May 3-4, 2003

The American Encounter with Islam

A History Institute for Secondary School Teachers

Sponsored by the Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education
A Division of the Foreign Policy Research Institute

At the Gregg Conference Center
American College
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

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FPRI’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education is pleased to announce a weekend-long history institute on “The American Encounter with Islam,” featuring a series of lectures by leading scholars in several fields. Specially designed for secondary school teachers and curriculum supervisors, the program will examine both historical and contemporary aspects of America’s encounter with Islam, the larger Western experience, and what it means for the world after 9/11.

Topics and Speakers

Topics and speakers include:

The Crusades

Edward M. Peters is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in the history of Europe, from the second to the seventeenth centuries. His books include The First Crusade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, 2nd ed.); Torture (University of Pennsylvania Press), and Inquisition (University of California Press).

Islam and Europe in the Early Modern Era

Jeremy Black (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Professor of History at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and Senior Fellow of FPRI. He is author of War and the World: Military Power and the Fate of Continents, 1450-2000 (Yale University Press, 1998); Maps and History (Yale University Press, 1997); and The Politics of James Bond (Greenwood, 2001).

The American Experience with Islam

Philip Jenkins (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University. His books include The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2002) and Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History (Oxford University Press, 2001).

America, Islam, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Adam Garfinkle (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania), is Editor of The National Interest. A former staff member of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, he was also a long-time Senior Fellow of FPRI, where he directed our Middle East Program. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

US Policy and the Islamic World Since the 1950s

Harvey Sicherman (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania), is President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state. His books include Palestinian Autonomy, Self-Government, and Peace (WINEP, 1993) and, with John Lehman, America the Vulnerable: Our Military Problems and How To Fix Them (FPRI, 2002).

Terrorism and Islamist Thought

John Calvert (Ph.D., Islamic Studies, McGill University) is Assistant Professor of History at Creighton University. His article “The Islamic Syndrome of Cultural Confrontation” appeared in Orbis, Spring 2002.

The conference begins 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 3, and concludes at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 4.


What Participants Receive

Social studies and history teachers, curriculum supervisors and junior college faculty are invited to apply for participation in the History Institute. Forty participants will be selected to receive:


How to Apply

To apply, please send a résumé and a short statement describing your current teaching or professional assignments, your reasons for wanting to attend, and how your students or school district will benefit from your participation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: At the time of application, you are asked to make a commitment either to prepare a curriculum unit based on the weekend or to do in-service activities based on the weekend.

SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS BY MARCH 15 BY MAIL, FAX, OR E-MAIL TO:

Alan H. Luxenberg, Director, Wachman Fund
Foreign Policy Research Institute
1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Tel. 215-732-3774, ext. 305
Fax 215-732-4401
E-mail mwf@fpri.org

Space is limited; so please apply early. If you cannot attend but would like to be on our mailing list, please let us know by phone, fax, or e-mail.


About FPRI and the Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education

Founded in 1955, FPRI is an independent, nonprofit organization devoted to advanced research and public education on international affairs. It brings the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests abroad. Its Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education sponsors public lectures and programs for high school teachers designed to promote understanding of America’s role in world affairs. FPRI publications include Orbis, a quarterly journal of world affairs edited by David Eisenhower, and E-Notes, a weekly bulletin disseminated by email to 20,000 key people in 85 countries.

About FPRI’s History Academy

In 1996, FPRI inaugurated a series of weekend history institutes, chaired by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Walter McDougall. Nine history institutes have been held to date, with keynote addresses by the nation’s leading historians and scholars, including William McNeill on “What We Mean By the West” and William McNeill, again, on “Multiculturalism in World History”; Gordon Wood on “The Lessons of History”; John Lewis Gaddis on “What We Now Know about the Cold War”; George Herring on “The Lessons of Vietnam,” Walter McDougall on “The Roots of U.S. Foreign Policy,”; Paul Griffiths on “What is Religion and Can It Be Taught?“ Jeremy Black on “Mapping: Past and Present”; and Gilbert Rozman on “The U.S., Japan, and North Korea.” Materials from the history institutes are available can be found on this website (www.fpri.org).