International scholars to share insights on terrorism, its causes and our perceptions
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Approximately 100 scholars from around the world will gather at Purdue Sept. 8-10 to share insights on the perception and representation of terrorism over the centuries in literature, art, theater, and most recently, in the audio-visual media, in the hope of arriving at a better understanding of this phenomenon.
The "Revisioning Terrorism" interdisciplinary conference is organized by Elena Coda and Ben Lawton, both associate professors of Italian, in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature in the College of Liberal Arts. Coda is the chair of Arabic, Classics, Hebrew and Italian. Lawton, director of interdisciplinary Italian studies and a retired U.S. Army Reserve Special Operations Forces lieutenant colonel, is a Vietnam era veteran, veteran of the Persian Gulf War, and a member of Gold Star Families for Peace.
Individual sessions will discuss how pirates and bandits were perceived as terrorists by ancient Romans; cannibalism and the crusades; the creation of contemporary terrorism by modern media; global ecological terrorism; the way American comics attempted to depict the horror of 9/11 and the way it was depicted by political cartoons in African newspapers; how terrorism has been viewed in American culture and literature; the relationship between American cinema and British cinema and contemporary terrorism; the struggle of Italian and German filmmakers to understand the terrorism that almost paralyzed their nations; and the relationship between organized crime and terrorism.
The three keynote speakers and their topics are:
* Robert Adolph, chief of the Middle East and North Africa Desk, Department of Safety and Security, United Nations, "Observations on al-Qaida."
* Louise Barnett, a professor of English and American studies at Rutgers, "Fictions in Counterinsurgency.”
* Alan Nadel, William T. Bryan, chair of American literature and culture at the University of Kentucky, "Wand Me! Assuming the (Subject) Position of the Compliant Body in the Age of Terror."
The sessions, to be held in Stewart Center, are free and open to the public, but space is limited. The schedule and additional information are available at https://www.cla.purdue.edu/fll/main/news/Terrorism/
The conference is funded by Purdue's Office of the Vice President for Research through an Enhancing Research in the Humanities and Arts grant.
Writer: Jeanne Norberg, 765-494-2084; jnorberg@purdue.edu
Sources: Elena Coda, 765-496-1870; ecoda@purdue.edu
Ben Lawton, 765-494-3860; lawton@purdue.edu