Spring Arabic Lecture Series at NYU to Host Fadl, Hashem Beck, al-Atrash

Egyptian author Bilal Fadl will kick off a spring lecture series at NYU next month:

The idea for the series came from NYU doctoral candidate Antonio Musto, who initially envisioned a small monthly lecture series aimed at students of Arabic at NYU.

He brought on fellow PhD candidates David Kanbergs and Omar Alsayyed as co-organizers, and together they decided to widen the scope of the series. According to Kanbergs, they developed the series with two goals in mind: “First, to promote public discussion in Arabic of topics in history, politics, journalism and the arts, and second, to provide students of Arabic with a helpful way to enrich their language learning.”

Last fall, the series hosted lectures by doctoral candidate Khaled al-Hilli and Masters student Sara Razek. This spring’s lineup will bring in three big names: Egyptian author and critic Belal Fadl, Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck, and Syrian scholar and theatre artist Naila al-Atrash.

On March 1st, Fadl is set to present “an in-depth study of the ways in which Egyptian cinema has dealt with both state and societal censorship and restriction.” On April 5, Hashem Beck will read from her English-Arabic “duets,” as well as her most recent collection, Louder Than Hearts. Then, on May 2, al-Atrash will “present a lecture on how different art forms practiced by the Syrian people during the uprising contributed to activating critical thinking and to deconstructing conventional ideas of a dictator in order to contest and renegotiate his power over the people.”

All events are open to the public, and will take place in the Hagop Kevorkian Center Library, 255 Sullivan St. (at Washington Square South).