12:30 – 1:30 pm Mediterranean and Senegalese-themed Lunch and Agadez, the Music and the Rebellion

1:45 – 3:15 pm Elizabeth Matsushita, Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Humanities, Reed College

“From Desert Blues to Gnawa: Music as Teaching Method for Trans-Saharan Histories”

Moderated by Maha Chahine, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

3:15 – 4:00 pm T Teacher group discussions/present back/wrap-up

Moderated by Angela Williams, Center for South Asian and Middle

Eastern Studies

4:00 – 6:00 pm Taste of the Sahara – Reception with music and participatory arts

- Henna

- Ataaya (Sahelian tea ceremony)