Category Archives: Blog

Today in Beirut, my Egyptology students and I discussed Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and the “Hymn to the Aten.”

The lands of Khor (Syro-Palestine) and Kush (Sudan)
and the land of Egypt:
you set every man in his place,
you allot their needs,
every one of them according to his diet,
and his lifetime is counted out…

— The Hymn to the Aten

After years of campaigning by civil society groups and human rights organizations, the Lebanese parliament passed a law today making domestic violence a criminal offense–though some critics feel the new law fails to ensure full protection.

When I was excavating in Sudan this winter, my Sudanese friends spoiled me daily with delicious home-cooked food. One of the most popular dishes in Sudan is beef and okra stew. For more recipes from Sudan, please click here.

It’s Funny Because It’s True: Exploring the Buddhist Truth of Suffering through Comedy
With Christopher Kelley
Rubin Museum of Art
Wednesdays, May 7th-28th
6:00-8:00 pm

The first noble truth in Buddhism claims that stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction are fundamental to the human condition. Any good comedian knows this and that making jokes about these feelings usually gets big laughs. Humor helps us confront the awkward fact that suffering, referred to as “dukkha” by Buddhists, is unavoidable in life. In this course, we explore how comedy can help us better understand the nature of suffering and how Buddhist teachings not only help us to identify the causes of suffering but how we can eradicate them from our lives.

For more information, please click here.

Come explore the earliest kingdoms of Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam in the first international loan exhibition devoted to the sculptural art produced in Southeast Asia from the 5th to the 8th Century. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Southeast Asia will feature more than 160 monumental sculptures crafted in stone, bronze, and gold, providing new insight into the cultures that laid the foundation for the political map of Southeast Asia today.

For more information, please click here.

I passed by this graffiti tonight on my way home from tai chi class in Beirut…

To read more about the dismantling of today’s car bomb in Lebanon, please click here.

Many times have I teased the great rocks
And fondled them with a smile, but never
Have I received laughter from them;
Many times have I lifted drowning souls
And carried them tenderly to my beloved
Shore.

— Khalil Gibran

On my walk to class today, there were a number of Palestinian students and community members gathered on campus for Land Day. I joined them for a fresh cup of Arabic coffee, and to learn more about the Palestinian community in Beirut. Elsewhere in Lebanon, a traditional Palestinian wedding was organized by the Human Dialogue Forum to encourage “the new generation” to hold on to their Palestinian culture and heritage.

Today in Beirut, my students and I discussed the influence of Maimonides on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas…

Among all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more noble, more useful, and more full of joy.
It is more perfect because, in so far as a man gives himself to the pursuit of wisdom, so far does he even now have some share in true beatitude. And so a wise man has said: “Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom” (Ecclus. 14:22).

— St. Thomas Aquinas