NYU Abu Dhabi Events Calendar for Abu Dhabi

Upcoming fall events

November 22 – 23, 2009

Teaching the Ancient World

Location: Al Mamoura Auditorium

Please Note: Change of Location
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu
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This conference explores why the ancient world excites the public imagination and sits at the core of the liberal arts education. Leading historians and archaeologists will establish what it means to study this world globally by comparing regions as distant as Egypt and China, India and Europe, Mesopotamia and Central Asia. The ancient period, from prehistory to about 600 CE, provides a foundation for understanding much broader developments in world history that have shaped the present. This foundation may even help us gain a long-term, historical perspective on our own rapidly changing society. The conference articulates a distinctive view of the ancient world that will characterize NYU Abu Dhabi's programs and will appeal to an audience of teachers, students, and the general public.
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Download the conference agenda (PDF)
Photo: NYU Photo Bureau: Burke

Convened by

Andrew Monson Assistant Professor of Classics, NYU

November 23, 2009

Mapping the Ancient World

Location and Time: Al Mamoura Auditorium | 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Please Note: Change of Location
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu
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In the third millennium B.C.E. (5,000 to 4,000 years ago), the ancient Near East was positioned at the center of a "new" internationalism that stretched from the lands bordering the Mediterranean to the Russian Steppe in Central Asia, the great rivers of the Indus Valley and the Arabian Peninsula. Contact within the region included warfare among neighboring polities, trade in ordinary and exotic materials, diplomatic relations involving gifting and marriage alliances, and the movement of people (artisans and merchants) who lived and worked across this broad intercultural space. Dr. Rita Wright provides an account of the discovery of this "world" based on the complementary use of ancient texts from Mesopotamia and archaeological evidence.

Rita Wright Associate Professor of Anthropology, NYU

December 6 – 7, 2009

Higher Education in the Global Age

Location: Al Mamoura Auditorium

Please Note: Change of Location
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu
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Faculty have historically participated in international networks of knowledge transmission, but 21st-century universities, among them NYU, are now beginning to develop and reorganize themselves as globalized institutions, establishing worldwide presences with sites in more than one country. This two-day conference will explore issues related to Higher Education in the Global Age, with leaders of universities from around the world speaking on four panels: Emerging Educational Markets, Universities as Agents of Global Understanding, Universities as Global Networks, and Universities as Engines of Sustainability.
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Photo: Image courtesy of Gerhard Richter Studio

Convened by

Hilary Ballon Deputy Vice Chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi

December 9, 2009

The Predictioneer's Game

Location and Time: Al Mamoura Auditorium | 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Please Note: Change of Location
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu
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Dr. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita will discuss how applied game theory can be used to anticipate policy choices whether in business or in government. Game theory is a mathematical theory of how people interact strategically. After illustrating the claim with examples of his predictions made in print before events unfolded, he will discuss how game theory models can also provide a way to engineer future policy outcomes. The talk, based on his book, The Predictioneer's Game (Random House, published in September 2009), will provide applications to several important real-world problems, including the likely development of relations between Iran and Iraq during the next two to three years.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Julius Silver Professor of Politics; Director, Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy, NYU; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

December 15 – 17, 2009

The Arabian Nights: Encounters and Translations in Literature and the Arts

Location:NYUAD Downtown Campus
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu
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This sequel to a conference sponsored generously by the British Academy in March 2008 will explore the impact of Oriental story-telling, in particular of The Tales of 1001 Nights, on western fiction and entertainment. This influence takes many rich and exciting forms, and the talks and readings aim to develop a deep understanding of the long, imaginative interactions between the Middle Eastern, Asian and Western worlds.

The conference will examine in particular the influence of the Arabian Nights on music and film, as well as on narrative literature. Among the subjects of discussion will be: Orientalism in the Far East; an Indian film genre of the 1930s known to film historians as "The Arabian Nights Fantasy"; perspectives on teaching the Arabian Nights; and adapting the Arabian Nights into music and onto the stage.

Convened by

Philip Kennedy Faculty Director, NYUAD Institute; Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, NYU
Marina Warner Novelist, Cultural Historian, and former fellow of the Remarque Institute, NYU

December 15, 2009

Writers in Conversation with The Arabian Nights:
An Evening of Readings

Location and Time: Abu Dhabi Intercontinental Hotel | 6:30 to 8:30 PM
Seating is Limited. Please RSVP to nyuad@nyu.edu

Distinguished authors from the Middle East and South Asia read from selections of The Arabian Nights and of their own work inspired by this uniquely influential corpus of tales.
Photo: Image from the copy of stories from The Arabian Nights/Retold by Laurence Housman; with drawings by Edmund Dulac. Nottingham: Hodder and Stoughton (1907), Frontispiece, held in Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library, New York, NY

Convened by