Pressure Points: Arabic Perspectives on Tradition and the City

September 12th, 2006

The Writing and Society Research Group at the University of Western Sydney Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre With the Information and Cultural Exchange Present:

Pressure Points: Lectures and Films
Arabic Perspectives on Tradition and the City

Jalal Toufic and Ghassan Hage

Saturday 23 September 2006
Max Webber Library, Civic Plaza, Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown.
Car Parking available under the Library building entry via Alpha Street.

Lectures: 3.00pm—5.30pm

Speakers: Jalal Toufic, & Ghassan Hage

Films: 6.00 – 9.00pm by Jalal Toufic

Entry: Free

Refreshments and catering provided

Following the postponement of the first Pressure Points forum due to the recent war in Lebanon, philosopher, film theorist and video artist Jalal Toufic is finally able to leave Lebanon to visit Sydney. He will present the inaugural lecture of the Pressure Points series titled ‘The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster’ followed by a response from writer and cultural theorist Ghassan Hage.

Jalal Toufic is the author of Distracted (1991), (Vampires): An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Film (1993), Over-Sensitivity (1996), Forthcoming (2000) and Undying Love, or Love Dies (2002). His videos and mixed media works have been presented in North America, Brazil, the Middle East and Europe. Toufic
has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of the Arts, USC, and, in Amsterdam, DasArts and the Rijksakademie. He is currently head of MA program in Film and Video Studies at the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Holy Spirit University, Beirut.

“Toufic is one of the most active and ambitious figures in the Arab world who - book by book - has endeavored to sculpt a critical, theoretical language of the Arab world.” The Daily Star, Lebanon.

http://www.jalaltoufic.com/

Ghassan Hage is the author of Against Paranoid Nationalism (2003, 2006), What Would You Die For? (2004), White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (1998, 2000, 2003), Editor of Arab-Australians Today: Citizenship and Belonging (2002), with Rowanne Couch The Future of Multiculturalism, (1999). He has given numerous national and international keynote lectures in Europe, the Middle East and America and he is the Winner of the 2004 NSW Premier’s literary prize and award (Community Relations). He is currently Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney.

http://www-personal.arts.usyd.edu.au/ghahagea/

For more information please visit:
http://www.casulapowerhouse.com/pages/current.php
http://www.ice.org.au/

Please RSVP for catering purposes
Casula Powerhouse Tel: 02 9824 1121 or The Writing and Society Research Group, writing@uws.edu.au or Mireille Astore, mireille@astore.id.au