Category Archives: Blog

Though approximately 400,000 tourists visited Mongolia in 2014, Mongolia is anticipating one million visitors in 2020. A new international airport is scheduled to open near Ulaanbaatar in 2017. In the words of Mongolia’s president, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj: “The Mongols are back – but we come in peace.”

Drone Mass
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tuesday, March 17, 7:00 p.m.
Tickets start at $40

Golden Globe–winning composer Jóhann Jóhannsson joins the American Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth to perform the world premiere of two pieces, including Drone Mass—a contemporary oratorio that uses texts based on the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians. For more information, please click here.

Two-thirds of India’s Agra Fort has remained under the Army’s control since Independence. A recent joint inspection of the fort’s red sandstone buildings by the Army, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and the Ministry of Culture has renewed hopes that the military will vacate the premises, as they did Delhi’s Red Fort in 2003…

When I was studying Sufism in Afghanistan, my Afghan friends took me to visit a number of Sufi shrines scattered around the countryside. Though wandering through a war zone, we managed to create and find beautiful moments of peace together. Unfortunately, last night in Afghanistan, a Sufi shrine in western Kabul became the site of a bloody sectarian attack, when several assailants used guns (fixed with silencers) to murder six Sufis gathered together in prayer.

I’m looking forward to attending this talk on Ibn Rushd with my students in Beirut. Every semester, my students and I read the writings of Ibn Rushd–who is consistently the most popular philosopher discussed in our course…

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in collaboration with 30 students from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design held a workshop recently to develop an integrated site management plan for Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal. The goal of the workshop was to illustrate the compatibility of urban planning and conservation.

Today in Beirut, my students and I discussed justice, virtue, and education in the context of Plato, Cornel West, and the Lebanese prison system. To contemplate the power and potential of restorative justice and drama therapy, we watched clips from two spectacular prison documentaries filmed in Lebanon by Zeina Daccache–Twelve Angry Lebanese and Scheherazade’s Diary.

I’m looking forward to hearing Professor Rashid Khalidi, my former professor and colleague from Columbia University, give this lecture on Monday at the American University of Beirut…