International Visitors: 2012-2013
University of Cambridge
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
April 2013
Maha Abdelrahman is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, and an Egyptian academic and activist. She holds a PhD from the Dutch Institute of Social Studies. While at Stanford, she will research the relationship between social movements and civil society in Egypt, and will give seminars based on her book project, On Protest Movements and Uprisings: Egypt’s Permanent Revolution. She was nominated by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.
University of Cape Town, South Africa
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
May 2013
Mohamed Adhikari is an Associate Professor in the Historical Studies Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He will explore the relationship between European settler colonialism and genocide in hunter-gatherer societies, and will bring to campus a comparative perspective on genocide, race, identity and language. His latest publication, The Anatomy of a South African Genocide: The Extermination of the Cape San Peoples (2010) was the first to deal with the topic of genocide in the South African context. His edited book, Invariably Genocide? When Hunter-gatherers and Commercial Stock Farmers Clash, is due for publication in 2013. He was nominated by the Center for African Studies.
Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales Sciences Po, Paris
Bliss Carnochan Distinguished Visitor
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
Denis Lacorne is a prominent French public intellectual and Professor of Political Science at CERI (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) Sciences Po in Paris. Lacorne gave presentations on French and American notions of religious toleration, deriving from his latest book, Religion in America: A Political History (Columbia University Press, 2011). The book demonstrates that, despite some striking similarities between US secularism and French laïcité, secularization followed different paths in these two societies. He was nominated by the French Culture Workshop and the History Department. An interview with Lacorne appeared in the Stanford Report on February 25, 2013.
Istanbul University
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
October 2012
Nuray Mert is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul University. She is a political observer and contributor to Turkey’s major newspapers (Milliyet and Hürriyet Daily News), one of the few contemporary Turkish public intellectuals with an academic background and a journalist’s investigative mind. Mert is an outspoken critic on sensitive issues in the Turkish context such as rights of minorities (the Kurdish Question), freedom of religion and of press. She was nominated by the Mediterranean Studies Forum.
Ministry of Culture, India
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
May 2013
Himanshu Prabha Ray is an historian of Ancient India and chair of the National Monuments Authority in the Ministry of Culture of India. She works in the fields of ancient India and maritime archaeology. During her residency, she will discuss and finalize her current book project, Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for Modern India, as well as her research on the creation of a public discourse around Buddhism in the colonial and post-colonial period in India. The Buddha, in her account, is not statically located in history, but rather contested within settings of colonialism, post-colonialism and nation-building. Ray was nominated by the Classics Department, with the support of the Department of Religious Studies, the Center for South Asia, the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, and the Archaeology Center.
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor 2012-2013
February 2013
Te Maire Tau is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. His work explores the role of myth in Maori culture, the resolution of boundaries between the Maori and the New Zealand government, and where tribal/indigenous knowledge systems fit within the wider philosophy of knowledge. During his residency, he will examine how Pacific peoples adapted western knowledge systems, not just with regard to western technology but in more theoretical areas such as the pre-Socratic philosophers and the 19th century scientists. He will also focus on the migration of traditions from the Tahitian-Marquesas Island group to the outer lying island of Polynesia, namely New Zealand and Hawaii. Tau was nominated by the Woods Institute for the Environment.
