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Moslems on the Internets

Paper presented at Harvard’s Islam in the West Conference. Introduction only. Full reference information for citation purposes will be supplied on request, normal copyright reserved for this posting. Introduction President Bush’s comment about the “internets” was derided for turning a singular, indivisible entity into a plural. While technically incorrect, the term does highlight an interesting point: While there is only one internet, the variety of reactions to the internet – because of its association with the world wide web – are manifold. Is the internet a space for free sharing of information and easy access to commercial goods or is it a…

Are the Arts Essential?

Are the Arts Essential?. Specialists will take the customary deliberations about arts and culture into new, substantive, and shaping discussion. Beyond “leisure” or “entertainment,” beyond art’s personal impacts, beyond contributions to tourism, community building, or the classroom, do the arts and culture power progress? This convening will ask if (and how) the arts provide structures and strategies for social change, how they help define peoples and nations, how they deal with actual matters of life and death. Are the arts essential in ways that economics and medicine and politics are? If so, how is this manifest? What are the theoretical…