By Laura Morton
A documentary about Muslim children competing in an event that challenges their knowledge of the Koran will be the first event to kick off this year’s colloquium series on Sep. 27 at 6 p.m. in Whitaker Campus Commons.
The film, “Koran by Heart,” is produced by Chris Buchanan, who will be present after the showing to participate in a panel discussion with Hood faculty members and students.
The documentary features three 10-year-olds who participate in the International Holy Koran Competition, a two-week event held annually inEgyptin which students compete in the art of memorizing and reciting passages from the Koran.
The panel members will include Dr. Donald Wright, Dr. Ahmed Salem, Tarek Elgawhary fromPrincetonUniversity, and the film’s associate producer, Razan Ghalayini.
“I am excited to attend the colloquium events and learn more about different cultures,” said freshman Rhianon Sneeringer.
The film and panel discussion are the first event in this year’s colloquium, which is entitled “The Book: From Print to the Digital Age.”
“I’m really excited to attend the colloquium events on the book because I am fascinated by how, even during my lifetime, the concept of a book has changed into something a person someone can download on an iPad,” sophomore Lloyd Thompson-Taylor said.
The Humanities Colloquium has been ongoing for nearly 20 years at Hood and is run by the Humanities Council, which has eight members, one from each Humanities department. The council, including the current Libman professor Dr. Rebecca Prime, focuses on finding speakers that are relevant to school’s current curriculum.
The first half of the colloquium, which will take place over the fall semester, consists of four events.
The second event, to be held on Oct. 3, will consist of a film screening and panel discussion regarding the importance of children’s literature. The members on the panel will include local children’s authors, an illustrator for picture books, a children’s librarian, and one of the judges for the Newberry Award.
“The debates on campus about the use of iPads in the classroom started us thinking about the future of the book both here at Hood and more generally. We wanted to explore the book in a variety of dimensions – as a subject of scholarly inquiry, a holy object, a vital part of childhood development – to suggest that its future may not be as dire as e-reader aficionados think,” Prime said.
The third event will feature Dr. Martin Faye, a former Hood professor who will speak about the exchange of information in medieval society, on Oct. 13.
The last event is a poetry reading on Nov. 7 by Terrance Hayes, who won the 2010 National Book Award for Poetry.
The colloquium will continue to expand on the theme of the future of the book in the spring with more events.
Prime said that she hopes attendees of colloquium events are “engaged, entertained, and hopefully enlightened!”
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