Beginning in January, Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Homestead Campus Library will host a five-part lecture series titled Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys.
The project’s mission is to familiarize the public with the people, places, history, faith, and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world. The theme Pathways of Faith will be explored with a series of books and discussions.
Dr. Iqbal S. Akhtar, assistant professor of Religious Studies and Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, will lead the discussions. Dr. Akhtar, a Fulbright Fellow, has worked in various community outreach and advocacy roles and presented her work on Islamic history and culture.
MDC’s Homestead Library is one of 125 libraries and state humanities councils across the country selected to participate in this project. The library received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA) to host the series. The books to be discussed in the series are part of the Bridging Cultures Muslim Journeys Bookshelf.
The books and films comprising the Bookshelf were selected with the advice from librarians and cultural programming experts, as well as distinguished scholars in the fields of anthropology, world history, religious studies, interfaith dialogue, the history of art and architecture, world literature, Middle East studies, Southeast Asian studies, African studies and Islamic studies.
All lectures will take place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Homestead Campus Library. The schedule is as follows:
Jan. 23 — The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam by F. E. Peters;
Feb. 6 — Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan A. C. Brown;
Feb. 27 — The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life by Ingrid Mattson;
Mar. 27 — The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter, and
Apr. 10 — A Rumi Anthology, edited and translated by Reynolds A. Nicholson.
The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf is a project of NEH, conducted in cooperation with the ALA Public Programs Office, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts.
To register for the program, contact Lindsay Schriftman at 305-237-5245 or at lschrift@mdc.edu.
