busy today and next two days

One of my duties as Associate Provost for Research Administration is to run the annual AUC Research Conference. This year’s conference started today, at the Tahrir Campus (yes, directly on Tahrir Square). It will move to the New Campus for the next two days.

I received a lot of great help on this, especially from young Ali and Kristina in the Social Research Center, who are two of the more organized people I’ve met in awhile.

Our first keynote speaker went today, and was well received indeed. It was Prof. Abdullahi An-Na’im, who holds an endowed chair at the Emory University Law School. He specializes in human rights, and is best described as an extremely liberal Islamic legal theorist, liberal enough that his keynote address was called “A Democratic State Cannot Be ‘Islamic'”, on the grounds that Islam has no meaning unless people can choose not to be Muslim. It is views like this that made him the target of a fatwa from Iraq a few years ago, apparently. He’s lived in exile from Sudan for over two decades, and I was told today that his mentor was executed by hanging in Sudan.

In any case, it was an energizing day, the best opening day we’ve had for the Research Conference in my 11 years here.

Below is a photo of Professor An-Na’im. (Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia will be our second keynote speaker, on Thursday.)