Foreign Languages and Literatures

The Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
at Oregon State University
and The Center for Middle Eastern Studies
at Portland State University

The Berbers and Other Minorities in North Africa:
A Cultural Reappraisal

International Conference

May 13 - 14, 2005
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon

Berber culture and the cultures of historically rooted North African minority groups (Jewish, Coptic, Turkish, among others) are not common foci of study in higher education. These cultures also remain shadowed in public discourse and in public policy. The same cultures have existed and thrived for a long period of time under the dominance of successive colonial powers in North Africa. Unfortunately, there is still a huge misunderstanding and a knowledge-gap regarding the diversity that constitutes the richness of a large region, situated between the East and the West and between Europe and Africa.

This conference's purpose is to promote a clearer comprehension of the complexity of these North African cultures. It will situate them in space (from Egypt to the Canary Islands) and in time (from early history to the present) within the larger dynamics of successive colonial epochs.

Keynote Speakers:

Jane Goodman (Indiana University, USA)
Kamal Salhi  (Leeds University, UK)

This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Oregon Council for the Humanities, a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OCH's grant program. It is also sponsored by Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA). Sponsors at Oregon State University include: The Center for the Humanities, Convocations and Lectures, the Women Studies Program, the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Ethnic Studies.

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