Kurdish Studies Network

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015, at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA

The study of Kurdistan and its peoples encompasses topics as timely as today’s headlines and as timeless as the most ancient civilizations. This is the first conference in a pair of collaborative, interdisciplinary forums organized by Soran University and UCF. Papers will address a wide range of Kurdistan’s social, political, security, linguistic, historical, and cultural dimensions. Dr. Hamit Bozarslan will give the keynote address, and the conference will include a special exhibition of photography by Robert Leutheuser, “What We Lost in Sinjar.”

The following papers have thus far been confirmed for the conference:

• Alexandra Ioannidou (Soran University and University of Essex), Jaffer Sheyholislami (Carleton University), and Rebeen Rasheed (University of Duhok)
”Language Choice in Education in the KRG: A Linguistic or a Political Decision?”
• 

Christian Sinclair (University of Arizona), “Infusing Media Rhythms into the Diasporic Space: Kurds and Media Production in the US”
• Farhad Shakely (Uppsala University, Sweden), “Malā-yē Jazîrî: A Sufi poet, a Naqshbandi Sufi”Ipek Demir (University of Leicester), “Translating Kurdishness in Diaspora”
• Juliette Duclos-Valois (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), “Occupy Sinjar: The Compromises Tied to Access to Water Resources”
• Kamal Y. Odisho (Soran University) and Muslih Mustafa (Soran University), “The Exodus of Christian and Aramaic Peoples from Mesopotamia: A Last Safe Haven in Kurdistan?”
• 
Libby Johnston (University of Essex) and Jedidiah Anderson (Indiana University Bloomington), “LGBT Activism in Kurdistan: Achievements, Shortcomings, and Barriers”

Metin Atmaca (The Social Sciences University of Ankara), “Change and Continuity in the Perception of Kurdish Lands in Western and Eastern Literature”
• Muli Amaye (Soran University), “Alternative Narratives: Women and Nation”
• 
Niaz Aziz (University of Texas at Austin)
”Pragmatics of Mitigation in Kurdish”

Peshawa A. Muhammed (University of Sulaimani), “U.S. Policy Options for the Future of (Iraqi) Kurdistan”
• Ranjbar A. Balisane (University of Oxford), Yadgar Hamadameen (Soran University), and Hewa Balisane (Soran University)
”Toward an Optimal Kurdish Keyboard Layout”
• Wietse van den Berge (Leiden University), “PKK 2.0: The Need to Reconsider Attitudes Towards the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD)”

contact: tyler.fisher@soran.edu.iq 

For details click here .